Louise wrote :
<snip>
> Incidentally, if I had a dollar (or a pound) for every professor (across
> disciplines) I've heard say: 'nobody believes in postmodernism any more' I
> could retire.
SPRINGER: Boy, we have a show for you today! Recently,
the University of Virginia philosopher Richard Rorty made
the stunning declaration that nobody has "the foggiest idea"
what postmodernism means.
"It would be nice to get rid of it," he said. "It isn't exactly an
idea; it's a word that pretends to stand for an idea."
This shocking admission that there is no such thing as
postmodernism has produced a firestorm of protest around
the country. Thousands of authors, critics and graduate
students who'd considered themselves postmodernists are
outraged at the betrayal.
Today we have with us a writer -a recovering postmodernist-
who believes that his literary career and personal life have
been irreparably damaged by the theory, and who feels defrauded
by the academics who promulgated it. He wishes to remain
anonymous, so we'll call him "Alex."
SPRINGER TO ALEX: Alex, as an adolescent, before you
began experimenting with postmodernism, you considered
yourself- what?
ALEX (his voice electronically altered): Enough with
the questions you modernist, capitalist, opportunist pig !
[Grab's chair throws it at Jerry]
Springer's goons lunge at the young angst-in-chair.
The crowd goes wild. Springer deflects the chair with his nose
and goes down in a heap. Alex's postmodern friends
in the audience start kicking and beating Springer with
their copies of Feyerabend's 'Against Method' They chant in
unison "Down with modernity ... structuralism will fall."
Alex freeing himself from the grasp of Springer's hired
necks fires off a battle cry to all viewing postmodernists
before the show is pulled off air--"We must unite and storm
Virginia. We must show Rorty the power that is postmodernity!"
[45 minutes of darkness]
Chris.
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~chrislees/tao.index.html
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