Postmodernism

What does /lit/ think of postmodern literature? I'm considering picking up V and The Crying of Lot 49, both by Pynchon, as my first foray into postmodern literature but I want to stop by here and see if anyone has any other recommendations for a path to getting into postmodern literature. Is there anything I should know beforehand, any secondary lit I should read, or authors to know, etc etc.

>>3036 While I don't know anything about postmodern literature, I can say that Vineland is a very good read, and I'm saying this as it's the first of Pynchon's works I've read. It seems to be pretty polarizing for most fans, but the characters, pacing, silly wordplays and references make it a entertaining read. The coolest thing about the book, or probably his style in general, is how he can have so many plots, small and large, weave around each other for hundreds of pages and back and forth through decades, and still be a coherent page-turner. I have 50 or so pages to go and then I'll probably try to dig deeper into what makes this book so good.

Most of the techniques associated with it are pretty standard in contemporary literature now and a lot of literature going back half a century or so. If you browse a list of titles, say the wiki one, most Lains have read several of them already but may not realize they are categorized together or are called postmodern at all.

If you are going to read Pynchon, I would recommend Bleeding Edge, at least for the visitors of this image board. The themes and vibe of it are pretty cyberpunkish.

reading Don Quijote these nights, one chapter a time, first post-modern novel

>>3037 Went to the bookstore the other day and picked up Vineland thanks to you, and V and The Crying of Lot 49 and Inherent Vice. Thanks man. soykaf is good so far.

>>3036 The postmodern revolt against authority rediscovers in confused form the originary anteriority of the peripheral subject to the constituted center. But it ignores the fact that the individual before the existence of the center is not yet a subject; his appetite, mimetically enhanced, is not yet desire. Humanity is born from the sign in relation to whose originary referent it is always second. What the gesture of representation represents is outside and ontologically prior to it, however tortuous the relationship between the real object at the center of the circle and the eventual idea of the unique God that expresses the quintessence Postmodern resentment of central authority ends up by demanding from this authority a new degree of self-knowledge to justify its role. Which is, in the last analysis, what the resentful subject always really demands from the central authority he claims he would abolish, but without which he knows despite himself that he could not exist.

A heart breaking work of staggering briliance was really good that's about all i know.

>>3075 I understand you're saying something of import but I can't wrap my fool mind around exactly what it is; more reading to decipher the sign and the subject? Are you saying the individual is the subject, but is subject to self subjection in order to exist? And post modernism is this rebellion but equally potent dread? Or just authority in general...or... desire and appetite, like Lacan? I'm so murky on modern philosophy, much less postmodern. Pynchon's conspiracies seem intertwined with pretense of centralization, he creates his own binding structure out of seemingly chaotic strands and trails, like a ball of twine seen only from the lining of a lone wire.

>>3077 I realize it might've been without proper explanation now. I am currently on my phone, so I can't give a proper explanation until tommorow when I will be able to get on my computer again. Until then, you can watch this, which, I think, will be able to better explain it than I could https://youtu.be/4UbYOkE5Guk

>>3078 >>3077 >>3075 This thread is about postmodern literature, not postmodern philosophy.

>>3075 u can argue about authority but since descartes we've managed to work on this idea of 'knowing thy self'. It's true that the postmodernists are possibly lacking on their interpretations of the self but the postmodern condition is that of reuse.

Kewl

>>3079 Fair point, sorry >>3078 massive video, thank you, I'll try to prime up a bit;

For postmodern stuff, this month I bought: >J R by William Gaddis >Carpenter's Gothic by William Gaddis >Agape Agape by William Gaddis >The Lime Twig by John Hawkes >The Cannibal by John Hawkes Should keep me busy for the month of March. Anyone read Gaddis or Hawkes?

>>3036 I've read all of Pynchon's novels, but not much other pomo. As you would guess from the fact that I went through them all, I'm a big fan. Don't think the stereotypes about postmodern authors being heartless and just caring about formal games and puzzles apply to him; he's obviously very interested in both history and the people stuck in it. The crying of Lot 49 is the most obviously postmodern one—not in that it's heartless but in that it's very clearly playing games with the reader. >>3037 I could have done without the japanese part to be honest, but apart from that it was the most heartfelt of his novels to me, as bleak as it is, before the hollywood deus ex native-american ending. I guess how much you align with the author's politics can affect how much you like the book quite a bit.