Asyouwish 2/25 Jameson

"For with the collapse of high-modernist ideology of style what is unique and unmistakable as your own fingerprints, as incomparable as your own body (the very source, for an early Roland Barthes, of stylistic invention an innovation) - the producers of culture have nowhere to turn but to the past: the imitation of dead styles, speech through all the masks and voices stored up in the imaginary museum of now global culture" (494). 

To me the above quotation was the most important one in all of Jameson's writing because the concept behind it links not only to Barthes but also Lyotard.  This ideo of postmodernism ending because nothing new can be created greatly has to do with Lyotard's concept of the avant-garde.  The end of postmodernism means that a new creation or idea is not new, that there is truly no longer an avant-garde, not only because everything created is commodified or recreated but because no new ideas or inventions are possible, everything has already been done.  If concepts and creations truly reach their limitations with the ending of the postmodern period then the filling of the gap would not be possible.  Barthes concept of Tmesis (filling in the gap of the texts we read and rewriting it to see it in a different way) would not even be possible because every-way to see or read something would already be provided or done.  

In my opinion the end of postmodernism has already come to some degree.  For example, movies that were created long ago are now being recreated not only because producers think the film can be improved upon, but also because there are few stories through films that have not been told.  For example, rumor has it The Neverending Story, one of my favorite childhood movies is being recreated.  Why I ask? Jameson, Lyotard and Barthes seem to provide the answer, with the ending of postmodernism comes the recycling of ideas and concepts.  This recycling however has not only occurred in movies and television already, but also in fashion.  In fashion things that were once in come back again constantly because people like the way they looked, but mainly in my opinion because no one can think of any better clothing styles for people to wear.  Looking back at my post, it is a scary thought but it seems that we may already be near the end of postmodernism