ESPN12, Lyotard

Based on the title, what is post modern? This article was not entirely what I had anticipated. By now it is obvious we know what post modernism is. I figured we would be getting a more detailed description in pin pointing the era, not dealing with the realism and effects of cinema and photography in relation to novels and art. Indeed it was as challenging as expected, so I can only I wrapped my head around it. From my understanding, Lyotard was trying to say that with a faster world of media and cinema, the realism is taken away. The true realism is in the arts and novels and in the fast post modern world things can be seen in many different ways as we are not getting the whole picture. My question is, is that necessarily a bad thing if each person is still able to understand the big picture? It is understood that it is not true realism just as with Benjamin, one is still able to understand a general concept even though it is not the original. It may claim to be the original but they will not get the true feeling of authenticity, but one is still able to understand and enjoy the general concept. Lyotard further explains when he says, “what is advised, sometimes through one channel, sometimes through the other, is to offer works which, first, are relative to subjects which exist in the eyes of the public they address, and second, works so made “well made” that the public will recognize what they are about, will understand what is signified, will be able to give or refuse its approval knowingly” (42).
From Lyotard, I am able to get passed the basic idea postmodernism and what it entails. By addressing problems, He gives us assistance in helping to understand the details and effects that postmodernism has on our culture. Additionally, he makes one raise questions as we look into what the future may bring with a new sense of what is real and what that means for us as individuals and are thought process. He seems to both like and dislike the postmodern world. He appears to be in a search, only to help us realizes the effects that postmodernism can have. He looks back in “terror” upon the modern era as well as the nineteenth and twentieth century’s thus far. However, I don’t believe there is much to worry about as realism is still very apparent today and I cannot image us getting to a point where reality is lost as, people like the real thing and it is not something that people want to get rid of. “Soon these rules must appear to them as a means to deceive, to seduce, and to reassure, which makes it impossible for them to be ‘true’ (41). If they have a plan to gain popularity and respect, then they need to stick with that, and not change it every time that people do not agree, or they will be seen as weak and unreliable.