Gwatter06, 9/20

This past week we had to cover Habermas and Jencks, and I have to say they were quite the pair to endure. I did enjoy both of the readings and feel like I was able to gain and comprehend most of the work the men incorporated in their pieces. I was also able to continue to observe and piece together the coincidences between these authors and previous ones we have covered which has been helping me a great deal in keeping up with and comprehending the information. In our first meeting of the week we covered Habermas and his aspects and concepts on traditionalism and conservatism and how they relate to postmodernism. One of the more basic and preliminary things we covered from Habermas’ is he believes that the basic tenant of modernism is that we are making progress, the world is always getting brighter and better. On another note, one of the more interesting things that we went over in class was Habermas’ notion stated by this quote, “Culture in its modern form stirs up hatred against the conventions and virtues of everyday life” (101). This quote signifies a notion that I have come to realize is prominent within multiple authors we have covered. What I understood from this quote and what we went over in class is that we are in an era where conformity should no longer be permitted and is not wanted by our modern culture. What I also enjoyed from class this week was going over Jencks and his explanations on architectures. We looked over numerous pictures of different styles and buildings and went over which styles Jencks expressed and how it’s incorporated with postmodernism. There were so many different styles and I was intrigued by how some carried similarities and others carried extreme differences but all at the same time had underlying significances.