Time for another terribly interesting post by Cathy, hooray! Just kidding, I know they don't make sense, I just say whatever comes to mind at the moment. Anyways, I must blog again. This time about Postmodernism and narratives and Brave New World and such. So here we go.
Oh, and after writing this just now, I really advise you not to waste your time reading it. This is definitely not the best of posts. Guess I should have slept more this week. Heh...
So...part one of the prompt: what is the function of myths and narratives? The answer to this is simple; myths and narratives exist to explain the unexplained. Humans have never been comfortable with not having an explanation for everything, so when something was not understood, somebody made up an explanation. These reasons usually came in the form of gods of some sorts. Whether it be Thor's hammering causing thunder, or the rain gods being responsible for the good harvest, people have found supernatural beings the simplest way of explaining that which currently cannot be explained.
Okay..random subject change (or not, I don't know yet)? Umm, right. So a metanarrative or grand narrative is a...let's see, a sort of all-encompasing narrative, which is "able to account for, explain and subordinate all lesser, little, local narratives." That's what Postmodernism says, at least. Which means...uh...that it's the dominant narrative. It's the central idea or philosophy, which pretty much covers everything. Like, it gives a central meaning or purpose...and...okay, I totally got this in class, I just think my brain as decided to go on a vacation tonight...
Anyways, apparently postmodernism is the lack in the belief in a grand narrative. In stead, the metanarrative is replaced with micronarratives, many smaller stories which give meaning as opposed to meaning found through the one philosophy. Which, if you think about it, is really a metanarrative in and of itself. People following the idea of not following just one idea...Huh. Well, back to whatever I was trying to say, in the postmodernistic society there is less belief in a central idea, such as religion, because more people choose science and facts over faith and religion. As many of the old stories, myths, and beliefs have been disproved (such as the sun is no longer believed to be pulled across the sky by a god in a chariot, and we know the world is not flat), many more reject (or do not believe so strongly in) the idea of a higher being causing that which we do not understand, and in stead believe that those things will be understood in time, because as science progresses so will our ability to explain what currently has no explaination. And that was a very long and likely grammatically incorrect sentence...Hope you got that..
So...that is all...so sorry to burden you with this craziness that is my blog...post...thoughts...whatever. I really don't know. Hopefully next week I will make more sense! Mmmk bye!
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Hello new recchio!
ReplyDeleteWell as required i am posting to a blog :) Okay my take on this whole grand narrative thing is that postmodern theorist or philosophers are trying to explain what people live for? I dont know i was very broad and kind of confused on this topic really, it just seemed like i was more of a accepting with their theory i didnt feel very driven to either add to or delete from his theory. It sure was strong enough but it just didnt seem like i was motivated maybe. Lyotard's theory is just that maybe he's going against the Grand Narratives that our societys' create? Maybe Mr. D would like to clear up some loose ends on this subject. It just seemed alot more eluded than it should have. I just turned this blog comment into a rant of how his theory is muddled and not to the point. Which, for some reason seems to be just like my blogs, and comments....
continuing with the last post, realized that is not fully 300 words! Okay well lets continue narratives i feel that are obvious are something like Nazi's or the USA morality, i feel like that (extending on socratic circle), society's attempt to stay with their maybe not spoken grandnarratives but in the end are so far from this actual narrative. The Narrative for nazi's was the perfect race, sadly their own leader was of jewish blood that they felt was "unpure". The united states feel we should be fighting for good and be the "human rights police" of the world but really we must be skeptical of the actual goals of the goverment when they go to war for terrorism or if they go to invade for human rights.(From AP US we can remember many events where this is true) Even our politicians who seem to obviously... uphold the rights of people. Are bought out by companies and other such entities for their own political gain. As Mr.D has shown in one of his blog's that Obama Administration has completely switched on their education policy from a more contemporary system to suddenly a massive attack of standardized testing. These meta narratives that we are fed in media, in stories, by our parents are constantly shoved into our brains to give reason to the world. (wow this was totally random...) Sorry rec-oh.. i mean Cathy
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