2 definitions by R0rd_Er337
Postmodernism is a cargo cult. It seeks to duplicate the form of rational inquiry, while lacking the substance. It's children dressing up in parents' clothes, and complaining about things they don't understand, like taxes and sciatica, for no better reason than that is what they see adults doing with their time. Monkey see, monkey do.
Postmodernists believe that if they make their terminology sufficiently obscurantist, sesquipedalian, and circumloquatious, nobody will notice the lack of substance. To a large extent, they are correct in that belief.
Some postmodern philosophers (like Baudrillard) are beyond help, while others (like Foucault) are largely salvageable. This must be judged on a case-by-case basis, but not without boots to wade through the exceedingly thick bullshit that permeates the entire idea-space.
When you start getting to ideas such as "science is sexist because it probes the natural world (which is the sacred feminine) against its will, thus committing rape" it's time to throw the document in the fire. It's important to leave a lot of room around the fire, though, as you've probably underestimated how much pomo literature is totally worthless.
Postmodernists believe that if they make their terminology sufficiently obscurantist, sesquipedalian, and circumloquatious, nobody will notice the lack of substance. To a large extent, they are correct in that belief.
Some postmodern philosophers (like Baudrillard) are beyond help, while others (like Foucault) are largely salvageable. This must be judged on a case-by-case basis, but not without boots to wade through the exceedingly thick bullshit that permeates the entire idea-space.
When you start getting to ideas such as "science is sexist because it probes the natural world (which is the sacred feminine) against its will, thus committing rape" it's time to throw the document in the fire. It's important to leave a lot of room around the fire, though, as you've probably underestimated how much pomo literature is totally worthless.
Jack: I just learned about postmodernism in college, and now I totally believe in it, and self-identify as such.
Jill: You and every other gullible sophomore looking for an intellectual family where you can't possibly be wrong, you fucking latte-sipping coward.
Jill: You and every other gullible sophomore looking for an intellectual family where you can't possibly be wrong, you fucking latte-sipping coward.
by R0rd_Er337 February 28, 2009
The interjection "neh?" at the end of a sentence is equivalent to the Canadian "eh/hey?", or the British/Scots "innit?". Was invented neither by Orson Scott Card nor on the streets of Winona, Minnesota, but rather has been in the language for a good long time without too many people noticing. They still don't.
"Neh" is either a foreshortened loan of the French "n'est-ce pas?", or a direct loan of the Portuguese contraction "né?" (literally, "não é?"), which means the very same thing when placed at the end of a sentence. It is difficult to find any particular attribution to "neh" in English literature because it is vernacular and evolved as a spoken interjection, not to be written down.
"Neh" is either a foreshortened loan of the French "n'est-ce pas?", or a direct loan of the Portuguese contraction "né?" (literally, "não é?"), which means the very same thing when placed at the end of a sentence. It is difficult to find any particular attribution to "neh" in English literature because it is vernacular and evolved as a spoken interjection, not to be written down.
by R0rd_Er337 February 22, 2009