Like my title says, sorry if my ideas are not in any order and are just really random.
So first before i say anything else, wow Postmodernism for Beginners is wierd. I know that they are trying to help explain what exactly postmodernism is, but sometimes it just confuses me. It is Post modernism for beginners, shouldn't it be more understandable?
So this last week in Mr. Dominguez's class we talked about postmodernism and Lyotard's view point on it. He talked about local narratives and metanarratives. A local narrative are a small piece of the bigger metanarrative which is used to explain a local narrative. Narratives help to explain parts of our world and what happens in to/to it without using scientific elements of the subject at hand. People used to explain the unexplainable with myths or metanarratives that would explain something that needed explaining. For example in Brave New World, when Linda can not explain where chemicals come from, John goes to the old men of the reservation for an answer. They tell him of the "Four wombs" and the "Fog of Increase." John sayd later that the "men of the pueblo had much more definite answers"(130). Why is this? Is it because the old men did not hesitate to answer him and that they were taught this to be true so they think it is true? For John it was easier to accept what the old men said than his mother's (opps, I said it) non-answer.
Narratives though have controlled some societies; an example that popes into my head is the ancient tribe, the Aztecs. Narratives helped explain everything like their health and weather. If the tribe became unhealthy or the crops were dying, they would think they did something wrong and what would that lead to, a sacrifice! The thought of a virus going around and making people sick or that the plants just weren't taken care of correctly never came into mind.
Narratives have had great power over some societies, why you might ask. Well, people grew up with certain traditions and were taught the way that there parents were taught about the world, they were taught that everything that happens like the gods being made was true because they always thought it was true. (sorry if that doesn't make much sense) Scientific discourse will be able to overrule narrative discourses when the human population becomes more civilized or when everybody thinks the same way.
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So first before i say anything else, wow Postmodernism for Beginners is wierd. I know that they are trying to help explain what exactly postmodernism is, but sometimes it just confuses me. It is Post modernism for beginners, shouldn't it be more understandable?
So this last week in Mr. Dominguez's class we talked about postmodernism and Lyotard's view point on it. He talked about local narratives and metanarratives. A local narrative are a small piece of the bigger metanarrative which is used to explain a local narrative. Narratives help to explain parts of our world and what happens in to/to it without using scientific elements of the subject at hand. People used to explain the unexplainable with myths or metanarratives that would explain something that needed explaining. For example in Brave New World, when Linda can not explain where chemicals come from, John goes to the old men of the reservation for an answer. They tell him of the "Four wombs" and the "Fog of Increase." John sayd later that the "men of the pueblo had much more definite answers"(130). Why is this? Is it because the old men did not hesitate to answer him and that they were taught this to be true so they think it is true? For John it was easier to accept what the old men said than his mother's (opps, I said it) non-answer.
Narratives though have controlled some societies; an example that popes into my head is the ancient tribe, the Aztecs. Narratives helped explain everything like their health and weather. If the tribe became unhealthy or the crops were dying, they would think they did something wrong and what would that lead to, a sacrifice! The thought of a virus going around and making people sick or that the plants just weren't taken care of correctly never came into mind.
Narratives have had great power over some societies, why you might ask. Well, people grew up with certain traditions and were taught the way that there parents were taught about the world, they were taught that everything that happens like the gods being made was true because they always thought it was true. (sorry if that doesn't make much sense) Scientific discourse will be able to overrule narrative discourses when the human population becomes more civilized or when everybody thinks the same way.
