ABSTRACT
In the 1980s postmodernism was at the forefront of radical chic, but within a decade, it began to lose momentum in key areas, such as the arts. Drawing heavily on French poststructuralists such as Derrida and Lacan, postmodernists attacked stereotypes, repetition, and media domination—but have ended up stereotypes themselves. While Lyotard is alive, is modern history itself, as some postmodernists claim, now dead? In typical fashion the students, politically indifferent and fed up with false rhetoric, have shortened postmodern to “po-mo,” and put it aside. An interesting example of post-modern speculation is the work of Philip Dick. The 1990s found the modern world in a style free fall—borrowing, bending, crunching, and bunching odd parts to make the Old Boys scream. Modernity ought to be obvious to all but the myopic, dogmatic, or completely blind.
