Source #1 - Postmodernist Essays
- Big Nerd
- Apr 3, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: May 4
Postmod Essays
Select one essay for your response.
To Post:
MAKE SURE YOU ARE SIGNED IN WITH A NON-COMALISD ACCOUNT. Comal accounts cannot be anonymized. Use a burner account or an old gmail. That way, you can use your ALIAS, remaining anonymous to the broader internet. Identify which essay you intend to write about. Comment on one or more of the Postmodernist Elements listed below in Evidence & Commentary.
LABEL YOUR POST WITH YOUR ALIAS NAME AND CLASS PERIOD.
Include:
An INTRODUCTION that names the ESSAY & AUTHOR. The intro must also name the Postmodern elements in the essay, and the intro should include a summary of the essay.
EVIDENCE & COMMENTARY about two examples of POSTMODERN elements, like
Magical Realism,
Historiographic Metafiction,
Pastiche, and
Anti-Convention Paradox & Black Humor.
(But anything postmod works! Go nuts!) Explain how your evidence fits the definition and fits the literary tradition. Then, explain why it is significant in the text.
Here's the Postmodern KF:
YOUR REACTIONS & OTHER WORKS this reminds you of, and how they compare/contrast. Two or three examples is ideal Share what resonates with you, what shocks you, what you have questions about, what you think its purpose is, etc. Apply the messages or ideas to your own experience with personal anecdotes (not too detailed...privacy).
DIGITAL GOODIES to include in your reactions...
Hyperlinked Titles & Images
Embedded Videos
Headings/Subheadings
GIFs/Images
You'll use your responses to these works and other Nerdy comments in a blogpost for your Final Exam.
Option A (6 points) Carlos Greaves' "Sure, the Velociraptors are Still on the Loose, but That's No Reason NOT to Reopen Jurassic Park"
Option B (10 points) Jonathan Haidt's "Why the Past 10 Years of American Life have been Uniquely Stupid"
Option C (8 Points) Andy Borowitz's "Musk Deletes Every Twitter Account but His"
Option D (7 Points) Jessica Bylander's "I Love You More Than Anything, but I would Rather Die than Talk to You on the Phone"
Option E (9 Points) Elissa Bassist's "Writer Math"
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
To receive credit, link your post in the Canvas Submission Container, "✍️ Source #1 - Postmodern Essays.
Yo guys , we need to talk about the absolute cluster fung that is happening in the tech world. As most of you know, when a billionaire buys a new global corporation, they don’t just play with it, about 95% of the time they usually end up breaking it. We’ve all seen the headlines about X (formerly that blue bird app that we post our sports film on), but Andy Borowitz takes the absurdity to a whole new level in his satirical piece, "Musk Deletes Every Twitter Account but His." If you’ve ever felt like your digital life was just one obnoxious report away from disappearing, this is basically those terms and conditions that we never actually read coming to…
Introduction
Hello, I am Fortnite6, and if you didn’t guess it already by the name, I kinda like Fortnite. Soooo, I just got done reading this neat little essay entitled “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life have been Uniquely Stupid” by Jonathan Haidt, and honestly, it’s one of those essays that makes you look at your phone a little differently. Haidt argues that American society is going through a modern day version of the Tower of Babel. He explains that in 2009 and 2012, social media “rewired” how we talk to each other, shattering our shared sense of reality and trust in institutions. This piece is a perfect look at postmodernism, specifically through pastiche, through the way he…
In “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid,” Jonathan Haidt explains how social media changed the way people think, talk, and argue. He argues that around 2010–2015, the internet shifted from something that connected people into something that pushes them apart. His main point is that platforms started rewarding emotional, extreme, and angry content, which slowly led to more political division and less understanding between groups. The essay also uses postmodern ideas like intertextuality and anti-conventional humor to show how messy modern communication has become.
Intertextuality
One clear example of intertextuality is Haidt’s use of real political events, such as references to Trump’s January 6th speech and other major cultural moments, to support his argument.
This fits the definition…
I just read this article "Musk Deletes Every Twitter Account But His," by Andy Borowitz and oh boy it just absolutely attacks Elon’s ego. The idea that Musk with all his power does something as petty and foolish as deleting every single user on Twitter except for himself is comical, truly it is. And why you ask might he do that because nobody else had anything “smarter” to say than him. This highlights Musk's fragile masculinity and just the fragility of billionaires in general.
We see examples of postmodernism throughout the entire essay, specifically the mocking of serious journalism with pastiche and its paradox and irony that the more control Musk claims to have, the more pathetic he actually becomes.
In this funny essay that kind of feels like an emotional breakdown, Bassist uses things like metafiction and irony to show how stressful and overwhelming a writer’s life can be. She doesn’t just talk about writer’s block in a normal way, she writes in a chaotic way that makes the reader feel how messy a writer’s thoughts can get. The fragmented structure helps show the confusion and frustration writers deal which in turn, feels like you’re actually experiencing it a little too.
Everyone has told themselves this lie before, “I’ll get it done tonight.” She describes how that one night turns into weeks of putting things off until the deadline is already gone. The procrastination is crazy. She also describes…