migrant, writer, work in progress
I followed a path
thinking that it led somewhere
but it’s ended here—
*
It isn’t the road
not taken so much as the
untakeable road—
*
Follow my advice:
don’t follow a path—choose the
made up, pathless ways.
*
**
*
freddie omm
january 2021
*
with apologies to robert frost’s road not taken
– the poem is based on a meditation of Philippe de Saint Maurice
in daniel johnson’s hatchet job in standpoint, umberto eco is accused of flirting with anti-semitism.
johnson says eco tries to pass off a chesterton quote as his own (When men stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing: they believe in anything) – a moot point, given chesterton himself didn’t actually write it…
johnson has no time for eco:
His novels are case studies in postmodernism, which elides all categories of truth, beauty, morality and politics into an esoteric game.
the article’s payoff:
The doubts sown by the book fall on fertile soil, for ours is a culture that long ago lost its bearings, thanks to the prestige of postmodernists such as Umberto Eco. He stands for the intellectuals of the 21st century who, like those of the last century, commit trahison des clercs by flirting with anti-Semitism when their duty is to take a clear stand against it.
if postmodernism truly is nothing more than a futile, meaningless game, it seems harsh to accuse it and its practitioners of fanning the flames of anti-semitism.
Edward Docx says Postmodernism is Dead – in this article in Prospect.
Appropriate that the announcement should come via an exhibition, at the V & A no less.
Docx gives his definition of Postmodernism and says its death is heralded by
three ideas, of specificity, of values and of authenticity, (which) are at odds with postmodernism. We are entering a new age. Let’s call it the Age of Authenticism and see how we get on.
“Authenticism” (to me) sounds rather too worthy but it’s a persuasive line for all that.
Although I sometimes wonder whether there isn’t as much of value in the concept of Trash as Authenticity. Put another way, what, au fond, is more authentic than trash?
But maybe those are post-postmodern questions?