Field Trip City

Andrea's flight was delayed, but she eventually made her weary way back to Canada and onto a shuttle to London. We spent about 15 minutes together. Totally worth it.

I spent a few hours in the library yesterday reading Renato Poggioli's The Theory of the Avant-Garde, which is a fascinating read and feels contemporary even though it's 45 years old. He quotes a great line from Umberto Saba in his section on Agonism and Futurism (the destruction of the past and the sacrifice of the present for the betterment of the future): "The twentieth century seems to have one desire only, to get to the twenty-first as soon as possible." I have my response done. Hell, here it is:

English critic and poet Matthew Arnold observed in the latter half of the 19th century that his society sat between epochs with regard to approaching social, political and cultural utopia. In Jung’s terms, modernists operated in a state of “transition” that welcomed an oncoming epoch, preparing the way ideologically for future generations (Poggioli 74).

What does this say about the period of the postmodern? Given the way it attacks modernist precepts, can it be seen as what Poggioli describes as a term of “decadence” – that is, an end in itself (or art for art’s sake) rather than one with a more futurist outlook? This would eliminate the idea that postmodernism is an avant-garde movement, given that agonism, or the sacrifice of the present for the birth of new social, political and cultural futures, is an avant-garde strain that opposes the cultural Zeitgeist. The implications of the Zeitgeist defined as one conditioned by an entirety of self-awareness should be considered, along with what this says of the current avant-garde.

Perhaps the current avant-garde is wholly reliant on technology for its administration. Poggioli calls creation and experimentation “an impossible synthesis” (137). Is this true, or are methods of experimentation via technological advancements elements of a creative approach punching holes in postmodernism by revealing how little mass culture actually understands of itself? Consider record companies currently scrambling for ways in which they can continue to profit from music distribution. Perhaps this is the result of an avant-garde aesthetic calling for an end to historical precedent.

I received Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Souvenir of Canada (woo!) in the mail yesterday along with a Chinua Achebe novel I need for my Tragedy class. Today it's all about Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill before I meet up with Ren for dinner and There Will Be Blood. I'm expecting blood.