I’ve never really been able to grasp the concept of postmodernism. I remember a long conversation at book club once where one of our members tried to explain it to the rest of us but despite her efforts I was still none the wiser. Until now.
I am currently reading Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe’s America by Andrew Ferguson. In Chapter 5 of this book Ferguson gives an example of postmodernism which to me summed it up perfectly. He is talking about Lincoln collectors and the extremes they will go to for anything remotely connected to Lincoln:
“many catalogs published to advertise the sale of Lincoln items are now themselves collectors items, trading for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars – which means, in typical postmodern funhouse fashion, we have collectors collecting catalogs of collectibles rather than collectibles themselves, a bit like a gourmet gnawing at the menu instead of the dinner.”
Filed under: Books
