Ok, this modernism/post-modernism, thingy is something I have a very patchy concept of.

What about Dada? The meaninglessness/war/violence of the modern world is their thang. So, Dada=Post Modernism? Or is there more to one or the other to screw me up?

How women from other countries refer to "that time of the month"

I have always loved the Danes. Even moreso now.

I think I get the idea of post-modern, but like Connie, the terms bugs me. It's like "giving 110%".

I think I get the idea of post-modern, but like Connie, the terms bugs me. It's like "giving 110%".

Most of the people I see who use it tend to have this hip, cynical, "I've evolved to a place beyond you plebeian modern folk, therefore I am post-modern" thing going on. I can't separate the term from the sneering hipsters.

If I accept that Modern does not necessarily equal Contemporary, or that modern the adjective is different from Modern the almost-noun, my head gets a bit more limber.

What about Dadaism? The meaninglessness/war/violence of the modern world is their thang. So, Dada=Post Modernism? Or is there more to one or the other to screw me up?

Dadaism is tricky. It's meant to be tricky, I guess. In retrospect it does look more like a precursor to post-modernism. At the time, it was considered the far edge of Modernism.

In a way, Dadaism is like the kid who doesn't show his work in math class. It immediately seizes the implications of Modernism's formal concerns and jumps ahead to say, "Hey, what's so pure about these forms anyway? Why presume these are absolute values? If all bets are off and we're making up new rules from scratch, let's question all the assumptions."

And, as you note, Dadaism was a reaction to the carnage of modern war. It basically wants to challenge the entire dominant cultural model. To explode forms entirely, to break from all previous models of meaning. Because the "meanings" all added up to an insane kind of culture.

So that's some of the same political edge in post-modernism as well: all this adds up to humans being exploited and ground up.

A lot of Dadaists saw a kind of validation when they saw their first tanks painted in camouflage. To their mind, this played like "Cubism Will Kill You."

Pretty dress, Jilli!

Loving the Danish expression, as well.

Ouch. Hec just made me understand abstract art and Dadaism. I think my brain wasn't meant to bend that way.

Most of the people I see who use it tend to have this hip, cynical, "I've evolved to a place beyond you plebeian modern folk, therefore I am post-modern"

Only they call it "po-mo."

Or perhaps the people mocking them do. I'm not sure.

I think my brain wasn't meant to bend that way.

::puts Zen's brain in a headlock::

"Surrender to art! Surrender!"

How women from other countries refer to "that time of the month"

I have always loved the Danes. Even moreso now.