Monday, October 28, 2019

Kerry Says ~ What is Metamodernism?

I recently read a most informative essay by Seth Abramson, an assistant professor of English at University of New Hampshire on The Huffington Post, which I am referencing in today's prompt.

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whatismetamodern.com
I recommend you check out this site...


"Metamodernism, a term first coined in 1975 by Mas’ud Zavarzadeh (as an alternative to the term Post Postmodernism), has been in the news a lot lately. It’s a word academics periodically used throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, but it’s only lately become the sort of thing regularly discussed on popular websites like 4chan, Reddit, and Twitter... So what is metamodernism?
Well, first and most importantly, you should understand that it’s a 'cultural philosophy'. This means that it’s a system for understanding the world. Sometimes the sort of understanding metamodernism offers us is a logical understanding of how and why things happen during this particular period in human history."

Shia LaBeouf's Art Performance, 'I am not famous anymore' is considered to be a cutting-edge example of Metamodernism

"In this sense, we can see metamodernism as a “system of logic” that helps us better navigate the digital age. At other times, metamodernism helps us understand our emotional reactions to things that are happening now—both our reaction as individuals, and the reactions of whole communities and even nations—at which point we can see metamodernism as a 'structure of feeling'."



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The Hampton Institute
An enlightening article: 'Black Metamodernism'

"Metamodernism is likely to take something you’re certain is bad and show you that it’s an opportunity to do something you never imagined before... It’s likely to say crazy things like the fact that we live in a 'post-truth' culture gives us an opportunity to instrumentalize that very culture in the service of—you guessed it—Truth."

'This Is America' by Childish Gambino is a great example of Metamodernism in music.

"Digital culture is really important to the spread of metamodernism.... The internet lets us quickly overlap and combine things to create new things in a way we never could before..."

In a sense, I believe we poets of the blogosphere have been forerunners and mainstream proponents of metamodernism, perpetuating it in our collective efforts to reach a wider audience and creating our own cultural philosophy about poetry as an art form. Thus, anything we write is already part of the movement. Seth Abramson mentions the following:

"Key terms in metamodernism are dialogue, reconstruction, collaboration, interdisciplinary and transmedia work (collaborations across academic disciplines or creative genres/modes), inter- and hyper-textuality (the creation of new texts through the interaction of existing texts), generative paradox, generative ambiguity, simultaneity, engagement rather than exhibitionism, and, more broadly, the collapsing of artificial distances between concepts and people."

In the decade in which we, as a collective of 'toads' have been writing and inspiring one another to write, have we not fulfilled all the criteria? So the prompt for today is to write a poem. That is it. Write a poem. And while writing it, be cognizant of the fact that you are the voice of a new culture of literature/art/communication and that your voice, your point of view and your philosophy of human relations, here and now, is part of something much bigger than yourself which, paradoxically, cannot exist without you.



18 comments:

Kim M. Russell said...

Thank you for explaining metamodernism, Kerry. I find labels hard to fulfill, but I hope my small voice has contributed to the whole.

Sanaa Rizvi said...

Fantastic prompt, Kerry!❤️ I will be back in the evening to read and comment. Hope you are having a good day and like my poem!😘😘

R's Rue said...

Beautiful.

Kerry O'Connor said...

We live in an age of labels and hashtags.. I guess that is also a part of Metamodernism. Indeed, your voice is a crucial part, Kim. Thank you for participating.

Thank you, Sanaa! Your poem is a gorgeous ode to the season.

Kerry O'Connor said...

Thank you for sharing your beautiful poem, Marian. One for Sylvia, indeed.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

What a thought-provoking prompt, Kerry. You remind us that our voices, our poems, have chronicled the astounding events that have occurred in these years we have been writing together. I will think about this, and try to write something.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Marian, have you disabled comments? I cant find where to leave one. I LOVE your feet as bell-wether of what's to come........awesome.

Anmol (HA) said...

I had to write for a Post Postmodernist/Metamodernist theme. Thanks for a good lesson, Kerry!
I look forward to reading everyone's verse. :-)

brudberg said...

This maybe explains more why I started to write, than why I'm still doing it... but I need to deconstruct my thoughts and get it done on my blog...

KB said...

Interesting shit

rallentanda said...

I enjoyed this interesting prompt. Thank you.

tonispencer said...

Most interesting prompt Kerry! I think we are all of us metamodernist poets. It's a good thing. Smiles.

Linda Lee Lyberg said...

Wonderful prompt Kerry! This is very interesting. Thank you for sharing.

tonispencer said...

Marian, I can't find on your page where to leave a comment???

Sanaa Rizvi said...

Having internet problems here. Will come back later to read and comment ❤️

Marian said...

Hi friends, I apologize for dropping my poem and disappearing! Crazy week for me, but I'll be around to read your poems soon. I did disable the comments on my blog so no worries. Hope everyone is doing well!! Is it Friday yet??????

Susie Clevenger said...

Interesting concept...thanks for the challenge

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Kerry, your American sentences are STUNNING.