The End of Postmodernism.

Well. We all have spent a semester on Postmodernism, and I am positive most of us have highly different opinions on the matter.

I understand Postmodernism best as described by Lyotard--the death of the unifying Grand Narrative and the diversity afforded by numerous micronarratives. Because of this variety of narrative, the world is "a carnival of colorful and contradictory "(151) view points. It makes for a more interesting place to live and see; however, the world can no longer be unified under one common "truth". Each discourse has its own truth, and since an individual has several discourses, and individual holds several truths as unifying truth; with the individual fragmented by several discourse, the world is too because of its reflection of the multitude of individuals.

The fragmentation of the world's unifying "truth" leads to Derrida's deconstruction of the center of narrative. Because so many different views on the central truth exist in society, there is an absent center in the global society. No longer can we look only to God, but many look to the environment, the Hindu gods, Allah, and other figures for guidance and meaning in life. Society today no longer has the luxury of knowing what the exact truth is, but must tip-toe around every one's beliefs as well as their own. Today's world lacks one "origin, a Truth, an Ideal Form, a Fixed Point" (100) in narrative and in life. So, fragmentation is all too normal because there are a plethora of centers leading to the center of centers--nothing.

Also, the deconstruction of the perfect and undistinguishable is very noticeable in architecture. Gone is the day of international styled buildings, where they all look the same city to city; today is the world of functional art, where beauty meets the everyday wear and tear. “Down with the Universal!” (86) and in with the unique.

Postmodernism is the end of the idealistic unified world under democracy, Marxism, or Socialism. Instead, the world must cope with the fact the world is a wider, more diverse place that cannot be completely homogenized. Societies can merge and cross-pollinate (it is inevitable because of today’s mass technology—the internet) but they remain distinctive and separate from each other. Lyotard and Derrida both describe the end of one unified world, and creation, or realization, of the beauty of the fragmentation in our global community.