Post Modernity, David Foster Wallace, Paradoxes, and Melting Brains

David Foster Wallace was, and there is no debating this, the greatest writer of the last quarter of the 20th century and, more than likely, one of the top ten writers in American literature.  As a journalist, social critic, and fiction writer he communicated in ways that no one would have even dreamed of before him.  He wrote a 100 page essay about being on a cruise that is more insightful and fun than anything any other modern writer could commit to paper, and one gets the impression he did that with minimal effort.  More impressive still (at least to me) he was talking about and analyzing post modernity ten years before it even entered popular culture.  In fact one of his comments on post modernity is the hypothetical hamster wheel I find myself running in when sleep eludes me.  Now you can join me!


Wallace explains that the very act of describing oneself (or a movement or anything else) as post modern automatically means that thing is not, in fact, post modern.  Labeling and categorizing is a function of modernity, post moderns are past (hence: post) that.  So a person who describes themselves as post modern is functioning as a modern (that this also makes them incredibly annoying should go without saying).

BUT... (and here is where I make the obnoxious mistake of thinking my process of thought is in any way on par with Mr. Wallace's) another distinctive of post modernity is self awareness (usually this is ironic self awareness but it doesn't always have to be).  A person should be self aware that they are a post modern if they are in fact one, but they should also know that labeling something as post modern is a function of modernity and so it no longer is post modern but then that self awareness kicks in and you should know that you're... 

Have you ever seen a snake eating its own tail?

Excuse me for a second, there is some blood coming out of my ear.

Perhaps you will join me in the unending analysis of this paradox.  Or maybe you're smarter than me and you can reach a conclusion.  Or if you're one of those people who can't handle this sort of open-ended (let's just call it what it is) nonsense here is the simple over-simplified conclusion that will help you sleep at night but really doesn't answer any questions at all: you don't call yourself post modern!  You give it another title, a less obvious and pretentious title; you call yourself "emerging" and say you are part of an "emerging generation" and leave all this talk of post modernity to the philosophers and fools. 

But then you respond, "But Tyler, doesn't the act of calling one's self emerging also mean you are functioning as a modern person?  And isn't trading one title for another modern?  Still, isn't this endless string of questions without any real ability to answer any of them actual post modern?  And even still, doesn't knowing that make me modern?  And even with all that, doesn't being aware of that make me post modern... I mean emergent... And... great, there is blood dripping from my ear."

Next time you have trouble sleeping at night you won't have to bother yourself with pesky sheep.  You're welcome dear reader!