Driver 8, the blog that allows its readers to create the content. Let's see again: Pulp Fiction; postmodern or not? And keep in mind the definition of postmodernism we got from John Barth: "It's that which not only follows Modernism but follows from it. Postmodernism is tying your necktie while simultaneously explaining the step-by-step procedure of necktie-tying and chatting about the history of male neckwear — and managing a perfect full windsor anyhow."

John Barth seems to be no more readable as an essayist than he is as a novelist.

Dave • 10/21/02; 2:34:30 AM

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Barth makes perfect sense, here. His The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor is an excellent example of he's talking about. In the novel, Sinbad is now a wise patrician lording over festivities in his banquet hall in Baghdad, when he's challenged to a "story off" by a mysterious stranger named "Somebody." Sinbad starts with one of his amazing adventure tales then leans back into his pillows and grins, "Top that." The stranger then embarks on a tale that reads like a chapter out of Sinclair Lewis's Babbit. Upon hearing this bizarre tale of a middle-aged suburbanite the seraglio is aghast, so Sinbad cranks out another fabulous yarn, to which the stranger responds with another day-in-the-life of his protagonist.

On the one hand, the reader has the familar Arabian Nights theme to work with, and on the other is challenged to thread in the sequences of a modern novel. How can you not be aware you are reading a novel? The suspension of disbelief is countermanded by the structure of the plot. Therein Barth leads the reader to draw connections: Is a daily life as we know it the stuff of fable? Could a 9-to-5 job be the inspiration for a Scheherazade? Which is the myth and which the reality? Postmodernism in a nutshell. No, Pulp Fiction lacks this requisite self-conscious design, unlike Spike Lee's work, which (as you point out) does.

Regards, - R.

The Raven • 10/21/02; 9:01:24 AM

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I like Raven's illustration. I think the term "Post Modern" is somewhat misleading. For instance, if you read Tolstoy's "Childhood," which is hardly considered to be a post moderm work, you will see rather stark examples of what we could certainly term post modernism. Tolstoy does that a great deal in War and Peace as well, when he makes the reader realize all of a sudden that what he was reading is a Russian rendition of French (and then makes the paranoid reader constantly try to figure out what is French and what is Russian). This is exacerbated by the fact that some French is rendered in French and some in Russian (an effect completely lost on the English reader, as no tranlsation available has retarined the original French, as it appears in all the original Russian versions of the book). I therefore think that the distinction is somewhat arbitrary, although useful when trying to classify works (for whatever reason).

Roman Jakobson said that a true work of art must posses the poetic function -- the drawing of the attention of the reader to the work of art itself. If this definition is accepted, then all works of art, to some degree or other, are post modern.

Daniel Dolinov • 10/21/02; 2:08:01 PM

Let me attempt a response to Daniel's last observation: Not being familiar with Jakobson's work, I'd have to guess that what he means is that the work of art must draw attention to its construction; in the case of poetry, to its imagery and phrasing; in painting, to the technique and the subject of the painting. But postmodernist self-reference is about showing the ersatz quality of the work of art, how it is only a representation of reality and not reality itself. It's making you wonder about the construction, not asking you to appreciate it.

Driver 8, the blog that allows its readers to create the content. Geraldo, in Hooters, with the felt-tip pen.

I don't get it -- what's the big deal? Why can't he go to Hooters and sign Hooters' shorts?

Daniel Dolinov • 10/17/02; 7:12:43 AM

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Hmm... I should have added that Geraldo's being criticized for doing this right after reporting on the person killed by the sniper that day and not that far away from the crime scene. (50 yards not that far away? How much is that in meters? I still think in metric system, you know...)

Charly Z • 10/17/02; 8:34:29 AM

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Hwy, the man ate at Hooters...isn't that punishment enough?

I once worked with a woman who had a pretty good retort every time one of our team wanted to go to Hooters: "I hate going to Hooters. Every time I'm there, they make me fill out a job application."

Kat Donohue • 10/17/02; 12:26:08 PM

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Kat: a great line.

Daniel Dolinov • 10/17/02; 6:29:30 PM

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Shorts? That's not very rock'n'roll. I thought that place was all about hooters.

Harald • 10/18/02; 10:43:22 AM

Jack-in-the-box

Ten Best Things to Say if You Get Caught Sleeping at Your Desk

1. "They told me at the blood bank this might happen."

2. "This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in that time management course you sent me to."

3. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the White-Out. You probably got here just in time!"

4. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm."

5. "I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."

6. "I was doing a highly specific yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory toward people who practice yoga?"

7. "Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem."

8. "The coffee machine is broken..."

9. "Someone must've put decaf in the wrong pot..."

10. " ... in Jesus' name. Amen."