Sooo much great information in this piece. I want to read it again and again. This first time was with coffee, and the second will be with whiskey. It’s an exhilarating feeling to find ourselves in a new, definable time in history, to be able to see the response to the past occurring before our eyes. And yes understanding the origins is, I think, step one. Can’t wait to read the exchange between you and Elle. x
I have always struggled with understanding the differences between all of these "isms." Samuel's essay is a simple but brilliant explanation and discussion, and left me wanting more. I would have loved to have him as a professor in college.
Thanks Todd. This is certainly the beginning of a continued line of questioning about the current "ism," looking forward to a real-life discussion one of these days, perhaps on the Seine? ...
I actually am existentialist in that I believe there is no meaning, and so it is up to us to create meaning. But the existentialist writers apply apply an angst to that where I apply an idealism. Which maybe, to your point, is because I am of the metamodernist age-I’m very much with that Rick and Morty clip!
Still, this philosophy only extends as far as the individual person. “I can make my own life meaningful, can you?” Or possibly to an individual’s group or nation. “We live meaningful lives, do you?”
Following your progression of things, I can only hope the next age applies that same optimism to a global community, rather than to an individual person! How can we make life meaningful not just for us (“let’s go watch TV”) but for all of us (“we all have TVs?” Ok, the metaphor is lost....)
Srsly. I was just telling a friend the other day, I can't remember the last time I was genuinely inspired and excited to engage with people and ideas on the Internet
I dig the choice to apply idealism versus angst ... and that's what * maybe * makes you a metamodernist! (it's wild every day I read something new about a different term for the Thing that's happening, just found "re-modernism" and "the new modernism" and even kitcsh as a term is being rehabilitated again.
What if we all go watch TV together in a large stadium and then we're all imbued with the same meaning for a few brief moments before ... wait. Maybe going to the movies is about to have a renewed heyday! The individual > community is the eternal question, especially in an era where people tend to define communities by what they're NOT as much if not more so as what they are. Alas. We've got work to do.
Great question Jordan. Short answer is a) I'm not aware of any singular title that has been decided upon as the urtext but b) I'm no expert and c) I'll be damned if I don't take a crack at a few candidates.
I think Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See" is a good candidate. It's about characters we've never really heard about in the storytelling of WWII, but it's also combining historical fiction and magical realism in an interesting, almost quasi-spiritual way.
In the same vein of combining history, fantasy, and post-colonialist narrative, I think you could argue "Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead does something similar. Finally, George Saunders, at least some of his more recent short stories ... I really wanted to like "Lincoln in the Bardo," and I know a lot of people were impressed by it, but it didn't resonate with me. I found this article below which, interestingly enough, is from 2015 but is a much better answer to your question ... my thoughts reside mostly in slightly older books that pointed towards this era without necessarily achieving a metamodern aesthetic, primarily "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins and "Brief Interviews w/ Hideous Men" by David Foster-Wallace. There's a search for real feeling and honesty in those books that you can see the contours of despite their postmodern wittiness and flippancy.
Thank you for this thoughtful look at literary history! I can still never remember terms like postmodernism, post-structuralism, et al... I guess I just don't have the capacity. Or maybe it's just one of my quirks. Following you and Elle's discussion, I'm most interested in why the books nowadays that are critically praised tend to uniformly fall into a "dark" and "depressing" vein, as Elle wrote about, for the moment ignoring what literary umbrella they fall under. E.g. if you look at the 10 Best Fiction Books by the NYT (2021 edition), I'm not sure how many even fit your more hopeful metamodern definition--some seem like downright throwbacks. And if the NYT is too elitist, many if not most recognizable indie presses like Red Hen & Black Lawrence are likewise following this trend in devastating, trauma-reckoning, apocalyptic literature.
Literature is not produced in a vacuum and literary movements don't just crystalize in medias res; one year's perspective gives you fresh eyes for your own writing; ten year's perspective is enough to critically analyze literature of its time. We're in the midst of political and social upheaval, as your footnote points out, and if you're lucky enough to have time to write these days, chances are some of that upheaval is in the back of your mind.
I know we think of certain work as timeless but it's the works' specificity and reliance on the material of its time which actually makes it relatable. For example, Balzac's and Zola's descriptions of place, social status, dress, how much things cost, etc. is one of the most grounding features in their work and is easily understood by a modern reader, whereas certain political movements, archbishops, kings, famous courtesans, outdated technologies still require explanatory notes in the back of your Oxford World's Classics.
Some writers are called to write about their times, some write about our times more as a reflex action, but unless you're totally disengaged from the world around you it's hard for no historical/cultural context to seep in.
I'd love to read more upbeat, less traumatic, maybe even funnier fiction (I'd settle for more ironic fiction that isn't bogged down in miserabilism--a word that almost seems invented for some of our current literature)... but I don't think this kind of work will find a foothold while we have raging power-mongers and open racists vying for political office (on the one hand) and progressive critics arguing that books themselves are racist by "omission" and you should only write from your own "cultural" perspective (on the other).
I've been naive enough to say that I believe literature is for everyone, but that's what I believe. And if metamodernism has room for comedy I'm for it.
I think you’re spot on: re a widespread need for comedy, which seems to be at least on the uptick in recent years in the stand-up realm. Given the media’s relentless coverage of increasingly miserable news, I’m curious how we can accommodate comedy while also acknowledging its role in sublimating lower case or capital-T traumas. What’s clear is that we as readers are
in search of humor that gives us a framework to imbue the day to day with meaning again versus spiral downwards towards the kind of solipsistic and nihilistic outlook that postmodernism never could get away from. Here’s to making room for comedy in all rooms and conversations. The gods know laughter remains some of the best medicine.
I finally..sitting on a plane, had a chance to read your paper. Samuel! Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant & I too am thrilled to find a “new”enclave of like minds. Thank you all for your reflections! I have/never had any doubt that the child who wrote at 7: « the man in the black hat is not kind, because he does not have peace on his mind » would be the metamodernist you have become & so deftly explained. I passed this on to Nor & she will be writing you. Bravo!
This is wonderful, Samuel, and instructive. I've always been torn between all these urges from nihilism to existentialism to modernism and postmodernism, sort of like being drawn to all forms of music from folks to classical to punk, etc. This essay is a wonderful invitation and an affirmation to those of us who want to synthesize and oscillate - and yes, we all must! You laid it all out beautifully. I will share it!
Thank you Trevor 🙏🏼I hear you re: all the directions we’re constantly being pulled in … it’s been refreshing for me to find at least some kind of framework to start thing about meditating on a center. As with any theory it remains just that, and malleable to our own needs, but it seems to resonate!
I read every word. I’m neither smart enough nor educated enough to follow the nuisance of the thread but I follow the essence of it. You know me well enough to know I fall strongly to the personal, as opposed to the communal, side of the equation. But I am ever fascinated by brains as smart and educated as yours who can follow the thread and help the rest of us see what you see. Thanks for the work and time spent doing this for us.
Sooo much great information in this piece. I want to read it again and again. This first time was with coffee, and the second will be with whiskey. It’s an exhilarating feeling to find ourselves in a new, definable time in history, to be able to see the response to the past occurring before our eyes. And yes understanding the origins is, I think, step one. Can’t wait to read the exchange between you and Elle. x
I have always struggled with understanding the differences between all of these "isms." Samuel's essay is a simple but brilliant explanation and discussion, and left me wanting more. I would have loved to have him as a professor in college.
Thanks Todd. This is certainly the beginning of a continued line of questioning about the current "ism," looking forward to a real-life discussion one of these days, perhaps on the Seine? ...
This was so beautiful.
I actually am existentialist in that I believe there is no meaning, and so it is up to us to create meaning. But the existentialist writers apply apply an angst to that where I apply an idealism. Which maybe, to your point, is because I am of the metamodernist age-I’m very much with that Rick and Morty clip!
Still, this philosophy only extends as far as the individual person. “I can make my own life meaningful, can you?” Or possibly to an individual’s group or nation. “We live meaningful lives, do you?”
Following your progression of things, I can only hope the next age applies that same optimism to a global community, rather than to an individual person! How can we make life meaningful not just for us (“let’s go watch TV”) but for all of us (“we all have TVs?” Ok, the metaphor is lost....)
Sidenote, these literary discussions are making me feel like I’ve finally found “my people.” Thank you! Truly.
Yesss finally
Srsly. I was just telling a friend the other day, I can't remember the last time I was genuinely inspired and excited to engage with people and ideas on the Internet
Same!
I dig the choice to apply idealism versus angst ... and that's what * maybe * makes you a metamodernist! (it's wild every day I read something new about a different term for the Thing that's happening, just found "re-modernism" and "the new modernism" and even kitcsh as a term is being rehabilitated again.
What if we all go watch TV together in a large stadium and then we're all imbued with the same meaning for a few brief moments before ... wait. Maybe going to the movies is about to have a renewed heyday! The individual > community is the eternal question, especially in an era where people tend to define communities by what they're NOT as much if not more so as what they are. Alas. We've got work to do.
Thank you Samuel, for putting this together. And, nice to meet you!
I’ve read Integral Theory and Spiral Dynamics for a number of years, but never mapped it so clearly onto the arts. So thank you.
Would you say there’s been any exemplary (and well-known) novel that shows us ‘the era has landed’?
Great question Jordan. Short answer is a) I'm not aware of any singular title that has been decided upon as the urtext but b) I'm no expert and c) I'll be damned if I don't take a crack at a few candidates.
I think Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See" is a good candidate. It's about characters we've never really heard about in the storytelling of WWII, but it's also combining historical fiction and magical realism in an interesting, almost quasi-spiritual way.
In the same vein of combining history, fantasy, and post-colonialist narrative, I think you could argue "Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead does something similar. Finally, George Saunders, at least some of his more recent short stories ... I really wanted to like "Lincoln in the Bardo," and I know a lot of people were impressed by it, but it didn't resonate with me. I found this article below which, interestingly enough, is from 2015 but is a much better answer to your question ... my thoughts reside mostly in slightly older books that pointed towards this era without necessarily achieving a metamodern aesthetic, primarily "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins and "Brief Interviews w/ Hideous Men" by David Foster-Wallace. There's a search for real feeling and honesty in those books that you can see the contours of despite their postmodern wittiness and flippancy.
https://lithub.com/in-praise-of-the-new-modernists/
That would be my choice!
Thank you for this thoughtful look at literary history! I can still never remember terms like postmodernism, post-structuralism, et al... I guess I just don't have the capacity. Or maybe it's just one of my quirks. Following you and Elle's discussion, I'm most interested in why the books nowadays that are critically praised tend to uniformly fall into a "dark" and "depressing" vein, as Elle wrote about, for the moment ignoring what literary umbrella they fall under. E.g. if you look at the 10 Best Fiction Books by the NYT (2021 edition), I'm not sure how many even fit your more hopeful metamodern definition--some seem like downright throwbacks. And if the NYT is too elitist, many if not most recognizable indie presses like Red Hen & Black Lawrence are likewise following this trend in devastating, trauma-reckoning, apocalyptic literature.
Literature is not produced in a vacuum and literary movements don't just crystalize in medias res; one year's perspective gives you fresh eyes for your own writing; ten year's perspective is enough to critically analyze literature of its time. We're in the midst of political and social upheaval, as your footnote points out, and if you're lucky enough to have time to write these days, chances are some of that upheaval is in the back of your mind.
I know we think of certain work as timeless but it's the works' specificity and reliance on the material of its time which actually makes it relatable. For example, Balzac's and Zola's descriptions of place, social status, dress, how much things cost, etc. is one of the most grounding features in their work and is easily understood by a modern reader, whereas certain political movements, archbishops, kings, famous courtesans, outdated technologies still require explanatory notes in the back of your Oxford World's Classics.
Some writers are called to write about their times, some write about our times more as a reflex action, but unless you're totally disengaged from the world around you it's hard for no historical/cultural context to seep in.
I'd love to read more upbeat, less traumatic, maybe even funnier fiction (I'd settle for more ironic fiction that isn't bogged down in miserabilism--a word that almost seems invented for some of our current literature)... but I don't think this kind of work will find a foothold while we have raging power-mongers and open racists vying for political office (on the one hand) and progressive critics arguing that books themselves are racist by "omission" and you should only write from your own "cultural" perspective (on the other).
I've been naive enough to say that I believe literature is for everyone, but that's what I believe. And if metamodernism has room for comedy I'm for it.
I think you’re spot on: re a widespread need for comedy, which seems to be at least on the uptick in recent years in the stand-up realm. Given the media’s relentless coverage of increasingly miserable news, I’m curious how we can accommodate comedy while also acknowledging its role in sublimating lower case or capital-T traumas. What’s clear is that we as readers are
in search of humor that gives us a framework to imbue the day to day with meaning again versus spiral downwards towards the kind of solipsistic and nihilistic outlook that postmodernism never could get away from. Here’s to making room for comedy in all rooms and conversations. The gods know laughter remains some of the best medicine.
I finally..sitting on a plane, had a chance to read your paper. Samuel! Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant & I too am thrilled to find a “new”enclave of like minds. Thank you all for your reflections! I have/never had any doubt that the child who wrote at 7: « the man in the black hat is not kind, because he does not have peace on his mind » would be the metamodernist you have become & so deftly explained. I passed this on to Nor & she will be writing you. Bravo!
This is wonderful, Samuel, and instructive. I've always been torn between all these urges from nihilism to existentialism to modernism and postmodernism, sort of like being drawn to all forms of music from folks to classical to punk, etc. This essay is a wonderful invitation and an affirmation to those of us who want to synthesize and oscillate - and yes, we all must! You laid it all out beautifully. I will share it!
Thank you Trevor 🙏🏼I hear you re: all the directions we’re constantly being pulled in … it’s been refreshing for me to find at least some kind of framework to start thing about meditating on a center. As with any theory it remains just that, and malleable to our own needs, but it seems to resonate!
Woof... Woof...
Fascinating
Excellent essay!! Thank you!
Maybe the west is finally catching up to ideas Buddhism has been juggling for a long long time.
I'd like to think that's true, there is certainly a lot more visibility now on some basic practices like breathing and meditation and quietness.
This is nourishing.
Thank you good sir
Samuel,
I read every word. I’m neither smart enough nor educated enough to follow the nuisance of the thread but I follow the essence of it. You know me well enough to know I fall strongly to the personal, as opposed to the communal, side of the equation. But I am ever fascinated by brains as smart and educated as yours who can follow the thread and help the rest of us see what you see. Thanks for the work and time spent doing this for us.
Sam