Time to ramble. The book Cat's cradle by Kurt Vonagate jr. shows a postmodern sense in a variety of different ways. The way that sticks out the most and just keeps on slapping you in the face is that science is just a untruth that has no significance to those who don't care about it. I havn't been able to get my hands on the book yet so it is quite a challenge to quote the text in my blog. How ever today I did venture to the library by clark and issued a district transfer for the book. So, when I acquire the book I will revise my blog. Anyways, From what I heard in class the people in the book do not care to much for why they believe things, they just do. Much like some things in our postmodern(It might be psudo-modern now) World. Postmodernism illustrates the idea of Narratives being the explanation to all. These narratives known as harmless untruths in cats cradle are called untruths for a reason. They are not proven by anything. But the very thing that proves them( science) is possibly a untruth in someones life. So their basically is no truth in this subjective world of Discourses that are discourses because they fit a certain Narrative. Like I said in one of my past blog post,"Grand Narratives have the immaculate ability to invest such strong faith in its believers that even a scientific proof that proves it to be completely false with evidence is not enough to adhere whimsicality to its followers." Much like in the book when sensible explanations cross the minds of characters they do not care. If it does not agree or apply to the narrative their Discourse is concerned with they don't care. They see science as meaningless poop.
First, I would like to say that great minds think alike, since we both had pretty much the same blog topic this week. Anyways, I know what you mean how Vonnegut just pounds the reader with science and lies. He really does want people to get this notion about no absolute truth in the world. But what I’d like to ask is this. Shouldn’t people care about scientific research and how far technology has come? I mean, Vonnegut is explaining to the audience that even pure science will never lead to this revelation to the meaning of life, but science does have its benefits. Science is the reason for all of our medicines, transportation, communication, and even entertainment. My math teacher even told me about these research projects that go way beyond just nano-technology. She told me that we have already been able to develop robots that are able to liquefy themselves to squeeze under cracks of doors and be able to rebuild themselves back up. That is just jaw dropping. I do understand how people will say that science will just lead to more sophisticated styles of war and power in our world, but I believe that the benefits greatly outweighs the harm. Here is my last question. Do you really understand what this post postmodernism thing is all about? I read the post Dominguez put up, but I’m still a little confused. Is it just about entertainment and how the audience is able to control the outcome of certain situations? Anyways, this is good stuff man.
ReplyDeleteI certaintly agree with the fact that you said about untruths slapping you in the face. that is very true and a very prodigious idea in postmodernism. I think that it is really in a way sad to think that scientist in a way make us believe things that are not true, they really dont have the answers,and it almost has been proven that they dont have our needs in mind. Therefore, i begin to ask myself what is the purpose of sciecne? if people are going to believe what they want and despite what they are told they will still believe it then why does science try to impose an absolute truth. is there an equation we can follow to live a perfect life? Or will protein lead us on our way to the ultimate truth. i believe people should believe what they want to beleive and and apply truth to whatever they feel is truth, because i think there is absolutely no absolute truth. However, back to your blog, i think that if you pondered the book when you had the time you would really understand where im coming from dude!
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