The perceptional transition of postmodern construction from modernity, as brilliantly related in a scene from Todd Haynes' rock opera Velvet Goldmine.
young Arthur (Bale) drinks with band after show tributing glam-rock:
"We prefer impressions to ideas...
situations to subjects...
brief lights to sustained ones...
exceptions to types...
I don't believe there's much of a future to speak of...
We're in it for a decadent tomorrow...
Big Brother, all the way."
Po-mo brought the deconstruction of modern hierarchy, linearity. But also left us vulnerable. It made us blah, too cool, sarcastic. Our deflated intellectual pride manifesting into an apathetic cynicism. An abandonment of future, a commodification of hope, and a constant pursuit for instant gratification - because "the now" became the only.
When the romantic concept of space-time is gone, the void left behind engulfs the soul. We've been consuming the material ever since just to compensate, to cop a feel of something real. The pursuit making us as fiendish and perverse as the soulless economic system that constructed us. Bowie understood hypercapitalism was only an inevitability.
...But these 'hypers' -hypercapitalism, hyperreality- are just processes in The Struggle. Necessary revelations toward true sincerity, true humanity. We can embody this constructed hyperreality. Art imitating Life. Life imitating Art. And finally, Art becoming Life. Such is the cycle. 3. Such is the most universal human narrative:
Redemption.
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