I heard, on the radio yesterday, an off-handed comment about people younger than 30...in this particular broadcaster's opinion, there hasn't been a great thing to come out of anyone born in the last 30 years apart from facebook.
Whether or not that's true, I don't actually care. Whether or not I agree, that too, I don't care about. Actually, I think he's probably not too far off, all things considered.
"Great" is a loaded word that can easily mean "oppressive" as much as it means "exemplary." They say we don't have great novels the way we used to; like people just can't write now like they could 80 years ago or something. It's true, James Joyce hasn't been equaled in my mind for aesthetic skill, but there wasn't anyone prior to him that did either. The question isn't about greatness, it's about perception.
I believe the greatest living writer is Salman Rushdie and I'd say that 's nearly an objective truth. I don't really care to argue it though, at least not for the sake of actually determining who is the greatest author. Dave Eggers is up there too, but AHBWOSG is grossly overrated and "What is the What" is far from enough for him to stage any sort of coup, in my mind, for the title.
I'm not writing this right now in order to discover who the greatest living author is or isn't..I'm trying to get to the bottom of something, something about this concept of greatness that people my age or younger, or a bit older, supposedly don't grasp or at least don't accomplish.
We could argue merits of different artists and craftspeople and maybe we'll prove that facebook isn't the end of the story for our generation. Even so, new buildings are rarely architectural wonders. Function is over-coming "greatness." It's about ease and efficiency now...but who is to say there's nothing great about that? Even so, I'm kind of old-school about some things, and I lament the sorts of video games I grew up on no longer being made because things like farmville and angry birds are outselling everything. But it's all marching onward...ease and efficiency, not too much time, not too much commitment...just gratification in the fastest and most accessible way for the masses.
That probably sounds like a bit of an indictment, but I'm not convinced it is....We're the first generation to internalize post-modern ideals (misleading many to label us a post-modern culture...post-modernism is an idealogy, not a culture or a set of values..it's a set of assumptions about truth and reality), and one of them, perhaps my favorite of them, post-modern ideals that is, is the value and worth of all humans. People (colleagues and students of mine in particular) often accuse all things post-modern as a rejection of all in any objective form...there are those among us, the post-modern thinkers, that do that, but it's rarely actually the case. What's actually happening is a process of decentering...instead of centering on societal ideals, like the preminence of white men, the democratization of ideas, and the objectivity of experience, we break out of molds and let what actually is emerge. What I mean is that instead of thinking everyone ought to like something because it is "great," acknowledging that cultural artifacts are products of culture and they are understood through culture...meaning some may appreciate, and some may not...it's not a deficiency, it's just a real difference. Even educational advantages in art history are a part of the culture of art history when it comes down to it.
That's a fairly complicated way of saying that while facebook may be our greatest thing, it itself is great because it allows people to be themselves or try to be whomever they want to be...how people use it may be wrong and I do have strong feelings about the place of children on facebook or attention-seeking through it...but at the end of the day, it's a place where people can choose to claim their own voice and it is, for that reason, great. But it also establishes other ways for things to be great...sure, no one is ever going to write huck finn again, but we will write things that acknowledge that we can only see the world as we can with our own eyes...that's both a higher form of art, more generally appealing, truer, and ultimately, greater.
To those who have not internalized post-modernity as many of my generation have, it looks hazy, it looks lazy, it looks sub-par. But just because they don't have the eyes to see why it's great doesn't erase its greatness. Of course they are entitled to their opinions in the same way I am my own. Not understanding or seeking to do so though, will never be an excuse to criticize.
-Zack
"I couldn't bare it, to live for fear "
-Yo La Tengo
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