StoryAlity#129B – What is Metamodernism?

What is Metamodernism?

Since (in a previous post) I just wailed on Postmodernism,

So… I had now, better talk about: Metamodernism.

Okay, then, so – What is it?

Well; you could read this HuffPost article on it, by Abramson (2014) .

And also, this one: Ten Basic Principles of Metamodernism (Abramson 2015)

One of my personal favourite Metamodernist styled articles is:

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). The Systems Model of Creativity and Its Applications. Chapter 25, in D. K. Simonton (Ed.), The Wiley Handbook of Genius (pp. 533-545). Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Wiley Handbook of Genius (ed: Simonton 2014)

Also – below is a definition I came up with. This, at least, is how I currently understand it. (and Metamodernism may well evolve…)

Metamodernism – Is an Internet-Era Philosophy, and a cultural movement currently in the zeitgeist; a new and useful combination of (1) Modernism, and (2) the very-few useful elements of Postmodernism.

`Metamodernists aim — much like the World War I-era avant-gardists of Western and Central Europe did — to honor and enact both Life and Art simultaneously’ (Abramson, 2014, online).

Metamodernism is often about engagement, affect, and storytelling. 

Metamodernism uses `AND/ALSO’ style holistic thinking (analysis, and then synthesis), rather than the old-school (postmodernist)`EITHER/OR’ binary opposites.

So less like this: (below is like Postmodernism)

And as far as I can see, Metamodernism is more like this: (shades of grey; look at the whole picture, and also the details)

In short, I suspect MetaModernism is a (metaphorical) Trojan Horse…?

But of course – like any meme (idea, process or product) can be used for good – and/also evil – or both or neither. Or something in between. And, all of these. Depends who’s doing it and why.)

A classic Metamodernist lecture is Randy Pausch’s very-inspiring The Last Lecture (2007).

I also read the book when it first came out:

The Last Lecture – (Pausch 2008)

And years ago I also played around with Pausch’s game/storytelling educational coding software, ALICE (below), to prototype some videogames,

 

Anyway so – Metamodernism: Storytelling, affect and engagement.

Randy Pausch famously (apparently) said:

`Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories. And they will figure out how those stories apply to them.’

Randy Pausch, in The Last Lecture (2007)

I must admit, his “The Last Lecture” (above) is very inspiring…!

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Side Note: Since Metamodernists aim “to honor and enact both Life and Art simultaneously”, Metamodernism has thus a lot in common with Positive Psychology (e.g. Martin Seligman, and Csikszentmihalyi on a life lived in the flow state, etc). And, with Heroism Science…

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…Is Metamodernism a good thing?

Anything that gets us further past Postmodernist “Theory” and all that nonsense is a good thing.

But so – as well as being a movie screenwriter, and actor, and videogame designer & writer, painter, photographer and novelist and poet, songwriter, musician, and lots of other things –

…I am an Information Scientist; I discovered the structure of the meme, the unit of culture.

And the thing is, as far as information compression goes, stories (narratives) are one of the most efficient information compression algorithms there are. There is a vast amount of information in a story.

By the way, it goes:

So, in some ways, yes – Metamodernism is good; If you want to communicate a lot of information all at once.

But – personally, overall, I still prefer consilience as an academic writing style…

Like say, the style of my PhD.

I also like reading articles in journals like The Scientific Study of Literature. Or Empirical Studies of the Arts. Or say Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture.

Mainly: Just gimme the facts!

And – If you really want a story, go read a classic novel, or watch a movie?

But – I do see the appeal of what Randy Pausch was saying:

`Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories. And they will figure out how those stories apply to them.’

Randy Pausch, in The Last Lecture (2007)

So – sometimes you need to use Metamodernism.

And, let the audience take from it, what they will.

Most audiences miss the subtle and complex nuances in complex stories, which is also why: Classics get better on re-reading / rewatching them.

Like say, Stanley Kubrick movies!

Or, even – the Top 20 RoI Movies.

…Food for thought.

Comments, always welcome.

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JT Velikovsky, PhD

Evolutionary Systems Analyst

& High-RoI Story/Screenplay/Movie & Transmedia Researcher

& Human & Computer Creativity Researcher 

The above is an extension of the research in my 2016 doctoral thesis: “Communication, Creativity and Consilience in Cinema”. It is reproduced here for the benefit of fellow bio-cultural scholars, and screenwriting, filmmaking and creativity researchers. 

For more, see https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky

JT Velikovsky is a million-selling Transmedia writer-director-producer. He has also been a professional story analyst for major film studios, film funding organizations, and for the national writer’s guild.

For more, see the Transmedia weblog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com/

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REFERENCES

Abramson, S. (2014). Metamodernism: The Basics – from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-abramson/metamodernism-the-basics_b_5973184.html

Pausch, R., & Zaslow, J. (2008). The Last Lecture (1st ed.). New York: Hyperion.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2017). Chapter 405: The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or, The Unit Of Culture. In M. Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition (pp. 4666-4678). New York: IGI Global.

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(Okay, my last and final rant about it:

It’s over, people. Postmodernism is dead and gone… and, I much prefer consilience.

In fact, I have always preferred consilience… All my heroes were (and are) consilient. e.g., Stanley Kubrick, Charles Darwin. Richard Dawkins, James Cameron [great screenwriter! well; mostly… I’m not keen on Titanic and Avatar, but love everything else he ever did, pretty much], and Prince, and Dredd Zeppelin, and Feynman, and Arthur Koestler, and Ed Wilson, Brian Boyd, D K Simonton, Mike Csikszentmihalyi, etc, etc.*

(* See for example The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s guide to writing in the 21st Century, Pinker 2015. The first piece of writing he rightly cites and then examines for its writing brilliance is actually by Richard Dawkins! I do love The Selfish Gene. And everything Dawkins wrote, pretty much.)

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