According to Hassan’s table in Harvey’s article, modernist theory centers around the mind and being as a whole while postmodernism embraces schizophrenia and coexisting realities. That’s why Orr and Dr. Haber can never create the utopia they seem to be trying for and can never set the world right. Why, in the end, when Haber works alone to try and place his vision of a perfect world on the universe, the present becomes schizophrenic because there can never be one, perfect answer for all. Why Orr keeps misunderstanding the phrases told him through hypnosis because, as the Harvey article says, there is more than one meaning and interpretation to every word, just as there is more than one reality to every life. Reality or truth, then, seems to be relative in the postmodern scheme of things. For citizens in Orr’s world, their reality is whatever Orr’s latest dream has conjured up. For Orr, reality consists of multiple realities and effective dreams. The interesting thing is that the backdrop always looks like it stays the same (same geography, president, basic makeup of things) which seems to suggest that while we all live in the same world with the same basic elements, our realities can still be drastically different.
Within the different truths Le Guin tries to come up with an answer to how we are to survive in a pluralistic world. Because of her apparent Taoist belief (I really know very little about Taoism, I’m just taking it from previous posts) it seems that Le Guin’s answer to the question McHale poses in the Harvey article, “Which world is this? What is to be done with it?” is to become one with society and accept that we are not alone? That we are all a part of each other, as the aliens, in some way, are a part of Orr, and that to survive in this world we must live plurally…It doesn’t matter what world we exist in, there is no truth for a singular being. We just have to “get by with a little help from our friends.” In fact, Dr. Haber is the only person with no friends, family, or loved ones and in the end feels so lonely that he wants to enter the crowds running from the alien attack.
I do think, then, that postmodernism is indeed a break from modernist thought and theory. From what I gather from the Harvey article about modernism is that there is one reality, one meaning that encompasses the whole of humanity. One “singular reality” that can speak for all society. The question “Who am I?” is an existential search leading from the singular past to the omnipresent future where subjects question their existence as a singular being in an ambiguous world that does, however, contain a definite past. Postmodernism, on the other hand, refuses to accept a “singular reality” and instead, “realities may coexist, collide, and interpenetrate” changing the “Who am I?” to a different meaning of “Who am I now, today?” It is different from modernism in that there are so many selves and so many realities that one conclusion cannot be reached since in a pluralistic society, there are many truths.
P.S. Karen is sorry that she cannot share her thoughts with you on this blog. It seems to have a mind of its own and decided to eat Karen’s post.
Julie,
Thanks for your post. It is helping me understand the various shades of meanings of modernism, postmodernity, and postmodernism and grasp LeGuin’s novel. As you say, “modernist theory centers around the mind and being as a whole while postmodernism embraces schizophrenia and coexisting realities.” I read somewhere that “postmodernity is a condition or state of being, or is concerned with changes to institutional conditions” and postmodernism is “an aesthetic,literary, political or social philosophy that consciously responds to post-modern conditions, or seeks to move beyond or critique modernity” (Glidden 1990). So LeGuin’s novel seeks to present Orr’s state of being, both mental and physical, through time and space, as a response to the institutional changes in Orr’s world. His dream state allows him to create his own reality, a break from the present reality, which he cannot live with. In this way, he “breaks from modernist thought and theory” and is LeGuin’s answer to Harvey’s modernist notion that there is “one reality.” LeGuin’s novel can then be called an anti-modernist novel that, as you say “refuses to accept a singular reality.” Because LeGuin uses a character named Orr, she is suggesting that reality can be “this Orr that,” not just This. Not just That. Both can exist in the same time and space. Have I read too much of this stuff?
Julie,
Thanks for your post. It is helping me understand the various shades of meanings of modernism, postmodernity, and postmodernism and grasp LeGuin’s novel. As you say, “modernist theory centers around the mind and being as a whole while postmodernism embraces schizophrenia and coexisting realities.” I read somewhere that “postmodernity is a condition or state of being, or is concerned with changes to institutional conditions” and postmodernism is “an aesthetic,literary, political or social philosophy that consciously responds to post-modern conditions, or seeks to move beyond or critique modernity” (Glidden 1990). So LeGuin’s novel seeks to present Orr’s state of being, both mental and physical, through time and space, as a response to the institutional changes in Orr’s world. His dream state allows him to create his own reality, a break from the present reality, which he cannot live with. In this way, he “breaks from modernist thought and theory” and is LeGuin’s answer to Harvey’s modernist notion that there is “one reality.” LeGuin’s novel can then be called an anti-modernist novel that, as you say “refuses to accept a singular reality.” Because LeGuin uses a character named Orr, she is suggesting that reality can be “this Orr that,” not just This. Not just That. Both can exist in the same time and space. Have I read too much of this stuff?