chapter 28

Three great myths have come to be well known in our society today. They all have some type of single-minded pursuit of something. Faust is in pursuit of knowledge, Don Juan is in pursuit of women and Don Quixote is in pursuit of chivalric ideal. Robinson Crusoe was a main myth and his story was about the dignity of labor and getting back to nature. Being stranded on an island and relying on yourself to live and profit. These myths give heroes that people recognize and present themes found in our modern world.

chapter 48

Sontag argues that interpretation is "the revenge of intellect upon the world." I found this quote very interesting because to me, interpretation is what gives things life. Without interpretation, a work of art of almost any type could seem trite and simplistic. Of course interpretations cannot always be predicted or may not always be exactly as we intend. However, an interpretation is when people bring something they already have to the table to add to your work to make it mean something to them. Everyone brings something different therefore a work of art can mean something different to everyone. This is amazing to me, that something could affect so many people in so many ways through just one or a few creators and creations.

chapter 47

It interested me that Gowans said Art among other things can only be defined by its function. In previous chapters we discussed that everything can be defined in terms of its opposites or what it is not. Isn't this still true? In addition, what can't be defined by its function? I feel like most if not all things can be defined by their function as well as what they are not (or do not do I suppose).

 So one function of art is to provide an image for something so we can reference it in the future. Art could also be used to vividly tell stories. Art can persuade people too. Lastly, art is beautiful and pleases the eye.

I feel like if we can define what art does we can define what art is. This doesn't seem like much of a Gordian knot after all.

chapter 32

This chapter says the postmodern eye "gazes upon the world as if it were one vast variety show" but there is nothing wrong with that. The world is a variety show composed of many many talents, types of people, experiences and stories. Solomon goes on to say that the post modern eye perceives human events as being nonsensical. To say that the things that I do and accomplish and am currently working toward are nonsensical is not right. Not everything needs to be sorted into a perfectly pre-framed structure. I like a little chaos in my life. It says that narratives are to create meaning in the face of meaningless and to make sense of the senseless. This would be to say that what I'm doing is meaningless and senseless without being put into society's structure. This is completely wrong to me. I find sense and meaning in things in my own way. It goes on to say that in the postmodern eye "life is nothing more than a decentered, narrativeless course waiting for death-or for a nonexistent God who never comes." It's interesting to me that this was the end of Solomon's part of this chapter because that last line was I'm sure intended to gesture toward more modern people having no faith. However, this accusation does not get to me because I am an atheist and do not believe in God or a higher power anyway. So to say that my life is nothing and I'm just waiting to die and become nothing is ridiculous and depressing. I highly disagree because I can make a difference in this world that will matter even after I die.

chapter 31

This is another chapter that I feel took the most negative approach to a theory as well as what I would consider a closed-minded approach. This is not to say that they have something against postmodernism per se, but rather the chapter still manages to condescend and somewhat look down upon postmodern elements such as punk and fragmented style in architecture. Changes in style are good, they help us progress and make good use of our advances in technology. You can't say that people could have always done what we do now because we were never previously capable of most of what we're doing today.