Metamodernism

[Nomad4Ever]

Metamodernism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I heard the term for the first time in the YouTube video linked above. It perfectly summarizes something I have experienced but didn't have the words to describe. I made a thread a while ago about a game I played that I think very neatly fits into the metamoderist framework (though I didn't know it at the time).

Philosophy in the face of oblivion

Something I've heard from more the theistic types sometimes is without God or an afterlife, what's the point of anything? If one day you'll die, everyone you ever knew or will know or who remembers you will die, the sun will explode and the universe will end and erase everything, why does...

debatepolitics.com

I'll quote the relevant parts of that post:

in the end of the game you realize that everything you were doing, solving all the puzzles, trying to save everyone, was pointless anyway. Even Chert won't remember you talked to him or that you kept him company in the next loop. But I sat with him anyway.

The point was the experience. Small moments of human connections with the characters. Going to a planet just to explore there and not even to solve a puzzle. Sitting and looking at the stars and not worrying about how much time you have left in your loop.

And so in the face of oblivion, the erasure of everything you've done, your entire species, and any marks they might have made on the universe the game shows you how to find meaning in the meaninglessness. It is a very melancholy game, but it certainly isn't nihilistic. I think it has a fantastic philosophy for how to process not only death, but the magnitude of universe we live in and our very small cozy place in it.

Finding meaning in meaningless is a core part of metamodernism. A movie that was explicitly made with metamodernism in mind was Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.

The video describes metamodern movies as using postmodernism to deconstruct movie tropes but also using those tropes sincerely. i.e. modernism has Westerns, a postmodern movie might be a deconstruction of a Western, and a metamodern movie would be a deconstruction of Westerns that sincerely uses Western tropes still to tell its story. It recognizes and deconstructs movie tropes while recognizing they can be useful tools for storytelling instead of just deconstructing/subverting them. A recent example giving of a modernist movie is Top Gun: Maverick. A straightforward plot where the good guys win because of their valor/bravery.

Metamodernism is somewhat hard to describe, as it builds on modernism and postmodernism without fully embracing or rejecting either. It is a sort of "sincere irony" and "optimistic nihilism". Wikipedia and the referenced video both summarize it as isolating between sincere expression and postmodern deconstruction (thought this is a simplification).

I think this is something Gen Z engage in a lot. A lot of Gen Z art and jokes are "meta-ironic" or ironically ironic (and are often very bizarre). There is a popular subreddit I like called r/comedynecrophelia. The top post from there is a pretty good example.


Metaironic humor is basically sincerely enjoying ironic subversion of tropes. So the first 4 panels would be "boomer humor" making fun of the youth and #challenges, the next 2 panels are ironically making fun of the boomer joke but still kinda cringe, and the meta aspect is the act of posting it to r/comedynecrophelia which sort of is declaring the entire thing to be funny.

This thread is meant to be a springboard to discuss metamodernism generally. Do you think it is a good term to describe post-postmodernism? Are we even in post-postmodernism or is what I described above just a continuation of postmodernism?

 

[Nomad4Ever]

This video is a great explanation of what I tried to describe with my meme.

 

[Nomad4Ever]

I’m sort of rambling at this point, but I metamodernism closely aligns with my personal philosophical framework that I couldn’t really put a name to. I deeply identify with finding meaning in the meaningless not through returning to modernism or premodern frameworks of meaning, but by accepting the somewhat nihilistic criticism/deconstruction of modernism that postmodernism offers but finding meaning in that meaninglessness/deconstruction anyway.

 

[MamboDervish]

Have you seen the 2022 movie Babylon? (Pitt, Robbie, Calva, Maguire, ...)

If yes, I'd be interested in your classification of it vis-à-vis your OP.

 

[noonereal]

I’m sort of rambling at this point, but I metamodernism closely aligns with my personal philosophical framework that I couldn’t really put a name to. I deeply identify with finding meaning in the meaningless not through returning to modernism or premodern frameworks of meaning, but by accepting the somewhat nihilistic criticism/deconstruction of modernism that postmodernism offers but finding meaning in that meaninglessness/deconstruction anyway.

I like your posts here, I like your though processes, I feel your nihilistic criticism of modernism but in the end, I think this is all a waste of time.

Peace

 

[Nomad4Ever]

Have you seen the 2022 movie Babylon? (Pitt, Robbie, Calva, Maguire, ...)

If yes, I'd be interested in your classification of it vis-à-vis your OP.

I have not! I’ll update if I watch it.

 

[ataraxia]

Finding meaning in meaningless is a core part of metamodernism. A movie that was explicitly made with metamodernism in mind was Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.

I thought that was just existentialism. Is metamodernism just existentialism with sarcastic humor?

 

[ataraxia]

I was just watching the video, and found myself wondering if the movie "The Truman Show" could be considered metamodern?

 

[ataraxia]

As I was thinking about what metamodern might mean, I also kept thinking of this quote from Albert Camus, so many decades ago:

“I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”​

 

[MamboDervish]

I have not! I’ll update if I watch it.