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I sometimes wonder whether it's possible for a European to understand
America.<br>
<br>
You need to see America while driving a Ford Galaxie on an interstate
at night, the neon glow of the city lights reflecting the low-hanging
clouds on a sultry steamy summer evening. If you do not see this, if
you cannot imagine it, you do not understand America.<br>
<br>
<blockquote>And I’m driving into Houston on a rain slicked Texas road<br>
Land so flat and sky so dark I say a prayer to float<br>
Should all at once the Sanasito surge beyond its banks<br>
Like Noah reaching higher ground I’d offer up my thanks<br>
<br>
Cause I’m a stranger here No one you would know<br>
I’m just passing through I am therefore I go<br>
The moon rose in the east But now it's right above<br>
As I say aloud Goodnight America<br>
<br>
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Everybody understands that America is an illusion, a wonderland of pink
flamingos and purple velvet.<br>
<br>
But it's <i>their</i> illusion. It belongs to the people; it was
created by the people. They <i>do</i> remember driving their cars on
the interstate, listening to the DJ, their futures riding on four
wheels and a dream. They <i>made</i> this; everything in America was <i>made</i>.<br>
<br>
If the post-modernists were misinterpreted, it was because their
interpreters believed that there could <i>be</i> an interpretation,
some stance, other than a point of view, that represented their
thought. If it were up to me, I would drop their books, shatter them
into a thousand pieces, each a one-paragraph blog post, with no
determinate start page, each reader entering from a different vector,
each word meaning something different with each glint of the reflecting
light.<br>
<br>
If post-modernism had no impact, it's because everyone stood around,
waiting for it to <i>say</i> something to do them, when all along the
message was, that this is yours, to pick up, and create what you will.
It is perhaps no accident that Baudrillard was from common parents;
when you do not inherit your history you have to make it, and when you
make it, it becomes <i>yours</i>.<br>
<br>
-- Stephen<br>
<br>
<br>
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