Anti-Modernist

I’ve always been negative towards Modernism. And while I do not embrace the postmodern sentiment in its entirety, I do resonate with it at many levels. So yes, one would not be off the mark to label me a postmodernist.

Today I stumbled onto this quote regarding Modernism by sci-fi horror author H. P. Lovecraft on one of the blogs I follow.

It is not a true civilization, and has nothing in it to satisfy a mature and fully developed human mind. It is attuned to the mentality of the galley-slave and the moron, and crushes relentlessly with disapproval, ridicule, and economic annihilation any sign of actually independent thought and civilised feeling which chances to rise above its sodden level. It is a treadmill, squirrel-trap culture – drugged and frenzied with the hashish of industrial servitude and material luxury. It is wholly a material body-culture, and its symbol is the tiled bathroom and steam radiator rather than the Doric portico and the temple of philosophy. Its denizens do not live or know how to live.

Lovecraft’s observation of Modernism is spot-on and much of it is still in effect today. After all, Postmodernism is not “post-“ Modernism, but “para-“ Modernism, as (I think) Brian McHale explains the current zeitgeist.