Do you think that we have reached a point where retelling the same story no longer works? Nothing ever came after postmodernism.
We have retold the stories by Dickens, Shakespeare, the Brontë s, Huxley, etc. – over and over. And depending on which generation you belong to, you might like the contemporariness of the remake. I think that ever since the 2000s ended, originality occurs only once out of ten.
By the time you’re in your thirties, you begin to understand your parents because your sense of perception suddenly aligns with theirs. It’s a scary thought. It proves that Alison from the Breakfast Club wasn’t lying. It’s the age where your hopes and dreams are at stake, and it requires more effort and determination to stay strong and not give up. It gets harder decade after decade, especially for the artist.
Did you read Bret Easton Ellis’s latest book where he talks about ‘Generation Wuss’? People these days are no longer immune to criticism, insults, offensiveness, or obscenity. All they want is to be liked, stand out and have tons of followers. Parents have become overprotective over their children, which means that they won’t ever learn to take proper care of themselves in the future. The only way they will try to save themselves is through victimization. If you have enough evidence to blame others, you can easily paint yourself as an innocent victim. What can I say? There is hardly any courage or rebellion in that.
The truth is, it’s all about money these days — compensation, restitution, penalties, and so on.
What if we ever reach the state where our offensive writing and painting will be banned? What if Brave New World (1932) becomes a reality? As if you aren’t already suffocating without soma…
Transgressive fiction (Ellis, Bukowski, Palahniuk) teaches us how to channel our anger and frustration on a page. It teaches us about the worst things imaginable because sometimes you might find beauty inside of it. After all, beauty doesn’t only exist through sunshine and smiles.
But millennials are learning to fear the light!
I’m not surprised that people are less happy nowadays. Postmodern art is at stake. We’ve seen it all before; we are bored. The re-innovation of the old no longer works or inspires. The contemporary sphere is full of political and natural disasters that require more of us to open our eyes and take action rather than write and paint about it. But most people don’t know what to do about first-world problems–so they sink their heads.
What happens if Generation X dies out? What if future generations no longer feel the emotions and ideologies of Dickens, Shakespeare, the Brontës, Huxley, etc.? Will it be the end of artistic thinking and creative development?
How will we cope and survive on the inside?
