"Modern"

[WillJ]

In art class last semester I researched some modern architecture, came to the conclusion that most of it sucks, and moved into postmodern architecture. That got me around to thinking something I had thought before: Postmodern? What the crap? It's a term used to describe certain architecture, other visual art, literature, philosophy, music, and just about everything else.

The question I'm asking in this thread is, What is "modern"? It usually means "present or recent," but obviously the term "postmodern" throws that definition out of the window, unless it's describing the future (which it's not).

Then there's the fact that most historians say the Western world could be described as "modern" beginning with the Renaissance. (But ask the average person when the world became "modern," and he'd probably tell you the 1950s or so.)

Does "modern" describe a certain time in humanity's history characterized by certain things (whatever those may be), just like "medieval" or "prehistoric"? If so, what are those things that characterize it? When did modernism begin, and when did it end (or is still here)? Perhaps modernism ended with the Information Age, as some people like to say?

Or is that just silly, and "modern" just means "current or present," like most people use it? In that case, will we ever stop using it? In 2100 will we describe the current world as "modern," or will we have another word? (Imagine English is still around in 2100.)

Maybe "modern" just has two meanings? ...

And finally, if the meaning of "modern" is such that it can end at some point, is "postmodern" a justified term as it's used to describe Frank Gehry et al? Or is it being used too early---just a silly term used by hipsters desperate to be new and original, and eventually we'll throw away the term and admit we're still "modern"?

 

[North King]

I think we'll call this age something quite different from "Modern" at the end of the day. The "Computer age" or "Information Age" come to mind; they would be used the same way that "Medieval" or "Dark" ages are used nowadays; and we'll still be calling ourselves modern.

 

[Sophie 378]

Don't forget about "futuristic" while you're confusing me. Yet another now-meaningless word that people throw around to describe something, methinks.

 

[Yuri2356]

Modern.

Word History: The word modern, first recorded in 1585 in the sense “of present or recent times,” has traveled through the centuries designating things that inevitably must become old-fashioned as the word itself goes on to the next modern thing. We have now invented the word postmodern, as if we could finally fix modern in time, but even postmodern (first recorded in 1949) will seem fusty in the end, perhaps sooner than modern will. Going back to Late Latin modernus, “modern,” which is derived from Latin modo in the sense “just now,” the English word modern (first recorded at the beginning of the 16th century) was not originally concerned with anything that could later be considered old-fashioned. It simply meant “being at this time, now existing,” an obsolete sense today. In the later 16th century, however, we begin to see the word contrasted with the word ancient and also used of technology in a way that is clearly related to our own modern way of using the word. Modern was being applied specifically to what pertained to present times and also to what was new and not old-fashioned. Thus in the 19th and 20th centuries the word could be used to designate a movement in art, modernism, which is now being followed by postmodernism.

Really, I'm of the opinion that "Postmodern" is just a stupid buzz-word that's taking too long to die off. Modern, just refers to the present, and we don't say "Post-Present" now, do we?

 

[Souron]

Being a Civ fan, I would say the modern age is marked by neuclear politics, computers, lasers, and a genreral backlash against the polution of the industrial age.

 

[Urederra]

post-modern is like after-punk. Doesn't mean anything.

The solution would be to invent a new world that defines what we mean when we say modern, maybe industrial could be a good one, and left modern for the present, not very well defined yet, art.