friction in the space between

Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised

On the off-chance that anyone is still reading my thoughts on apologetics and the distrust in postmodernism, I want to have another look at plot tensions in the postmodern story (see also I never met a narrative I trusted). Perhaps we can ask these questions:

At what point does a narrative become big enough to be distrusted? All stories try to explain something about the world. At what point does the explaining cover enough to be totalising?

Is it really big stories that produce violence and oppression? Or is it anytime two stories come into contact? Looking at the ethnic violence that we have seen all around the world in recent years, it seems stories don’t have to be that big, they just have to meet and, I guess, overlap in some way. The plots have to collide and find that they don’t match up.

Going further, is it possible that the postmodern fall of the big stories has in fact contributed to the violence by allowing the small stories to run wild and meet in conflict? Rather than freeing the world from violence and oppression, maybe it has contributed by cutting the (yes, oppressive) constraints.

If so, what is the solution? If big stories are oppressive and all stories result in violence when they collide, what hope do we have?

Perhaps our only hope is for a story that absorbs the violence. A story that meets others and doesn’t fight back, but turns the other cheek in some way…

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Permalink | October 17th, 2007

One Response to “friction in the space between”

  1. jonnyjpg Says:
    jonnyjpg October 18th, 2007 at 10:46 am

    very good.
    nice ending on that post
    keep writting!

    btw – it took about me 3 days to get the “met a narrative” pun…. !!!

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