Chris Daniels How might postmodern texts be considered controversial?

Postmodernism is a concept used in a variety of media texts and it sets out to be controversial. Postmodernism originated from the reaction to modernism, where people thought that science and new ideas were the way forward. However, during the Second World War people soon realised that the science that everyone thought was so good, was actually being used against them as weapons, e.g. bombs and nuclear weapons. Thus postmodernism was invented, putting a cynical edge on reality. Baudrillard believed that the majority of the world is presented through hyper reality a fake reality created through the media. Thus postmodern texts can be seen as controversial as they challenge peoples way of thinking. Postmodernism states that it is no longer possible to create anything original. Everything is made up of blending or mixture of older works. Postmodernism takes this to extremes using bricolage and Intertextuality. This leads to many original narratives being treated with irreverence. The film the Cabin in the Woods for example could be argued as controversial, because of the heavy use of intertextuality to showcase the 100s of monsters/creatures from other iconic horrors, although most people would interpret this as homage rather than recycling. An example of this is when they show the ghost to try and kill the Japanese school girls, this is a tongue in cheek reference to the film the ring as in the original film, the protagonist survives, so this is to poke fun at how little threat the spirit is, as the girls turn it into a happy frog. It also has numerous references to quite a lot of other horror films, including, the puzzle box man from hell raiserand the twins from the shining. The postmodern tendency towards generic cross reference and intertextuality creates a relationship with the audience by both playing with and complimenting their knowledge of film. The death of representation is a key concept used in postmodern texts because it allows for new representatations to be made. E.g the Pop star Lady Gaga used the Death of representation, as she is constantly reinventing herself to avoid being labelled by the media and paparazzi. Cleverly she released a controversial song Paparazzi where in the music video she is quite literally pushed to the point of near death by these people who want to feed off her pain. She also wears bizarre artistic outfits that you would expect to see on a catwalk as they are so outlandish, e.g her 2ft heelless shoes. This technique can also be applied to computer games, e.g. the Sims franchise have taken it one step further and have created an immersive hyper reality in which people can create themselves and live out their life virtually, through an avatar. This amount of control over life can be considered controversial as games like this can make you more concerned for your avatar life, as opposed to your real life, games such as these also contain no grand narratives or moral behaviour, as in the game you are able to kill and burn people as you please, causing innocent people to be exposed to explicit deaths. Generic blurring can be used by postmodern media texts to merge different styles or genre into one text, this technique is used in the film industry, but also the music industry.. The pop artist Lady Gaga used generic blurring in her everyday life and in her live performances, this is because she wants to create a character so flamboyant and interesting that everyone will forget her real persona of Stefanie Joanne Angelina Germonatta and only think about her current Lady Gaga persona. This also allows for her to hide behind this persona she created and to be able to have a range of styles. This is evident by her music videos, as she can be innocent and delicate at one time (eh, eh), then turn into a hooker parading around in a bra and pants (the others). The artist uses Mulveys male

Chris Daniels gaze to control men with her femininity as her dance moves and outfits are quite risqu. This mixture of genres works to attract a range of music genre fans from rock to rap, as she includes a bit of everything in her outfits and music. (The reincarnation of Madonna). However this could be considered controversial as by mixing genres together, you lose the originality and true style of the text, as people cannot assume or expect things like they would if they were watching a horror, when they know something bad will happen. In conclusion postmodern media texts can be considered controversial as it is what they are designed to be. Baudrillard believes that is it getting harder to perceive the distinctions between real life and the simulacrum (representing image) because of the media, and that eventually it will be impossible to tell. We expect postmodern texts to be controversial as they look to question what is real and not. E.g. the comical series Brass eye takes a comical look at how manufactured the news channels are, and poke fun at how they all used the same up and down voice while speaking. These types of programme are deliberately there to cause controversy and to amuse the audience by making light of serious texts and unravelling the true meanings of things.