Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

The first moment when “postmodernism” enters the philosophical lexicon was in 1979, with the publication of The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge by Jean-François Lyotard. In his book, he employs Ludwig Wittgenstein’s model of language games and concept from the speech act theory to analyse a transformation of the game rules for science, art, and literature since the nineteenth century, or in other words, since the modernist period. His text is some kind of combination between the languages of the expert and the philosopher which differs significantly in which the expert knows both what he knows and what he doesn’t know, whilst the philosopher knows neither yet poses his questions. Through this analogy, Lyotard attempts an experiment to understand the value of objectivity in knowledge in relation to reality. This is ever truer now with the rise of digital technology in which messages are coded differently from the previous age, and we also see reality with a new sensibility with a new coding process and the reshaping of information.

Lyotard’s view is only one of the postmodernist scholars that the author quotes in this book. Postmodernism is all about bringing more freedom, decreasing boundaries, and valuing individualism as opposed to collective identity, at least in my understanding of the term. One of the most interesting features of Stuart Jeffries’ analyses is the way he employs various examples from pop culture icons to explain what postmodernism is all about and how we arrived at this point. He starts with a striking example from the work of artist Jenny Holzer, with her LED installation at New York Times Square in 1982 which contains the text “Protect Me From What I Want”. Holzer experimented using texts, making narrative and commentary part of visual objects in public spaces. The texts are subversive, aim to provoke the viewers, and they led to multi interpretations with their simplicities. They’re at the same time political, while also non-political, but at the same moment portraying postmodern experience that’s relatable to the viewers. Stuart Jeffries doesn’t begin his discussion with various theories, yet it invites dialogues to the readers through various examples taken from something close to everyday’s life.

Another example offered by the author in this book is David Bowie’s performance, as he took up the stage as Ziggy Stardust, during the time he toured to promote the 1972 LP The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spider from Mars. Ziggy Stardust is a notorious character that defies the previously popular icon in the entertainment industry. An alien, as opposed to a human. Androgynous, as opposed to the traditional male/female division. Theatrical, as opposed to the true face of the icon. Bowie through Ziggy Stardust invited his audience to transcend the existing boundaries and invent a new identity for themselves, which is not static as we know that Bowie was a musical chameleon. He changed a lot of time during his musical career, both in his costumes and genre, from Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dog, The Thin White Duke, his cool Berlin period, up until the day he staged his death as a tragic performance when Blackstar, his last album was released a few days before his death in 2016. Yet the numerous examples that Stuart Jeffries offers is also one of the weaknesses of this book, for lay readers will get confused with what constitutes postmodernism in itself.

But above all, this is a book of questions rather than an explanation in itself. What constitutes postmodernism, and how humanities transformed from the age of modernism to postmodernism are a few questions posed by this book. Postmodernism is very much present in our daily life, spanning from architecture, art, literature, science, even the way our consciousness functions with the advent of digital technology. The disruption is something that happened on a rapid scale, often with the previous generation, left dumbfounded with the disappearance of the previously-held values. It’s a subversive concept, destroying the previous structure of society, yet at the same time also liberating for many. And I think Stuart Jeffries has successfully presented postmodernism as a phenomenon, yet one question still remains: What to do after we understand postmodernism?

As a high school history teacher I love to see and make the connections for my students from the past to present day. This book did such an incredible and engaging job of making that happen. Very informative, but also very enjoyable.

Stuart Jeffries has another great book about a key movement that began in the 20th century. One of his previous works did a nice job digging into the different segments of the Frankfurt School, while this work does an excellent job connecting the postmodernism movement to multiple societal elements: the arts, the economy, politics and culture.

Jeffries delves deep into the philosophy of postmodernism but explains it in an understandable manner. He touches on Barthes, Foucault, Derrida and Wittgenstein, explaining their ideas and their importance to the postmodernism movement.

Jeffries is able to trace events from the 1970s to the present, such as Nixon’s monumental decision to take the U.S. off the gold standard. Around the same time, credit cards like Visa and MasterCard gained popularity, allowing individuals to have instant gratification. This has led to having so many choices that making simple decisions has become overwhelming.

Technology made the promise to make our lives easier, but that has hardly been true. Our work lives are infinitely more complicated. Instead of working less because of technology, we actually work much more now. So, too, have the lines blurred between the workplace and the personal home space. Beyond work, Jeffries points to other areas that have been impacted, such as how politics were once a participatory, communal activity but now have the feel of a consumer transaction.

This isn’t light reading by any means, but readers who wish to understand our current society would do well to read Everything, All the Time, Everywhere. An excellent read.