Re: Post metropolitan

I agree with a lot of what Anthony White says about nature vis a vis
modern, urban society, whether it is a borugeoisie nostalagia for
nature, consumed as a commodity, or nature as a oversoul -- nature
becomes a marker of authenticity. And much, if not most, modernist
poetry is complicit with this flight from urbanity, the seedy quotidian,
the banal. 'High modernism' is often silent on questions of social
injustice or opposes itself to the unwashed masses. I associate this
view of modernism with the insights of Raymond Williams.

Logically then a post-modern, post-urban poetics might engage itself
with virtual or mediated realities: the Los Angeles of Blade Runner, the
cute neighborhoods of Geo-cities style cyber space. A la Virillio, isn't
this a nostalgia, a complicity with desire for immediacy of presence,
better communication --whatever thant might mean ...isolated jittering
cells concernined primarily with extending longevity. The prospect is
unsettling ....

--
Donald Wellman
http://eagle.dwc.edu/wellman/index.htm