I love teaching

Because I get to write e-mails like this one...

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

In general, while doing the readings or reviewing the lectures, consider the following in the final weeks of the class:

-Now that we have learned about postmodernism, and more significantly, its disbelief in the ability of signifiers (words, images, representation) to accurately or sufficiently live up to their signified?s, how do visual artists address that?How does postmodern visual art (which is, arguably a fundamentally representative medium-that is, it relies on signifiers to function) deal with that disbelief? How, from a postmodern viewpoint, does it address the representation of the self, the body, of memory, of history, of emotion when it doesn't believe in the ability to do so adequately? There is no single answer to the question. There is no end.

Whoa.

So anyway, put that in your pipe and smoke it. Smoke it for the next two weeks, or maybe even for the rest of your life. Definitely smoke it while doing the readings.

-Fondly yours, Bertrand.