During class, we were discussing techniques of postmodernist
writers. I mentioned the tactic of making up artificial constructs and
unbelievable plot points (on this planet yawning is illegal!!! on this planet
all the trees are made of plastic!!) to draw attention to Planet Earth’s own
weird and arbitrary constructs (an idea or theory containing various conceptual elements, typically one considered to be subjective and not based on empirical evidence. Amusingly, the example given is "history is largely an ideological construct."). It occurred to me that
the attention-grabbing is not the only reason to use such devices. For one, the author could be
just poking fun, saying “what if?” Doctorow loves to flaunt this power, telling
us that of course this all happened,
that Ford and Morgan and Houdini and the family and all these people had these
meetings that history never noticed.
A postmodernist author might also just
make unbelievable things up, well, just for the hell of it. And Doctorow does
this a lot (see: Little Boy as God theories, all the chance meetings, tiny
amusing details) but I wanted to bring in a favorite postmodernist sci-fi
author of mine, Douglas Adams. You know, the guy who wrote about all the
dolphins leaving earth before the apocalypse because they’re way smarter than
humans, and decided that their parting words to their favorite marine biologist
would be “So long, and thanks for all the fish.” Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe is full of stupid, funny quirks
like that. Think of the swamp planet Squornshellous Zeta, which is home to living mattresses who are "slaughtered, dried out, and shipped around the galaxy to be slept on by grateful customers." source. Or maybe the time a character met Thor, and due to "a rather classless sub-etha video (involving a latex bustier and Damogranian pom-pom squids) ..." making him "the 68th most popular deity in the universe." Agreeing that all kinds of deities are real, then deciding that people would rank them-- How postmodernist is that? (for the curious: the 67th most popular deity is Skaoi, god of snowshoes.)
A more modern equivalent might be Guardians of the Galaxy, which utilizes the same sheer enjoyment of weirdness and eccentricity for entertainment and amusement value. Doctorow's pointed what-ifs don't quite fit into that same class of just-plain-weird current and postmodernist stuff. Somehow, Doctorow takes himself more seriously than someone.
There's a lot more to be said on this topic, and I'd love to be contested in the comments.
