sublime

I though this reading was more about honoring the avant-garde than explaining modernism and postmodernism. Lyotard talks about the difference between artists that follow the rules, "Those who refuse to reexamine the rules of are pursue successful careers in mass conformism by communicating, by  means of the 'correct rules'," and those who don't, "As for the artists who question the rules... they are destined to have little credibility in the eyes of those concerned with 'reality' and 'identity'" (41). It is clear that Lyotard respects these artists that are not afraid of the avant-garde, because those who question the rules, "have no guarantee of an audience" (41). Lyotard uses the word sublime frequently in this essay. The term comes from the aesthetic pleasure one gets from seeing something strange and different. He describes it as, "a strong and equivocal emotion: it carries with it both pleasure and pain. Better still, in it pleasure derives from pain" (43). Aesthetic, for him, is not "that of the beautiful" it is more the pleasure of experiencing something new (44). Lyotard uses this term sublime, to differentiate modernism from postmodernism. The difference has to do with nostalgia and the pleasure and pain that comes from viewing something postmodern as opposed to modernism which has a set of preestasblished rules. This whole concept is very difficult to grasp but i think understanding Lyotard's "sublime" helps explain modernism and postmodernism.