Lyotard Pre class blog

I found Lyotards’ text, “Answering the Question: What is Postmodernism?” to be very confusing. I am hoping that our in class discussion will shed some light on some of Lyotards key concepts that I think I am missing. One quote in particular that I found both confusing and interesting is when Lyotard states “A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant” (44).  When I read this, I was stumped at what could possibly be Lyotards meaning behind this statement. After reading the passage a few more times, I think I have come to a probable interpretation of his meaning. Later, Lyotard states that “A postmodern artist or writer is in the position of a philosopher: the text he writes, the work he produces are not in principle governed by preestablished rules….The artist and the writer, then, are working without rules in order to formulate the rules of what will have been done” (46) However, though we associate reality with Modernism, Lyotard states that “Modern, in whatever age it appears, cannot exist without a shattering belief and without discovery of the ‘lack of reality’ of reality, together with the invention of other realities”(43) well before the other quotes. So putting it all together, I am guessing with the lack of rules in Post modernism, this allows for more actual representation of reality to be added into an artist or writer’s work. So there first has to be an actual reality before we get to Modernism, where there is a “lack of reality” in reality. Like I previously stated, this is my guess of what Lyotard is trying to convey in his text. I look forward to our discussion in class to bring clarity to the reading.