Friends, teachers and people I have had the good fortune to have never met; I have come here today to talk about concrete. (pause slightly and beam at audience as if Christmas has arrived early)
In English this year, I have had to study postmodernism. Postmodernist literary theory basically says that everything has meaning. This pen can be seen as a great piece of art,(pull pen out of pocket) its soft surface can be interpreted as a symbol of the exterior corporations present to the world whilst the ink represents their true putrid motives. Of course really it’s just a pen designed so that people can write with it but to some it has meaning. Personally I think the whole idea is a load of tosh so that people with English uni degrees have something to do but it can still offer some insight into the way language and symbols work. And that is why I choose to speak about concrete, to explore some abstract notions that can be derived from its study from a postmodernist perspective.
Now I want you all to stop. Stop listening to me and think about concrete. . Don’t think about why I’m asking you to think about concrete. Don’t wonder what everyone else might be thinking about concrete. Just think about what you personally, think about concrete. What does it feel like, what does it look like, what does it smell like? What sort of a thing is it to you? And if you heard any of that I am very disappointed in you because I asked you to stop listening and think about concrete. Ok you can start listening again.
Now you have a clear idea of what you think about concrete, I want you to start thinking about what concrete means. Can’t think of anything? Well what would you say if I said I had come up with a concrete idea?
Suddenly a big grey block of cement has become an adjective for thought, something that should be fluid and quick. Yet this is still a reasonable notion, it is based on the fact that we know concrete is solid. It can be tested; if you don’t believe me I could prove it to you.
And now I am about to go all post modern on you.
All words in any language have underlying meanings and associations, some are obvious, others less so. This can also be proven; tell any 10 year old “I have a large hole” and you while see what I mean.
Now using this so called fact that all words have meaning we can attempt to derive our own meaning to any words in our wonderful language. And that’s what I want you to do with concrete. I want you to create your own meaning for the word, and think about what associations it invokes in you.
A few weeks ago I was told I had to compose a speech for a public speaking night. I was in fact asked if I wanted to do this; it was one of those questions that hinted of broken kneecaps and failed HSC’s. I was “asked to write as speech as I walked down to stretch and was wondering what I could talk about so I looked around for any possible sources of inspiration. If you have walked down to stretch during class time you will notice it is notably short of such things, all I could see was a lot of concrete. And as I stood there, over intellectualising a slab of concrete it occurred to me that concrete is just like our priorities.
Priorities are important.
In western societies we tend to have really good priorities. At the top of the list are things such as our libidos, aesthetics and material possessions. And then way down at the bottom of the list are all those really useless things such as practicality, happiness and personality (I mean who needs one of those these days? Anyone here got one?) .
Now concrete is hard, it’s ugly its cold, but its also damn useful stuff. Now concrete was never designed to be a representation of our priorities, it was designed to be hard ugly, cheap and a great construction material, and that is what post modernism is all about. Finding meaning where none was intended, intellectualising everything within sight, a desperate quest for reason in chaos. It is a theory that says there are no theories, just interpretations.
And that is why I wanted you to think about concrete because there is no purpose in thinking about concrete, there is no purpose in post modernism, you are never going to achieve anything useful through it, it’s just a never ending quest for meaning. As soon as you achieve an interpretation it will lead to another. Postmodernism is simply a never ending process of though that we can explore as long as we like and never have to fear a destination. So try and look at the world from a postmodernist perspective and enjoy a gentle striptease for the mind.
