--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Some ways of naming a generation are…" description: "\"Some ways of naming a generation are fruitful and some are not. Postmodernism is not. It doesn't really say anything.\" — Robert Coover" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e12/robert-coover-23200_generations_some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fru_931641.jpg" --- # Some ways of naming a generation are fruitful and some are… ![“Some ways of naming a generation are fruitful and some are not. Postmodernism is not. It doesn't really say anything.” quote by Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e12/robert-coover-23200_generations_some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fru_931641.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e12/robert-coover-23200_generations_some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fru_931641.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e12/robert-coover-23200_generations_some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fru_931641.jpg) > “Some ways of naming a generation are fruitful and some are not. Postmodernism is not. It doesn't really say anything.” [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Naming a generation can be useful, but many labels like “postmodernism” lack clear meaning and fail to explain anything. **In simple terms:** Labels can be empty and unhelpful. Key Takeaway Use precise, meaningful descriptors. Themes language generation meaning critique Mood analytical critical Type academic philosophical When to use this quote - academic writing - media commentary - branding Key Concepts postmodernism semantic clarity cultural analysis Questions to Reflect On - What makes a generational label useful? - How can we avoid meaningless jargon? A Different Perspective Overly vague terms obscure understanding and hinder discussion. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Fruitful Postmodernism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fruitful-postmodernism-1522708/) [Generation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/generation/) [Generation Fruitful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/generation-fruitful-1522710/) [Generations](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/generations/) [Modernism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modernism/) [Postmodernism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/postmodernism/) [Postmodernism Doesn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/postmodernism-doesn-1522706/) [Say anything](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/say-anything/) [Way](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way/) ## Related quotes > [Insofar as I think about postmodernism at all, and it doesn't exactly keep me awake at nights, I think of it as something that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-raban/insofar-as-i-think-about-postmodernism-at-all-and-it-doesn-t-exactly/) [Jonathan Raban](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-raban/) > [“Isn't post-modernism really one big cover-up for the failure of the French to write a truly interesting novel ever since a sports car ate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-leonard/isn-t-post-modernism-really-one-big-cover-up-for-the-failure-of-the/) [John Leonard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-leonard/) > [“Postmodernism involves the loss of any hope that some larger-than-human force—be it God or History or Progress or Science or Reason—is going to come…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/heath-white/postmodernism-involves-the-loss-of-any-hope-that-some-larger-than/) [Heath White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/heath-white/) > [Postmodernism was a reaction to modernism. Where modernism was about objectivity, postmodernism was about subjectivity. Where modernism sought a singular truth, postmodernism sought the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/miguel-syjuco/postmodernism-was-a-reaction-to-modernism-where-modernism-was-about/) [Miguel Syjuco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/miguel-syjuco/) > [Postmodernism does not help us understand good art. It encourages art that can be easily understood and throws in something catchy to cover the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-darby-bannard/postmodernism-does-not-help-us-understand-good-art-it-encourages-art/) [Walter Darby Bannard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-darby-bannard/) > [“Postmodernism’s collapse into indeterminacy is a significant weakness, yet its recognition of the implications of narratives, communities, embodiment, history, race, sex, and class make…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-k-naugle/postmodernism-s-collapse-into-indeterminacy-is-a-significant-weakness/) [David K. Naugle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-k-naugle/) > [Postmodernism represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyman-abbott/postmodernism-represents-a-moment-of-suspension-before-the-batteries/) [Lyman Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyman-abbott/) > [“That is my second hypothesis: Postmodernism is a response to the crisis of faith of the academic far Left. Its epistemology justifies the leap…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-r-c-hicks/that-is-my-second-hypothesis-postmodernism-is-a-response-to-the/) [Stephen R.C. Hicks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-r-c-hicks/) > [Postmodernism came nowhere close in quality to Modernism at its apogee, not least because that later style wholly lacked the social impetus that animated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-filler/postmodernism-came-nowhere-close-in-quality-to-modernism-at-its/) [Martin Filler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-filler/) > [what exactly is postmodernism, except modernism without the anxiety?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/what-exactly-is-postmodernism-except-modernism-without-the-anxiety/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [Postmodernism - and is that term used much any more? - is simply a reiteration of the sophistic or the rhetorical worldview.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-roochnik/postmodernism-and-is-that-term-used-much-any-more-is-simply-a/) [David Roochnik](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-roochnik/) > [“May one plead, Your Honor, postmodernism as an involuntary condition?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/may-one-plead-your-honor-postmodernism-as-an-involuntary-condition/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [The postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it cannot really be destroyed, because its destruction leads to silence,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/umberto-eco/the-postmodern-reply-to-the-modern-consists-of-recognizing-that-the/) [Umberto Eco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/umberto-eco/) > [“Postmodernism has turned into this devil's vortex where no matter what you do, your neck will be turned and your face shoved into a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-celio/postmodernism-has-turned-into-this-devil-s-vortex-where-no-matter/) [Brian Celio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-celio/) > [Altermodern is an in-progress redefinition of modernity in the era of globalisation, stressing the experience of wandering in time, space and mediums. The term…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicolas-bourriaud/altermodern-is-an-in-progress-redefinition-of-modernity-in-the-era-of/) [Nicolas Bourriaud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicolas-bourriaud/) ## More by Robert Coover > [Metafiction says something. It has to do with taking a large fiction itself and writing within it; that kind of self-reflecting writing that emerges…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/metafiction-says-something-it-has-to-do-with-taking-a-large-fiction/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [I learned my realism from guys like Kafka.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/i-learned-my-realism-from-guys-like-kafka/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [“She strives, understanding the futility of it, for perfection.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/she-strives-understanding-the-futility-of-it-for-perfection/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [I see no reason to stop writing. But the reason isn't always one of your own. The mind is not invulnerable, and it can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/i-see-no-reason-to-stop-writing-but-the-reason-isn-t-always-one-of/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [If you start thinking about the kids being born now, for them the computer is ancient history. So one imagines that when children think…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/if-you-start-thinking-about-the-kids-being-born-now-for-them-the/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [“Black holes are the seductive dragons of the universe, outwardly quiescent yet violent at the heart, uncanny, hostile, primeval, emitting a negative radiance that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/black-holes-are-the-seductive-dragons-of-the-universe-outwardly/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [“I nearly drownded on the Big River back home, but I didn't. Instead, I come to love the river, though the river never loved…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/i-nearly-drownded-on-the-big-river-back-home-but-i-didn-t-instead-i/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [There's no need to inundate the world with books and language. It's just too full already. There's so much rubbish hiding in the world.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/there-s-no-need-to-inundate-the-world-with-books-and-language-it-s/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [“Oh, he shouldn't be surprised, he's a Marxist and has nothing but contempt for the bourgeois capitalist press, yet paradoxically he is also somehow…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/oh-he-shouldn-t-be-surprised-he-s-a-marxist-and-has-nothing-but/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [“Why we write. Because art blows life into the lifeless, death into the deathless. Because art's lie is preferable, in truth, to life's beautiful…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/why-we-write-because-art-blows-life-into-the-lifeless-death-into-the/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [What I saw quite clearly in the '80s, before the internet, was that the whole world was shifting toward digital formats, and that didn't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/what-i-saw-quite-clearly-in-the-80s-before-the-internet-was-that-the/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [People, fearing their own extinction, are willing to accept and perpetuate hand-me-down answers to the meaning of life and death; and, fearing a weakening…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/people-fearing-their-own-extinction-are-willing-to-accept-and/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [“No matter how much sunlight and fresh air she lets in, there’s always this dark little pocket of lingering night which she has to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/no-matter-how-much-sunlight-and-fresh-air-she-lets-in-there-s-always/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [We need myths to get by. We need story; otherwise the tremendous randomness of experience overwhelms us. Story is what penetrates.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/we-need-myths-to-get-by-we-need-story-otherwise-the-tremendous/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) > [“...'Well, I think of you as a straight shooter, Sheriff, but one who can't stop lustin' after the goddamn ineffable.' "She said that, hunh?"…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/well-i-think-of-you-as-a-straight-shooter-sheriff-but-one-who-can-t/) [Robert Coover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) [Explore all 24 Robert Coover quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/) ## More Generation quotes > [If every nation gets the government it deserves, every generation writes the history which corresponds with its view of the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-janeway/if-every-nation-gets-the-government-it-deserves-every-generation/) [Elizabeth Janeway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-janeway/) > [“More than anything, Boomer influence is a story of sheer numbers. As of the early 1980s, when the Boomer revolution really kicked off, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bruce-cannon-gibney/more-than-anything-boomer-influence-is-a-story-of-sheer-numbers-as-of/) [Bruce Cannon Gibney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bruce-cannon-gibney/) > [We live in such a special time when literally anything we can think of is possible](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-willey/we-live-in-such-a-special-time-when-literally-anything-we-can-think/) [Daniel Willey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-willey/) > [We are living in a WTF generation (W)ikipedia (T)witter (F)acebook!..](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/we-are-living-in-a-wtf-generation-w-ikipedia-t-witter-f-acebook/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Progress is the injustice each generation commits with regard to its predecessors.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/progress-is-the-injustice-each-generation-commits-with-regard-to-its/) [Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/) > [We are the WTF generation: Wikipedia, Twitter and Facebook.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/we-are-the-wtf-generation-wikipedia-twitter-and-facebook/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I'm not of this generation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-manson/i-m-not-of-this-generation/) [Charles Manson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-manson/) > [Phil is of a generation that probably would have been happier never getting married. He just doesn't want to get married again; it's not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeanie-buss/phil-is-of-a-generation-that-probably-would-have-been-happier-never/) [Jeanie Buss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeanie-buss/) > [In the long period of time when I did talk shows and game shows, a whole new generation of people came along who thought…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/orson-bean/in-the-long-period-of-time-when-i-did-talk-shows-and-game-shows-a/) [Orson Bean](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/orson-bean/) > [If we turn our backs on the remaining industries and not reinvest in these places and just say 'You're on your own,' we will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-fetterman/if-we-turn-our-backs-on-the-remaining-industries-and-not-reinvest-in/) [John Fetterman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-fetterman/) > [I liked the generation of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, who I admired. I was a little bit jealous of Karel Poborsky who played…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pavel-nedved/i-liked-the-generation-of-paul-scholes-and-ryan-giggs-who-i-admired-i/) [Pavel Nedved](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pavel-nedved/) > [I look forward to the day that a lot of the folks that you all talk about and cover on this network will begin…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/i-look-forward-to-the-day-that-a-lot-of-the-folks-that-you-all-talk/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Plainly, when perfusate from an organ or blood from an animal is used for superfusion, substances can reach the assay tissues within a few…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-vane/plainly-when-perfusate-from-an-organ-or-blood-from-an-animal-is-used/) [John Vane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-vane/) > [There's a whole generation of women who never really heard the word investment before, when it came to fashion. They've been buying things because…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-kors/there-s-a-whole-generation-of-women-who-never-really-heard-the-word/) [Michael Kors](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-kors/) > [Every generation tries to put its doctrine on a high shelf where the children can not reach it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-rauschenbusch/every-generation-tries-to-put-its-doctrine-on-a-high-shelf-where-the/) [Walter Rauschenbusch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-rauschenbusch/) [Browse all 3,076 Generation quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/generation/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Some ways of naming a generation are fruitful and some are not. Postmodernism is not. It doesn't really say anything.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Robert Coover" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fruitful-and-some-are-not/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Generation" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fruitful-and-some-are-not/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e12/robert-coover-23200_generations_some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fru_931641.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e12/robert-coover-23200_generations_some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fru_931641.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e12/robert-coover-23200_generations_some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fru_931641.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Some ways of naming a generation are fruitful and some are not. Postmodernism is not. It doesn't really say…” — Robert Coover", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Robert Coover", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-coover/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Some ways of naming a generation...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fruitful-and-some-are-not/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-coover/some-ways-of-naming-a-generation-are-fruitful-and-some-are-not/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```