---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Am I a nihilistic postmodernist or a New…"
description: "\"“Am I a nihilistic postmodernist or a New Ager in academig drag?”\" — Timothy Morton"
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a3/timothy-morton-4240_modernism_am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new_1691470.png"
---

#  Am I a nihilistic postmodernist or a New Ager in academig…

![“Am I a nihilistic postmodernist or a New Ager in academig drag?” quote by Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a3/timothy-morton-4240_modernism_am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new_1691470.png)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a3/timothy-morton-4240_modernism_am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new_1691470.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a3/timothy-morton-4240_modernism_am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new_1691470.png)

> ““Am I a nihilistic postmodernist or a New Ager in academig drag?””

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

The speaker questions their own philosophical identity, reflecting uncertainty between nihilism, postmodernism, and New Age beliefs.

**In simple terms:** Unsure of personal philosophical stance.

Key Takeaway

Explore and clarify your worldview.

Themes

identity philosophy uncertainty modernity spirituality

Mood

introspective conflicted inquisitive

Type

philosophical personal

When to use this quote

- personal reflection
- academic discourse
- spiritual practice

Key Concepts

self‑definition ideological conflict cultural critique

Questions to Reflect On

- How do you define your core beliefs?
- Can multiple philosophies coexist within you?

A Different Perspective

Labels may limit nuanced thinking.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

[Modernism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modernism/) [Nihilistic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nihilistic/)

## Related quotes

> [I question: do we really understand the differences between modernist and postmodernist?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kathy-acker/i-question-do-we-really-understand-the-differences-between-modernist/)

[Kathy Acker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kathy-acker/)

> [Some of us, I think, us small, pompous arty ones probably read too much George Steiner and kind of got the idea that we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-bowie/some-of-us-i-think-us-small-pompous-arty-ones-probably-read-too-much/)

[David Bowie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-bowie/)

> [“Hell hath no fury like a coolly received postmodernist.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-coolly-received-postmodernist/)

[David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/)

> [Why should we expect modernist taste to be any smarter than premodernist or postmodernist?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hughes/why-should-we-expect-modernist-taste-to-be-any-smarter-than/)

[Robert Hughes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hughes/)

> [I try to teach a modernist and postmodernist position. On one hand, if you're a painter, you need to know the history of painting.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-tasset/i-try-to-teach-a-modernist-and-postmodernist-position-on-one-hand-if/)

Tony Tasset

> [The postmodernist critique of representation undermines the referential status of visual imagery, its claim to represent reality as it really is - either the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/craig-owens/the-postmodernist-critique-of-representation-undermines-the/)

[Craig Owens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/craig-owens/)

> [“He was a bad painter and a vicious gossip, with a vocabulary composed almost entirely of obscenities, guttural verbs, and the word “postmodernist.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-tartt/he-was-a-bad-painter-and-a-vicious-gossip-with-a-vocabulary-composed/)

[Donna Tartt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-tartt/)

> [“Consider three more examples, this time of clashes between postmodernist theory and historical fact. Postmodernists say that the West is deeply racist, but they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-r-c-hicks/consider-three-more-examples-this-time-of-clashes-between/)

[Stephen R.C. Hicks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-r-c-hicks/)

> [“Richard Papen: As it happened, I knew Gartrell. He was a bad painter and a vicious gossip, with a vocabulary composed almost entirely of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-tartt/richard-papen-as-it-happened-i-knew-gartrell-he-was-a-bad-painter-and/)

[Donna Tartt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-tartt/)

> [“The idealist hopes. The romantic sees doom. The postmodernist sees doom and hopes.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bauvard/the-idealist-hopes-the-romantic-sees-doom-the-postmodernist-sees-doom/)

[Bauvard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bauvard/)

> [“Postmodernism's specifically academic appeal comes from its being another in the sequence of all-purpose "unmasking" strategies that offer a way to criticize the intellectual…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-nagel/postmodernism-s-specifically-academic-appeal-comes-from-its-being/)

[Thomas Nagel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-nagel/)

> [Through reproductive technology, postmodernist art dispenses with the aura. The fiction of the creating subject gives way to a frank confiscation, quotation, excerptation, accumulation,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-crimp/through-reproductive-technology-postmodernist-art-dispenses-with-the/)

[Douglas Crimp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-crimp/)

> [In a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles... Contemporary or postmodernist art...…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fredric-jameson/in-a-world-in-which-stylistic-innovation-is-no-longer-possible-all/)

[Fredric Jameson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fredric-jameson/)

> [I used to teach at Yale, which was at one time a center of postmodernist literary theory. Derrida was there. Paul de Man was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/harry-frankfurt/i-used-to-teach-at-yale-which-was-at-one-time-a-center-of/)

[Harry Frankfurt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/harry-frankfurt/)

> [“The postmodernist belief in the relativism of truth, coupled with the clicker culture of mass media, in which attention spans are measured in New…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/the-postmodernist-belief-in-the-relativism-of-truth-coupled-with-the/)

[Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/)

## More by Timothy Morton

> [Psychologism holds that logical assertions are percolations of brains. Thus logic is a set of rules for how healthy brains operate. Aside from the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/psychologism-holds-that-logical-assertions-are-percolations-of-brains/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> ['Free speech' isn't speech at all if it's being used without listening, attention, or care.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/free-speech-isn-t-speech-at-all-if-it-s-being-used-without-listening/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [It's easier to be Eric Idle than to be Paul McCartney.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/it-s-easier-to-be-eric-idle-than-to-be-paul-mccartney/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [A weird thing is a strange loop, what some of us call 'an object.' Thus it is looked down on by the constructivist spokespeople…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/a-weird-thing-is-a-strange-loop-what-some-of-us-call-an-object-thus/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [After a lifetime of listening to every Floyd album pretty much all the time - they're etched - 'Animals' is the one I can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/after-a-lifetime-of-listening-to-every-floyd-album-pretty-much-all/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [“Wholes subscend their parts, which means that parts are not just mechanical components of wholes, and that there can be genuine surprise and novelty…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/wholes-subscend-their-parts-which-means-that-parts-are-not-just/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [Unfortunately, of course, guilt is an artifact of agricultural-age religion and is designed specifically to prevent humans from thinking and operating on a collective…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/unfortunately-of-course-guilt-is-an-artifact-of-agricultural-age/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [Always say less than you think you need. Inject some space into the conversation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/always-say-less-than-you-think-you-need-inject-some-space-into-the/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [In the end, a lifeform is always a hybrid, a being endowed with some X-power such as being able to breathe for a few…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/in-the-end-a-lifeform-is-always-a-hybrid-a-being-endowed-with-some-x/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [“I call this double truth of a thing its fragility, the inner fragility of a thing is why a thing can exist at all.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/i-call-this-double-truth-of-a-thing-its-fragility-the-inner-fragility/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [“Solidarity requires having something in common. But having something in common is exactly what culturalism sees as essentialism, and thus as reactionary primitivism. How…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/solidarity-requires-having-something-in-common-but-having-something/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [Spending some money on the you who is going to get a job is essential.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/spending-some-money-on-the-you-who-is-going-to-get-a-job-is-essential/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [I try to have little or no alcohol when I go to a big conference. Sorry to be a party pooper, but that stuff…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/i-try-to-have-little-or-no-alcohol-when-i-go-to-a-big-conference/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [I grew up in a haunting postindustrial landscape where prehistoric ferns grew among tens of railway tracks surmounted by brilliant arc lights where birds…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/i-grew-up-in-a-haunting-postindustrial-landscape-where-prehistoric/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

> [I'm the absolute worst at getting jobs, ever. I had 100 rejections before I landed one. I kept all the letters in a folder…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/i-m-the-absolute-worst-at-getting-jobs-ever-i-had-100-rejections/)

[Timothy Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

[Explore all 114 Timothy Morton quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/)

## More Modernism quotes

> [I am not the avant-garde. I am the artist who comes after the advancing guard. I am more concerned with continuity of ideas and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nathan-oliveira/i-am-not-the-avant-garde-i-am-the-artist-who-comes-after-the/)

[Nathan Oliveira](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nathan-oliveira/)

> [A 'modern' man has nothing to add to modernism, if only because he has nothing to oppose it with. The well-adapted drop off the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elias-canetti/a-modern-man-has-nothing-to-add-to-modernism-if-only-because-he-has/)

[Elias Canetti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elias-canetti/)

> [The modernist writers found despair inspirational.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mason-cooley/the-modernist-writers-found-despair-inspirational/)

[Mason Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mason-cooley/)

> [“The first phase of modernism, which so far as the English language goes we associate with Pound and Yeats, Wyndham Lewis and Eliot and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-kermode/the-first-phase-of-modernism-which-so-far-as-the-english-language/)

[Frank Kermode](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-kermode/)

> [A lot of '20s musicals were a hodgepodge of melodrama, mixed with operetta and romance, and then some sense of modernism and some sense…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-c-wolfe/a-lot-of-20s-musicals-were-a-hodgepodge-of-melodrama-mixed-with/)

[George C. Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-c-wolfe/)

> [As for critical writing about modernism, its moments of lucidity are but fulgurations illuminating the dark and incomprehensible landscape of its subject's unabashed difficulty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/will-self/as-for-critical-writing-about-modernism-its-moments-of-lucidity-are/)

[Will Self](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/will-self/)

> [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

> [“He was in that familiar state - not that the occasion mattered to seriously to him -- of incoherent ideas spreading outward without a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-musil/he-was-in-that-familiar-state-not-that-the-occasion-mattered-to/)

[Robert Musil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-musil/)

> [“One of the many innovations of modernism was the new demands it placed on the audience. Music, painting, literature, even architecture, would never again…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-watson/one-of-the-many-innovations-of-modernism-was-the-new-demands-it/)

[Peter Watson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-watson/)

> [“Being postmodern, however, is about being complicit rather than virtuous, it is about approaching categories like Good and Evil with a certain ironic skepticism.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/veronica-hollinger/being-postmodern-however-is-about-being-complicit-rather-than/)

Veronica Hollinger

> [“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/)

> [Modern paintings often seem to have been made quickly, by comparison with the paintings of earlier centuries, and that seems to give us the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-elkins/modern-paintings-often-seem-to-have-been-made-quickly-by-comparison/)

[James Elkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-elkins/)

> [Photography was seen as the enemy of all the values of late modernism... and as things turned out, it was.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mel-bochner/photography-was-seen-as-the-enemy-of-all-the-values-of-late-modernism/)

Mel Bochner

> [Private information is practically the source of every large modern fortune.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/oscar-wilde/private-information-is-practically-the-source-of-every-large-modern/)

[Oscar Wilde](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/oscar-wilde/)

> [The notion that you could discard the old world and now make a new one. This is what was so bad about Modernism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-jacobs/the-notion-that-you-could-discard-the-old-world-and-now-make-a-new/)

[Jane Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-jacobs/)

[Browse all 350 Modernism quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modernism/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Quotation",
            "text": "“Am I a nihilistic postmodernist or a New Ager in academig drag?”",
            "creator": {
                "@type": "Person",
                "name": "Timothy Morton"
            },
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new-ager-in-academig-drag/",
            "about": {
                "@type": "Thing",
                "name": "Modernism"
            },
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new-ager-in-academig-drag/#quotation",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a3/timothy-morton-4240_modernism_am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new_1691470.png",
                "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a3/timothy-morton-4240_modernism_am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new_1691470.png",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a3/timothy-morton-4240_modernism_am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new_1691470.png",
                "width": 1080,
                "height": 1080,
                "caption": "“Am I a nihilistic postmodernist or a New Ager in academig drag?” — Timothy Morton",
                "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": "Timothy Morton",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-morton/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "“Am I a nihilistic postmodernist or...",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new-ager-in-academig-drag/"
                }
            ],
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-morton/am-i-a-nihilistic-postmodernist-or-a-new-ager-in-academig-drag/#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
            }
        }
    ]
}
```