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By Root 985 0

is indeed a postmodern slogan, then it eschews becoming a grand and definitive recipe for success or happiness. There’s not much of that around, after all, as Yorke sings on “Optimistic” about “flies buzzing ’round my head, vultures circling the dead, picking up every last crumb, the big fish eat the little ones, the big fish eat the little ones, not my problem, give me some.” Later in the song Yorke croons, “this one drops a pay-load, fodder for the animals, living on animal farm.” This reference no doubt alludes to George Orwell’s political allegory, Animal Farm, which compares the labor of animals on a farm, managed by a well-intentioned farmer, to modern capitalism. Lamenting this situation, where the strong exploit (and possibly eat) the weak, Yorke empathetically sings, “I’d really like to help you man.” But it seems he can’t do much “floating around on a prison ship” except try the best he can.

Not everything’s in its right place at this point. In the social structure depicted by Yorke, something is terribly wrong. Characteristically, Radiohead want to disturb us, not comfort us, by joining Lyotard in a challenge to think about suffering in a postmodern sense. This means, for example, believing that most of the suffering in the world can be alleviated by changing our narrative structures on a micro-political level; by saying from one person to another, “I’d really like to help you man.” This is an ironic optimism, not a simple-minded moral prescription from feel-good new age gurus who think optimism will magically transform an animal-farm society. But, in the midst of a social system that alienates people from one another, one can find temporary solace on a local or micro-political level. Through the unexpected optimism of a friend or loved one, the animal farm can become bearable. Even if the meta-narratives that have so far held society together are antiquated but still dominant (like the “Dinosaurs roaming the earth” at the end of the song), we can still keep our wits by caring for those around us in a local, interpersonal way. Postmodern optimism must be ironic as well as cautious. As Lyotard asks in The Differend, “What assurance is there that humans will become more cultivated than they are?” (p. 181). None, but you can be optimistic.

You’re Living in a Fantasy World

The postmodernism lurking in Kid A is not articulated only by Lyotard. The last four songs of the album, “In Limbo,” “Idioteque,” “Morning Bell,” and “Motion Picture Soundtrack,” connect to the writings of another French postmodern thinker, Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007). With “In Limbo,” for example, we take a step from Lyotard toward Baudrillard by being immersed in distorted vocals, layers of sounds and effects that again point to Lyotard’s conception of a postmodern message without an addressee, “I got a message I can’t read.” The song’s chorus declares, “You’re living in a fantasy world,” and repeats this a number of times. According to Jean Baudrillard, capitalist society is saturated by fantasies and, specifically, representations. These representations of things have so much power that it’s impossible to distinguish between reality and these many representations of it. Baudrillard uses the terms “simulacrum” and “hyperreality” to articulate this understanding. We are now, he says, in a new historical era based on simulation in which computerization, information processing, media, and the organization of society according to simulation codes and models replace production as the organizing principle of society. He tells us: “Information dissolves meaning and the social into a sort of nebulous state leading not at all to a surfeit of innovation but to the very contrary, to total entropy.”72 To, that is, a kind of limbo.

According to Baudrillard, technological communication systems and networks are not marks of human advancement or progress, but rather of a stasis in human development. We’re stuck in an information and entertainment glut where messages are sent but not necessarily understood and fantasy and reality are routinely confused.