Hi! This website exists mainly to provide supplemental resources to people who already have the book, but if you do not own it yet, immediately below are some endorsements which will give you an idea of what it's about. To learn more about the book and possibly purchase it, follow this link to the Amazon page.

In Say Hello to Metamodernism!, Greg Dember investigates a noticeable shift in pop culture, beginning in the early 2000s, a move from postmodern wryness to something... else. Earnest, yet ironic; mythic, yet tiny. By distilling potentially opaque concepts into accessible prose through examples spanning cult films like Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know and blockbuster musical acts like Billie Eilish, Dember offers a fun and fascinating primer for our cultural moment. - Maren Haynes Marchesini, PhD, Director of Worship & Music at Hope Lutheran Church in Bozeman, Montana

Greg Dember has long struck me as one of the most perceptive and eloquent critics of contemporary culture. To see his observations and ideas come together in book form to theorize its most prevalent logic, metamodernism, is an exciting event. I doubt you'll find a more cohesive popular introduction to the films you've been seeing, the music you've listened to and the books that you've pretended at parties to have read, and the figures and sensibilities which unite them, than this. Or, indeed, a more fun one, for this book, packed with original insights and thoughts, is a joy from beginning to end. A superb achievement. - Timotheus Vermeulen, PhD, Professor of Media, Culture and Society at the University of Oslo, Co-editor of Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect and Depth After Postmodernism

In Say Hello to Metamodernism Greg Dember uncovers the contours of that 'new thing' we can feel in movies, music, TV, and philosophy but haven't quite been able to name. Understanding metamodernism is essential for understanding what's really going on under the skin of some of our time's most influential media, and Dember by introducing us, gives us a better and clearer understanding of our current cultural moment. - Thomas Flight, Youtube Influencer, Video Essayist on Film and Television

Combining personal reflection, historical research, and pop culture analysis, Greg Dember's Say Hello to Metamodernism illuminates how our current cultural moment has been shaped by metamodernism's drive for authentic human expression that resists both the saccharine and the cynical. The result is a book that is as invested in providing a groundwork for thinking about cultural history, as it is committed to offering an ambitious defense of the intellectual and emotional worth of feeling things strongly. - Arielle Bernstein, MFA, Senior Professorial Lecturer in Literature, American University

This is a transcription of part of an interview that we conducted with Tope Folarin, author of the novel A Particular Kind of Black Man. Excerpts from this interview are used in the treatment of Folarin's novel in Chapter Seven of Say Hello to Metamodernism!

Tope is of special interest because he has pursued his own research into metamodernism and indicated that the concept informs his work.

How did you come across the concept of metamodernism?

I think like a lot of people I did some theory work in college and was aware of, you know, modernism and post modernism. And in addition to that, I was and still am obsessed with the art of the early 20th century. I was always drawn to the modern art wing of the museums I visited, and spent a lot of time there. These artists who were trying to "make it new," were trying to reckon with everything that was happening in the early 20th century. So, I suspect that part of it is that I'm interested in having a similar conversation at this same juncture in the 21st century, and what is our responsibility to future generations as well? Just thinking through that: what happens afterwards, at least in visual art history and also in literature? And thinking that a lot of the ideas and concepts that we've inherited, like this sort of ironic posture, this certain kind of criticism, the distrust of grand narratives, this sense of inevitability about the oncoming apocalypse or whatever. All of these modes of thinking that we inherited from postmodernism seemed insufficient at this moment.

Like, obviously, we're facing what many have described as a polycrisis -- the environment, democracy, all kinds of things collapsing our heads. And I think as an older millennial, that, yes, a kind of reckoning with the status quo and not-deluding-ourselves is necessary, but I think we also need hope. And, I've always been a rather sincere person. I remember quite vividly in college thinking that that wasn't cool and wasn't acceptable. And I thought, "well, I guess I can't be sincere, I suppose." And so I think it was just me hunting around on the web when I came across the "Notes On Metamodernism" essay and I thought, wow, it's incredible. There are people who are thinking through some of the same issues that I'm reckoning with. And that's when I went down any number of rabbit holes. And it shaped my work in all kinds of ways as well.

Can you say more about how it shaped your work?

I think it provided a pathway for me to do the kind of art that I wanted to do. And there's certainly a moment as well, like, you know, Michel Gondry, and Spike Jonze are doing films around this moment, Charlie Kaufman as well, was also doing stuff. I was reading the emerging theoretical work around metamodernism, and watching these films and engaging with artists like Miranda July. So metamodernism, I think, with its talk of oscillations between extreme postures we've had throughout the 20th century kind of said: it's okay to kind of be both ironic and sincere; it's okay to kind of be dismissive of grand narratives, but also pining for grand narratives, that sort of thing. Trying to develop and craft a new way of rendering self on the page, it was helpful for me to engage with some of these ideas.

And one thing I'll say is that, especially in the publishing world, there's an expectation that someone like me will produce a certain kind of narrative. And it's something that I've faced for a long time. I kind of inhabit a weird space because I was born and raised in this country, but my folks are from Nigeria. And I won a literary award for African writing. So I was placed as the African writer for a time and then after I won that award there were a bunch of agents who reached out and I was working in this different mode. I mean even the literature I read doesn't conform to any one type of school of thought. And the agents wanted a novel about, say, African war, or about police brutality, or whatever, or about slavery. And I think these are all incredibly important topics. And I'm so glad that many of my very close friends were also writers working in these realms and are producing incredible work. But that's never been my personal area of interest. I've always been interested in shaping the future to the extent that I can and to join a group of artists who were also interested in the same. Metamodernism gave me the courage to pursue my own artistic vision, unsullied by the demands of the market.

The book seems to center the stories of the main character Tunde's parents -- his biological mother and father and his step-mother -- almost as much as his own. How similar or how different are the trajectories of the parental figures in the book compared to your actual parents?

The first part of the book is, I'd say, kind of explicitly autobiographical, because I didn't know if I was writing a memoir or novel at first, and I was just, like, writing. And as I continued to write, I figured, okay, this is diverging from my life in interesting ways. And I think that's when I figured out I was writing a novel. But so my biological mom did get sick, and she is in Nigeria now. And then my dad remarried, and my stepmother was in my life from I guess, when I turned nine or so. And in the book, she leaves; in reality that didn't happen. So my stepmom is still around. I just saw her.

I know you also write literary criticism. Have you ever explicitly used metamodernism as a theoretical lens in your criticism?

I haven't. And I thought about that, when I first reached out to you. It's weird since this has been such a major influence for me. Part of it is that editors at the places I write, they like to nix stuff. I wrote a piece that drew very close to it. One of my first pieces of criticism, I guess, I wrote back in 2019, in Lithub -- it's called "Tope Folarin on the Misguided Urge to Carve the World Into Binaries." A lot of the ideas in that are deeply influenced by my sojourn with metamodernism, though I don't use the term and I say "both/and" instead of "both/neither," but it was very much trying to talk about this moment in history and what art can contribute and tell us about this moment. So I think, you know, it's funny, I'm working on a new piece of criticism now. I suspect I will slip it in at some point, you know, I think it's important to to do that.

Is there anything else you want to add?
I think this is a really incredibly important moment. And I think that's part of what metamodernism is tracking and accounting for -- how artists are attempting to respond to this moment. And I certainly see that as one of my responsibilities as an artist. I'm not gonna write the protest novel, because I don't find that interesting, but, you know, questions about how to be human, and how to reckon with all the stuff that's happening, how to maintain a posture of hope, amidst all the insanity; all of that, I think, is important.

Interview © Tope Folarin and Greg Dember, 2024