Post-Modernism :)

Post-Modernism, or the dicussion of it, is one of those things that boggles my mine so much that it makes me want to take a really long hot shower, drink some hot chocolate, pop in a classic movie and put my head down. So while I finish my hot chocolate and The Killers is on the main DVD menu, let's talk about post-modernism.
The book askes the question is Post-modernism a reaction or a progresssion.
What's the diffrence?
In terms of art, art like every "movement" is a reaction to what came before it. So one could think of Van Gogh's Peasant Shoes as a "painting of something", definate, there, you see it and you know what it is, the title of the painting tells you what it is. Though it is a fine painting, there's not much mystery to it. Then look at Andy Warhol's Diamond Dust Shoes. Yes, it's shoes but the shoes are not neatly laid out like in the deparment store, there are shadows and ambiguity there that, unlike the Van Gogh painting, the title can't tell you. Even though you see very clearly what is, you're not sure what it is, what it's supposed to be.
Is it a progression? maybe, it's ripping away the structure and familiarity and giving you something comepletely new to experince (for better or worse) and opening up form. Certainly, this is a progression of Van Gogh's more solid effort but it's it also a reaction to that solid effort? or at least didn't it start out there?
Switch to another example, think about the wacky yet extremely violent works of Quentin Tarantino versus the more solid James Bond movies.
James Bond is the "modern" example here. He is cool under fire, handsome, always gets the lady, rich, full of gadgets and so forth. While the "heroes" of Quentin Tarantino films are the oppiside tbey aren't always attractive-physically and otherwise, their exceedingly violent, poltically incorrect, and seem to toss the rules of film (like telling the story in a linear-style) but also they seem to mix thigs that shouldn't be in an action/gangster/violent film, most notably the comedy.
Is Tarantino a progression? Possibly, it's getting away from the slickness of Bond films but it's also a reaction to those films by making them less "glamourized".
In conclusion, you can't have post-modernism without modernism first. What may be viewed by those who are "in" on the joke as a progression, a breaking away from the norm, but it can't be that way without first reacting to what's currently there.