I. Hassan, Modern vs. Postmodern.
Hassan's comparative catalog of modern vs. postmodern characteristics contributes to an understanding of the entire list of Commandments. We link it to Commandment IV to highlight its usefulness in understanding difference. We might call difference the RESULT of Commandments I and II: if we elevate language/text to prime place and disavow grand narratives to explain everything, difference results. But, of course, we can also think of this relationship of commandments in reverse. That is, if we situate difference at the heart of the matter, the qualities of language/text and the dethronement of grand narratives result. We thus reveal the dependency and interrelationship of the commandments upon one another. Similarly, Hasssan's lists of characteristics give us bits of insight one by one. These bits, lined up in a list, when contemplated, begin to bleed into one another. When looking over the Hassan lists, it helps to imagine how characteristic A and characteristic B overlap. The power of this exercise is increased greatly by Hassan's parallel listing of contrasting modern and postmodern characteristics.
Bertens, Hans. The Idea of the Postmodern: A History. New York: Routledge, 1995.
This general history encompasses a wide range of writers and concepts, but Bertens is especially helpful in highlighting the postmodern dictate to focus on the interstices and to abandon the conviction that one has the "ability to represent the real, in the widest sense." (p. 11)
Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. and foreword by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Press, 1987.
The postmodern rejects the totalization and universalization of our understanding of our world: difference rather than commonality holds. Deleuze and Guattari here provide us with a conceptual cornucopia for naming and placing the worlds (plural, yes) we can inhabit.
Friedrich Nietzsche. The Portable Nietzsche. Trans. by Walter Kaufmann. New York: The Viking Press, 1954.
In aphorism 164 of The Dawn, Nietzsche declares the terroristic power of an exclusive ethic. He affirms "the deviants" as life-giving experimenters. This early Nietzschean note resonates in the idea of "difference" that emerged in full-blown postmodernism in the French writers and in all those who declared against hegemonic, totalistic systems.