Due to the diversity and the vast amount of time in our history that makes up modernism it has become hard to define and easy to question. While there might be a tenuous link amongst things created during this period of our history it is easy to debate these links and if they truly are principles that make up modernism. The rejection of tradition and history is the principle that I have talked about that I find the most questionable. Vargish and Mook write in their book Inside Modernism,

We do not imply that cubist painting is devoid of political or historical or social     content. In Picasso’s work, for example, allusions to earlier painting, to religion, to     myth, to personalities, to political and social events are widely evident. (Mook, D. & Vargish, T., 1999 p.66)

So if in one of modernism’s greatest movements there is not a break from the traditional or historical then how can it be said that the rejection of these things is a principle of modernism. The techniques of cubism which often features flat geometric shapes can be categorized under other principles of modernism such as the truth and observance of form follows function. So the rejection of what is historical or traditional is not needed as a principle to define modernism.
When beginning to question this principle one is then able to question if the typographic images in Lewis Carroll’s book can be considered evidence of modernism. Especially when the technique in question has be previously used by the likes of the Greek poet Simias of Rhodes (c. 33 B.C.). (Meggs, P & Purvis, A. 2006) Though yes Lewis Carroll further developed the idea it still can be questioned due to exact reference and pull from the traditional idea.

Another aspect of this principle is that of the development of abstraction. Which is a break from the traditional methods of painting and art. Where reality and what is seen as natural is taken and looked at in a new and different way that appears abstract. Mook and Vargish briefly mention reality and nature,

Realism is itself a product of the imagination; for human beings there can be no single privileged reality because all perception of nature is inescapably subjective. There is thus no privileged norm or reality to depart from, and so what we had called ‘distortions’ [abstraction] are the marks of individual artistic perception and representation, or ‘style.’ (Mook, D. & Vargish, T., 1999 p. 63)

From this explanation of the human factor, which in science is used as a method of error, one understands that there is not a way to break away from what is real or natural. This is because there is no way to know for sure if what we see is the same as another and to determine which of our view points is factual and thusly reality.

Bibliography

Books:
Meggs, P & Purvis, A. (2006), Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. 4th ed. New Jersey:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Mook, D. & Vargish, T. (1999), Inside Modernism: Relativity Theory, Cubism, Narrative.
Yale University Press

The principles of modernism that I have pointed out are a rejection of the historical or traditional and the self-consciousness of form and its function. The first principle can be supported by a development during the futurist movement within modernism. In Meggs’ History of Graphic Design under the section The Modernist Era by Meggs, P. & Purvis, A. (2006) an article by Filippo Marinetti for the newspaper Le Figaro in 1913 is mentioned and that it called for a typographic revolution against the classical tradition.  Meggs (2006) continues from this point that a painterly typographic design was born from this called parole in libertá or ‘words in freedom’ which was the start of using multiple ink colors and many typefaces. Finally, Meggs (2006) mentions a futurist concept which is that writing could be an expressive visual form and thusly becoming concrete.
The placement of words into images had been done rarely before but only in the images of religious symbols. The futurist followed the burgeoning principles of modernism and rejecting this tradition and the enlightenment and began randomly placing text on pages. As well as forming common images on the page as is seen in the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Thusly the rejection of history and past tradition was rejected or recreated into an abstract and representational method.
In the book Modernism in Design by Greenhalgh (1990) it is mentioned that the question of morality and being truthful as a principle of modernism and is explained how truth became an aesthetic quality. Greenhalgh writes,

Within the terms of the construction and appearance of objects, truth meant the avoidance of contrivances which created an illusion or false impression. The designer had to avoid ‘formalistic imitation and snobbery’ which often ‘distorted the fundamental truth’. (Greenhalgh, 1990 p.9)

Though it is not said in the same words Greenhalgh is also talking about the self-consciousness principle of modernism. The awareness of form and function during this time period was of great importance and as Greenhalgh states it was to get to being truthful within ones work.

Bibliography

Books:
Greenhalgh, P. (1990), Modernism In Design. London: Reaktion Books Ltd
Meggs, P & Purvis, A. (2006), Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. 4th ed. New Jersey:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc