Wednesday, February 22, 2012
transpondster: And make no mistake: irony tyrannizes us. The reason why our pervasive cultural irony is at once so powerful and so unsatisfying is that an ironist is impossible to pin down. All U.S. irony is based on an implicit “I don’t really mean what I’m saying.” So what does irony as a cultural norm mean to say? That it’s impossible to mean what you say? That maybe it’s too bad it’s impossible, but wake up and smell the coffee already? Most likely, I think, today’s irony ends up saying: “How totally banal of you to ask what I really mean.” David Foster Wallace, (b Feb 21, 1962, d 2008), from “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction”

transpondster:

And make no mistake: irony tyrannizes us. The reason why our pervasive cultural irony is at once so powerful and so unsatisfying is that an ironist is impossible to pin down. All U.S. irony is based on an implicit “I don’t really mean what I’m saying.” So what does irony as a cultural norm mean to say? That it’s impossible to mean what you say? That maybe it’s too bad it’s impossible, but wake up and smell the coffee already? Most likely, I think, today’s irony ends up saying: “How totally banal of you to ask what I really mean.”

  • David Foster Wallace, (b Feb 21, 1962, d 2008), from “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction”
Posted at 11:42 PM 34 notes Reblogged from transpondster

Notes

  1. loonshine reblogged this from transpondster
  2. astronette-silhouette reblogged this from litterature
  3. litterature reblogged this from bostonreview
  4. infamoushero reblogged this from osito-panda
  5. poetfire reblogged this from bostonreview
  6. perhapsmaybeisuppose reblogged this from mattachinereview
  7. saveittilthemorningafter reblogged this from bostonreview
  8. showyousometacos reblogged this from osito-panda
  9. lizdrahman reblogged this from bostonreview
  10. thebookreporter reblogged this from bostonreview
  11. ampahsand reblogged this from losertakesall
  12. mymissus reblogged this from losertakesall and added:
    Another interesting thought to add to this would be the verbal tick trend of the past, say, 20 years of adding “like” or...
  13. jordanivy reblogged this from osito-panda
  14. osito-panda reblogged this from bostonreview
  15. losertakesall reblogged this from bostonreview
  16. deadsince9thgrade reblogged this from mattachinereview and added:
    I have never read David Foster Wallace, but I think I want to now. I have ended up in depressive fits because of the...
  17. bostonreview reblogged this from mattachinereview
  18. mattachinereview reblogged this from transpondster
  19. introspectivenavelgazer reblogged this from transpondster
  20. transpondster posted this