It’s not that there’s nothing to the critique of excessive irony; irony certainly can be a deadening, depoliticizing pose that inhibits a kind of sincere commitment among citizens that democratic politics relies on. And while the two are distinct problems, there’s a potential connection between excessive irony and both sides do it-ism, although such a stance can also be arrived at via a certain kind of banal excessive sincerity. Irony can, of course, have democratic value as well, but it’s depoliticizing potential isn’t an unreasonable target.And
If you’re wondering how she arrived at the conclusion that an appreciation of kitsch aesthetics and a particular sense of humor means there’s nothing else whatsoever to your life, I’m afraid you won’t find much guidance in the preceding paragraphs. What she offers here is a sophisticated version of a particularly toxic high school mentality–how other people dress, their aesthetic tastes, their style of humor, and so on offer a deep insight into what’s wrong with them.Which pretty much perfectly sums up my feelings about it. There are problems with approaching everything through a shield of irony if that's your only way of interacting with the world, but this article is just generic hipster-bashing, with all the lazy stupidity that expression entails. "Hipster" is a meaningless word at this point, although I don't know if it ever had a meaning to begin with. It's become a catch-all for anyone a particular writer or speaker dislikes, if it was ever anything else to begin with.
Born in 1977, at the tail end of Generation X, I came of age in the 1990s, a decade that, bracketed neatly by two architectural crumblings — of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the Twin Towers in 2001 — now seems relatively irony-free. The grunge movement was serious in its aesthetics and its attitude, with a combative stance against authority, which the punk movement had also embraced. In my perhaps over-nostalgic memory, feminism reached an unprecedented peak, environmentalist concerns gained widespread attention, questions of race were more openly addressed: all of these stirrings contained within them the same electricity and euphoria touching generations that witness a centennial or millennial changeover.translated: Kids these days just don't value the things I did in the manner I did, which, by virtue of us valuing them in a certain manner, have shown themselves to be the most important ever, which we of course valued appropriately.
Irony requires a shared knowledge of what is true
Hence, the bizarre popularity on college campuses today of television reruns of "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch." The latter, a cloying, gooily sentimental sitcom from the early 1970's, has even spawned a stage show called "The Real Live Brady Bunch" (in which actors perform the original television scripts) that has enjoyed long runs in several cities and a book called "Growing Up Brady" (a Harper Perennial book by Barry Williams, who played Greg on the original television show) that has been on the New York Times paperback best-seller list for 12 weeks.posted by Miko at 7:20 AM on November 19, 2012
Other 70's phenomena that you thought -- or wished -- were dead and gone forever have also staged comebacks. The musical groups the B-52's and Deee-lite affect the kitschy leopard skin and leather outfits of the 70's while singing about hot pants and U.F.O.'s. And comedians like Barry Sobel use "The Brady Bunch," "The Flintstones" and "Hollywood Squares" as touchstones for their acts. Discos and leisure suits are enjoying a renaissance in Los Angeles; Karen Carpenter theme parties and lava lamp parties have become a college fad, and platform shoes and fishnet stockings have resurfaced on fashion designers' runways.
Is Our Retro Obsession Ruining Everything?, Lisa Hix, Collectors Weekly, 19 November 2012
In his seventh book “Retromania,” British-born rock critic and music memorabilia collector Simon Reynolds asserts that there’s never “been a society so obsessed with the cultural artifacts of its own immediate past” as ours. Of course, collectors have always been fascinated with antiques and objects from history. But now web archives like YouTube, Wikipedia, and Tumblr have made it possible for anyone to get lost reliving the pop culture landscape of their childhood. At the same time, smartphone apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic let us turn any new photo into a faded Polaroid relic from the ’70s or ’80s. Reynolds, who’s been a music journalist for 28 years now, is alarmed that modern musicians are obsessed with period re-creation and applying the sonic equivalent of Instagram filters to their albums rather than creating anything new.posted by ob1quixote at 1:59 PM on November 20, 2012
It's obviously difficult—and arguably impossible—to define the ethos of an age. But that doesn't excuse Christy Wampole for missing the mark so dramatically. She let her distaste of hipsters—of which she makes no secret—blind her to the larger culture in which they exist. Those hipsters, with their funny facial hair and too-tight T-shirts, will grow out of the hipster phase and realize that their stable upbringing, college education, and life-long consumption of popular culture informed by the New Sincerity has made them well-adjusted and productive members of society. Maybe they'll even join us in scrutinizing the behavior of the next generation of hipsters. As for that next generation, I know that there's a good chance its members could shift back toward the ironic detachment that Wampole thinks she sees today. But let's at least recognize and enjoy this New Sincerity moment while it lasts.posted by flex at 9:07 AM on November 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
First, what the history of technology might have taught Wampole: The ascription of social values on the basis of material possessions is inadvisable at best. Historians of technology (and cultural historians) have long known that even a mass-produced object (“the fixed gear bicycle, the portable record player”) has multiple and layered meanings for those who choose to purchase it, or to whom life circumstances have brought that object. Why assume as Wampole does that any vintage mug purchased from a thrift store as a gift reflects its buyer’s insincerity and “existential malaise,” rather than a knowledgeable appreciation for the history of industrial design? For the varieties of vernacular expression in a capitalist culture?posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:45 PM on December 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
I’m sure you’ve seen such pieces before: Paeans to honest dealing, encomia to loving the ones you’re with, to turning off your cellphone when you go a-mapling in Vermont. No sound is sweeter than the bark of a fox on a chilly morning while you drink that cup of Earl Grey, peering out of your bay window, etc.posted by the man of twists and turns at 4:43 AM on December 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
I’ve heard foxes bark. What interests me more is why people keep writing these things. I’m subscribed to this mailing list, the Listserve, where once a day a person is selected at random to write whatever they want and send it to the rest of the list, its membership now numbering in the tens of thousands. And nearly every one of these emails ends up with someone telling a bunch of strangers to live, dammit. To love openly and dance like no one’s watching.
I’ve come to resent the Listserve. What’s with this innate assumption that everyone is living in some repressed nightmare? This urge to punish a mass of strangers with bromides that would test the patience even of the editor-in-chief of a fridge magnet company? From whence comes this desperate human urge to advise?
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posted by oddman at 9:39 PM on November 18, 2012 [4 favorites]