Jimmie Higgins
19th November 2012, 08:59
NY Times: How to Live Without Irony (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/how-to-live-without-irony/)
I thought this was interesting and I've often wondered about the ironic tendency in contemporary pop culture - but I think also that this article has a bit too much "these kids today" even as the author tries to cut against that view of things.
I think she's correct in drawing a parallel between 90's "apathy" and today's "irony" - I think both have an appeal in reflecting both an alienation from society while also a demoralization in views that things could be any different. I've often thought really the only difference between hippies and 90s alternative/hip-hop youth culture is the context of a lack of a civil rights movement and the movements that followed it (resluting in a sort of subjective optomism and confidence among youth for the hippies and just depression/cynacism for youth cultures since).
But in other ways, I think that this take on Irony and simialr expressions is a little flat. I also think that Irony, or Ironic-retro isn't just "look how dumb this old fashion was" (although the worst examples of ironic fashion are definatly in this mold) but also a bit of nostalgia on the one hand but also a sort of striving for some optomism from the past. I think the ironic choices of hipsters can reflect either a sort of comfort (false) nostalgia (of "doesn't this remind you of when you were young and things were better?) or a nostalgia/longing for a sense of optomism of the past: a sort of reflection of cultures pessimism today presented in relief. In this case we see a sort of nostalgia around retro-futuristic/utopianism or around a kind of romanticized "flower power" or 70s-optomism.
Irony of the sort described in the article definately seems like a reaction to an alienating world where there is no point in trying to sincerely believe in anything because that new band you like will just sell-out or go undiscovered, mainstream movies are much more controlled by big companies (first agencies and now a revived studio system) and has been since the early 80s and so on. Everything you like is a commodity, so why love anything any more than some kitchy and more obvious commodities from the past.
The other side of hipsterism is also a rejection of this: the fetishization of artisan and craft-produced items as a way to avoid surrounding yourself with mass-produced commodities: "I'm an induvidual and so everything I wear or own as a way to show my induviduality comes from induvidual producers!" Of course IMO this is a petit-bourgoise fantasy and elitist since you are spending more to create a sort of high-culture out of DIY and craft as opposed to the "low-culture" of mass-produced and marketed commodities. The "hipper-than-thou" stereotype of liking only obscure or antiquated music also falls into this - but on the other hand, this generation also has decades of recorded music at our fingertips... the baby boomers only had old blues and folk and country music recorded in the 1930s, but they had their own version of all the "retro" music of today, so I think this isn't a fair accusation by cultural critics - music and film always are in dialectical discussion with other (especially from past eras) literature or music or film.
Anyway, what do people think that these things mean? What does it say about people today, our society, and attitudes?
The image below is of a button design I did a few years ago which more succinctly expressed my feelings on the subject at the time.
http://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/5274106/il_fullxfull.224221388.jpg (http://a4ds.com/Art_for_a_Democratic_Society/A4DS/A4DS.html)
I thought this was interesting and I've often wondered about the ironic tendency in contemporary pop culture - but I think also that this article has a bit too much "these kids today" even as the author tries to cut against that view of things.
I think she's correct in drawing a parallel between 90's "apathy" and today's "irony" - I think both have an appeal in reflecting both an alienation from society while also a demoralization in views that things could be any different. I've often thought really the only difference between hippies and 90s alternative/hip-hop youth culture is the context of a lack of a civil rights movement and the movements that followed it (resluting in a sort of subjective optomism and confidence among youth for the hippies and just depression/cynacism for youth cultures since).
But in other ways, I think that this take on Irony and simialr expressions is a little flat. I also think that Irony, or Ironic-retro isn't just "look how dumb this old fashion was" (although the worst examples of ironic fashion are definatly in this mold) but also a bit of nostalgia on the one hand but also a sort of striving for some optomism from the past. I think the ironic choices of hipsters can reflect either a sort of comfort (false) nostalgia (of "doesn't this remind you of when you were young and things were better?) or a nostalgia/longing for a sense of optomism of the past: a sort of reflection of cultures pessimism today presented in relief. In this case we see a sort of nostalgia around retro-futuristic/utopianism or around a kind of romanticized "flower power" or 70s-optomism.
Irony of the sort described in the article definately seems like a reaction to an alienating world where there is no point in trying to sincerely believe in anything because that new band you like will just sell-out or go undiscovered, mainstream movies are much more controlled by big companies (first agencies and now a revived studio system) and has been since the early 80s and so on. Everything you like is a commodity, so why love anything any more than some kitchy and more obvious commodities from the past.
The other side of hipsterism is also a rejection of this: the fetishization of artisan and craft-produced items as a way to avoid surrounding yourself with mass-produced commodities: "I'm an induvidual and so everything I wear or own as a way to show my induviduality comes from induvidual producers!" Of course IMO this is a petit-bourgoise fantasy and elitist since you are spending more to create a sort of high-culture out of DIY and craft as opposed to the "low-culture" of mass-produced and marketed commodities. The "hipper-than-thou" stereotype of liking only obscure or antiquated music also falls into this - but on the other hand, this generation also has decades of recorded music at our fingertips... the baby boomers only had old blues and folk and country music recorded in the 1930s, but they had their own version of all the "retro" music of today, so I think this isn't a fair accusation by cultural critics - music and film always are in dialectical discussion with other (especially from past eras) literature or music or film.
Anyway, what do people think that these things mean? What does it say about people today, our society, and attitudes?
The image below is of a button design I did a few years ago which more succinctly expressed my feelings on the subject at the time.
http://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/5274106/il_fullxfull.224221388.jpg (http://a4ds.com/Art_for_a_Democratic_Society/A4DS/A4DS.html)