What are the earliest examples of what we’d recognize as postmodern irony in the wild? (ie not academic theorizing, but in speeches, mainstream fiction, media etc)
I consider wrestling kayfabe to be a good modern representative example
Reference examples
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More examples. Irony really is the hardest sensibility to characterize even though we’re all immersed in it constantly now.
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Most attempts at transcending irony seem to fail in ironic ways. Mostly it’s ineffectively reactionary sincerity in response to cynicism, rather than irony. A response that appears to not actually be sensitive to irony in the first place.
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It’s postcampy. If camp is “failed seriousness” (Susan Sontag) postcamp is failed irony transcendence.
The misreading of cynicism as irony is revealing. There is pure cynicism, and cynicism as a reductive perception of irony. Postcampies cant tell the two apart.
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One of the reasons I still love going to furry conventions is that it’s the only place left on earth where irony has almost no room to breathe. No matter how ironic you think you’re being when you put on a giant happy dog costume, you’re still wearing a giant happy dog costume.
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