Rafe Colburn’s reference to Christy Wampole’s How to Live Without Irony finally pushed me over the edge and I had to read her opinion piece. A good screed but before one gets all self-congratulatory about not falling for hipsterism, please check out David Foster Wallace’s “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction”.
Admittedly Wampole is probably quite aware of the essay, but I’m not sure how many in the target audience are. This was the most impactful of the essays I read from DFW’s collection “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again” and has stuck with me for a very long time. Pretty much convinced me of the corrosiveness of television beyond the silliness of much of the content. Mule Variations has a good look at the importance of “E Unibus Pluram”, but it’s not a bad way to “ease” into DFW, if there is such a thing.
Hipsters are one thing but good luck assailing irony within mass media.