Irony Irony They've All Got It Irony

I have the urge to reprise Doompatrol23's arguments on the 'Class and Race Debate - the enemy of Creativity'(sic), but that's only because I find irony amusing, like an involuntary spasm that connects my heart and my head, so I don't like it dissected. Irony and Pomo both share the prismatic intellectual qualities that make them interesting to apply, though an awareness of them does little to enrich our perspective. Still, they make good conversation.

I had something to say on one of Britain's greatest fallacies - "Americans lack a sense of irony" but as we all know it's just an unkind generalisation...intellectual superiority....etc... Right?

I reckon there is less of a culture of irony in the US mainstream. Stuff like God, Patriotism etc. still matters to some, straight down the line, honest to goodness seriously, my theory being that if you are the world's first country, you tend to take yourself pretty seriously (cf Victorian England)...

But in the margins of US culture and the avant garde, irony has the strength of paint stripper and could vaporise our knobbly limey knees in five seconds flat.

How related is irony to cynicism? Momus sees it as an enabler of freedom. Mork sees it as cynicism incarnate. America is probably more cynical than Britain. Now that was a staggeringly crude generalisation. Note my ironic disclaimer.

Reviving this based on Peter Andre and stevem's comments.

I think, before it all kicks off again, we should keep the wto meanings hinted at above as separate as possible.

1) Making art 'ironically' or with 'irony'.
2) Liking art 'ironically'

I'm sure we're agreed that irony in the first sense is pretty essential, so how's about we look at the second meaning?

For me, as I've said in an article on Freaky Trigger, I love it. It's a way of enjoying music and tends to get looked down upon - as in a few of the posts above - because it's not 'proper', it's not actually 'liking the music', it takes something away from the real, heartbreaking stuff you listen to.

But I think 'irony' opens up so much and you can like things ironically and 'properly' at the same time - in fact I'd argue it's impossible not to.

But more than this - and it's taken years to realise it - but I'm not ashamed of liking things 'ironically', in the pure, 'huh, funny, kitsch' way. I mean, why should I be?

Depends on the circumstance. Like what Patrick originally brought up. Some people do it for fear of coming off as stupid, and therefore, are afraid to enjoy things for what they are. It's dishonest smugness I'd rather not be exposed to, but that's just me.