Comments on: Culturology 010 - On Ironic Enjoyment http://www.audioshocker.com/2008/12/01/culturology-010-on-ironic-enjoyment Comics, Movies, Fighting Games, and Pop Culture. 3 New Podcasts Every Week! Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:17:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: nick marino http://www.audioshocker.com/2008/12/01/culturology-010-on-ironic-enjoyment#comment-4282 nick marino Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:40:35 +0000 http://www.audioshocker.com/?p=436#comment-4282 i get what you're saying Special K (Kirsten, can i call you Special K? too late now anyway...). IN FACT, i agree with you fully. i think irony as a way of interpreting social interaction is jaded and fairly useless, BUT irony as a device by which to consume media is an active and enjoyable experience. however, Pete does raise a good point which is that using irony as a filter on your media consumption all the time can be tiresome and anti-productive. it has to be used consciously and sparingly because using it 24/7 can result in complete detachment. my favorite media are the movies and shows i can consume with both irony and sincerity depending on what i'm in the mood for. Total Recall, for example, can be consumed in a purely ironic fashion to complete fulfillment ("she's got three boobs!"). but i can also get lost in the story and consume it with utter sincerity if needs be. i like having that option open to me. i get what you're saying Special K (Kirsten, can i call you Special K? too late now anyway...). IN FACT, i agree with you fully. i think irony as a way of interpreting social interaction is jaded and fairly useless, BUT irony as a device by which to consume media is an active and enjoyable experience.

however, Pete does raise a good point which is that using irony as a filter on your media consumption all the time can be tiresome and anti-productive. it has to be used consciously and sparingly because using it 24/7 can result in complete detachment.

my favorite media are the movies and shows i can consume with both irony and sincerity depending on what i'm in the mood for. Total Recall, for example, can be consumed in a purely ironic fashion to complete fulfillment ("she's got three boobs!"). but i can also get lost in the story and consume it with utter sincerity if needs be. i like having that option open to me.

]]> By: kirsten http://www.audioshocker.com/2008/12/01/culturology-010-on-ironic-enjoyment#comment-4281 kirsten Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:05:18 +0000 http://www.audioshocker.com/?p=436#comment-4281 I think you could argue (and maybe you have; I really can't tell) that ironic enjoyment is actually a more sophisticated kind of media consumption, since it's active rather than passive. Ironic enjoyment entails not just absorbing a movie, a tv show, a song, but also interacting with it, analyzing it, critiquing it. It entails sifting the elements to separate "the bad" from "the good", and recognizing not only why it is bad, but what "the bad" says about its creator's attitude and how that attitude is reflected in our culture at large. In short, ironic enjoyment requires not just an appreciation of the narrow piece of media in front of you, but of the world that created it -- the world in which we live. I have a feeling that my argument here may be just as incomprehensible as yours, but I stand by it nevertheless. I think you could argue (and maybe you have; I really can't tell) that ironic enjoyment is actually a more sophisticated kind of media consumption, since it's active rather than passive. Ironic enjoyment entails not just absorbing a movie, a tv show, a song, but also interacting with it, analyzing it, critiquing it. It entails sifting the elements to separate "the bad" from "the good", and recognizing not only why it is bad, but what "the bad" says about its creator's attitude and how that attitude is reflected in our culture at large. In short, ironic enjoyment requires not just an appreciation of the narrow piece of media in front of you, but of the world that created it -- the world in which we live.

I have a feeling that my argument here may be just as incomprehensible as yours, but I stand by it nevertheless.

]]> By: nick marino http://www.audioshocker.com/2008/12/01/culturology-010-on-ironic-enjoyment#comment-4279 nick marino Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:55:52 +0000 http://www.audioshocker.com/?p=436#comment-4279 i definitely got lost in the irony exploration, mostly by the ending. i think you did a great job of explaining the current state of irony in indie music culture, though i'm not sure it exists in the same way in other types of cultural expression. anyway, really the reason i'm writing here is to say I LOVE ACTION MOVIES TOO!!! BRING BACK THE AWESOME SCI-FI ACTION MOVIES AND GET RID OF THESE SHITTY BOURNE-STYLE JUMP CUTS!!! EDIT: OMG... you know what i just realized? superhero movies are the NEW sci-fi action flicks!!! i definitely got lost in the irony exploration, mostly by the ending. i think you did a great job of explaining the current state of irony in indie music culture, though i'm not sure it exists in the same way in other types of cultural expression. anyway, really the reason i'm writing here is to say I LOVE ACTION MOVIES TOO!!! BRING BACK THE AWESOME SCI-FI ACTION MOVIES AND GET RID OF THESE SHITTY BOURNE-STYLE JUMP CUTS!!!

EDIT: OMG... you know what i just realized? superhero movies are the NEW sci-fi action flicks!!!

]]> By: kirsten http://www.audioshocker.com/2008/12/01/culturology-010-on-ironic-enjoyment#comment-4278 kirsten Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:32:28 +0000 http://www.audioshocker.com/?p=436#comment-4278 Your argument is thick enough to scoop with a spoon. I'm really not sure where it ended up, since the words "ironicizing" and "goodness" have lost what little meaning they had to me. Incidentally, irony has been declared dead at least once a week since 9/11. I think there was a fresh obituary in last week's New York Times. Your argument is thick enough to scoop with a spoon. I'm really not sure where it ended up, since the words "ironicizing" and "goodness" have lost what little meaning they had to me.

Incidentally, irony has been declared dead at least once a week since 9/11. I think there was a fresh obituary in last week's New York Times.

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