I keep saying that I'm going to "start blogging again." My initial rationalization for my own lack of posting was that I didn't have time and wasn't "inspired"; first, I was traveling: no computer access, and I needed to "devote my time to my bros." Then I was working on a farm: blogging didn't feel very "organic," and I spent most of my time thinking about artichokes, potatoes, kale, sm0king w33d, and getting swoll. Then I was "living at home," i.e. preparing espresso beverages for overweight and wealthy residents of Georgetown, going to yoga and saying "ooom" while thinking about the attractive yuppies in spandex that surrounded me, and then going to bed at 11PM. None of these seemed to be conducive to the type of critical reflection and ironic meta-commentary which I supposed myself to be good at.
Yet with the exception of my liveblogging of Tool Academy - which I thought would be more transcendental than it was in the end - I've written nothing. The only reason I'm writing this right now is because I'm super-b0red. In fact it pains me to write this half-assed self-reflective bullshit, most of all because I look like a a live-journaler circa 2002. I think I've figured out the problem.
http://www.hipsterrunoff.com
http://www.autoadmit.com
Not that I thought I had a monopoly on ironic irony - i.e. the ironizing of one's own irony, the reflexive analysis of the failure of irony to achieve its critical intent - but these people just do it so much better. Here's an example from Autoadmit. This is an online discussion forum - "The most prestigious law school admissions discussion forum in the world" - on which law school students post about various topics. Most of these topics are related to a. salaries at "BIGLAW" firms b. grades in law school c. making fun of women, blacks, Asians or Jews, and finally, d. prestige. The forum is governed by an extremely strict discursive code; if you don't "get it," the forum will be completely unintelligible. This involves an ironic appropriation of all the cliches of wealthy white professionals. Thus the main point of discussion is the relative "prestige" of various situations, consumer goods, races, or sexual acts. A representative example:
ITT: I list the Prestigious Masterworks of "Classical Music
Date: October 12th, 2008 10:46 AM
Author: To be fair
To be fair,
This is a list of the MOST PRESTIGIOUS compositions from each era. This list is not all inclusive, but is merely meant to highlight the best of the best.
*Baroque Period*:
(Late) Monteverdi:
Selected Late Madrigals
The Coronation of Poppea
L'Orfeo
Bach -
Mass in b minor
St. Matthew Passion
The Art of the Fugue
WTC Bk. I and II
Handel -
"The Messiah"
*Classical Period*:
etc, etc. This is an exacting rehearsal of the tedium, pedantry, and arrogance of a corporate lawyer. Other posts sucessfully recreate the latter's sexism or racism (e.g.: "ITT: Rate this prestigious southern blonde," "rate this prestigious WGWAG"). Though in some cases the goal seems to be pure 'trolling' (e.g. threads with the subject heading "KIKE KIKE KIKE") the above example is much more subtle. We might wonder if in fact the poster is simply trying to prove his "prestige" (in this case, highbrow cultural literacy) yet the thread's topic contains a number of references which make it obvious to someone familiar with Autoadmit that the poster "gets it" (use of "ITT," acronym for "in this thread" and in this case completely redundant, use of "prestige," and most of all the use of extraneous capitalization ["MOST PRESTIGIOUS"]. So, s/he "gets it." But beyond that, the poster probably also "gets it" on a second level of reflexivity: that it is precisely this supposed self-awareness which is "prestigious," that prestige is actually a relatively useful term for describing the type of framework which gives the poster's life meaning.
I won't waste any more time with my own meta-pedantry here, but the dilemma this raises should be relatively obvious. First of all, with regards to this second-order self-reflexivity or "post-irony," there is the question of whether it is meaningfully critical - whether the above poster is just rehearsing the same pedantry on a different level. I've addressed this in the past in regards to this blog.
Secondly - I think a large part of my hesitation to post comes from the realization that I'm getting pwned by people doing the same thing as me. Hipster Runoff is the primary example here. "Carles" has completely exhausted all of the memes that I thought were funny (LOLing at electro-bangers, authenticity, and hipster racism/sexism/consumerism etc). The bro-meme has been so co-opted that there is now a show on MTV called Bromance.
I'm going to try to come up with some new memes for my large reading public. In the meantime I will work on "real"-izing the backlog of my authentic experiences over the past half year or so. So like, stay tuned.
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