An Irony Full of Grace: John L’Heureux’s The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast
The horror of violence is not assuaged by announcing it quickly.
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Posts Tagged: irony
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #217: Sue William Silverman
“Our memories are always in flux.”
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The Rumpus Interview with Bruce Bauman
Bruce Bauman discusses his latest book, Broken Sleep, why rock isn’t dead (yet), how humor makes life bearable, and why we should reinstate the draft.
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(K)ink: Writing While Deviant: Tina Horn
I would go so far as to say that the entire reason I write is to detect all the irony that language allows and twist it around the truth like razor wire and ivy. That’s how I like my truth: twisted.
...moreThe Srs Bsns of Writing Wryly
Sarcasm on the Internet—you know it when you see it. But how? Without the conversational aids of our best deadpan voices or our fingers as scare quotes, we use all sorts of tricks and mechanics. At The Toast, a linguist points out some of the ways in which we write out sarcasm on the Internet.
...moreIrony Genius Vs. Realism Hero
If Franzen is our genius realist, and DFW our genius postmodernist — how might they meld irony and sincerity? In an excerpt over at Salon from his new book, Keep It Fake: Inventing an Authentic Life, Eric G. Wilson talks irony, realism, postmodernism, David Foster Wallace, and Jonathan Franzen.
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Kathleen Ossip
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club chats with Kathleen Ossip about her new book, The Do Over, Catholic school, the afterlife, poem-like things, and how form sets sorely-needed limits.
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The Saturday Rumpus Essay: To Be a Brony
Today, largely by chance, a television show that was created to empower a new generation of young girls has become a beacon of strength for a community of grown men.
...moreTragedy’s Irony
Using W.H. Auden and his predecessor, Rabelais, Nina Martyris discusses in the Los Angeles Review of Books how irony is being implemented to confront the tragedy of Charlie Hebdo: So how should one respond? Anger and grief are appropriate enough. Even hatred, however unappetizing, seems only natural given the brutality of the crime. But what if […]
...moreSatirical America
Has the US turned into a satire of itself? Consider how quickly Congress has gone from championing Freedom Fries to chastising President Obama’s absence from the Paris peace march. Over at the LA Times, David L. Ulin looks at why Americans are choosing irony over satire: Is it coincidence, then, that the rise of postmodernism […]
...moreSong of the Day: “Another Man’s Vine”
Tom Waits is a master of irony. Just when we thought we understood his bone-clattering, tooth-gnashing, growling songs of woe, he hits us with “Another Man’s Vine.” The ballad—off the 2002 record Blood Money—is a heartfelt and affecting piece, infused with sorrow and a peculiarly Waits-esque resigned jealousy. And what’s more ironic than a dirge […]
...moreThe Evils of Irony
At one time, irony served to reveal hypocrisies, but now it simply acknowledges one’s cultural compliance and familiarity with pop trends. The art of irony has lost its vision and its edge. The rebellious posture of the past has been annexed by the very commercialism it sought to defy. Did David Foster Wallace have it […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Mark O’Connell
Mark O’Connell, author of the first original e-book from The Millions, talks about why he is interested in and troubled by what he calls this “frictionless sharing and flattening of affect,” particularly when it comes to what Internet inside jokes have nicknamed Epic Fails.
...moreThe Essay That Should End the Irony Wars
Irony can acknowledge our natural, justifiable feelings of insignificance, or show that we understand our subjectivity. With some humor, if we can manage it! Irony demonstrates that we know we are not the center of the universe, that we can hold opposing ideas in our heads. That we can find humor in the contrast between […]
...moreDavid Foster Wallace Was A Comedy Nerd
Blythe Robertson unpacks David Foster Wallace’s thoughts, and impacts, on American comedy for Splitsider. Wallace often worried about the overwhelming amount of irony on television – talking heads poking fun at those watching the show while viewers laugh along at themselves, neither party doing much to fix their apparent boredom with the shallowness of the […]
...moreMaud Newton on a DFW-Inspired Trend
Maud Newton’s NY Times essay, “Another Thing to Sort of Pin on David Foster Wallace,” discusses yet another DFW-inspired trend–that is his “slangy approachability.” He defined a writing style that has permeated through the blogosphere. His ability to combine legal diction with colloquialisms and “slacker lingo,” all to express one highly philosophical argument was indeed […]
...moreWeaponizing Irony
I have to admit, I feel a little assaulted myself after reading this proposal from Princeton Professors D. Graham Burnett and Jeff Dolven, which was a response to a request from Lockheed Martin for research initiatives. Warning: this isn’t Alanis Morrisette coincidence-mistaken-as-irony. This is the real stuff, fairly pure. You might need a towel.
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