New Sincerity has been plaguing my ability to think and especially to write as of late.
The thought that our generation has this new way of enjoying things and thinking about ideas, a way finally free from Postmodernism is at first a liberation. But then...then your bullshit detectors go off.
First, I'm no elitist and I love my blogosphere but when an academic idea is transformed and popularized by The Sound of Young America podcasts and blogs as a kind of meme I'm a bit wary. Wary about the amount of idiots hands it's passed through. It still has many of the aspects of the original idea but...something fishy.
But the real problem we have, especially as people who are trying to write to express our generation, is very little of it seems NEW or SINCERE. Many claim it's just pure enjoyment of preformatism (or awesomeness depending on the level of talk) without irony. But isn't that just enjoyment? It's not necessarily beyond post modernism as just returning to a life without irony. Then some say "well, it's sincere enjoyment and irony together" which is a bit of a brain melting statement and where we, as a group, find our biggest problem.
When you are writing something Ironic if you make it more sincere it simply just amps the underlying irony. And if you have something painfully Ironic like, oh lets say, Evel Kinevil, and take him wickedseriously there's still a kind of (barf) meta-irony there.
The fact that this sincerity is being created by a bunch of Dimitri Martin-loving, secretly high-fiving, Believer-reading, wesandersonophiles makes one think that even though they claim this sincerity they are secretly still mocking it, only from some newfound smug inner distance.
The podcast is good though. And Its not like I wouldnt want to live in a world where everyone enjoyed Anderson Cooper for being cute, Dolly Parton for her theme parks and fantasticly large breasts and maybe even my large collection of terrible music for its good beats and chord structures...
Anyway, you're all smarter than me.
ATTACK! ATTACK!
CAM
posted by Cam at 12:16 PM
7 Comments:
I never knew the "Emo" generation would come up with their own philosophy. So depressing, like rain running down my face because I am unable to cry as I examine the beauty of everything. This is what anti-depressants do to a generation. Everything lacks a soul. Gag me. I like irony. Weep.
Fuck off, Dan. [argument point #1]
[point number two]
New sincerity is just an arch backed defense of Guy Debord's ideas from the 50's and 60's.
Construct situations of a more passional nature. That idea is fucking OLD HAT!
The only thing new sincerity brings to the table is a response to those who say:
"well, if you're making situations. Then isn't the feelings you get from those situations false in a sense."
And you know what this "new philosophy" the, supposed saviour of our generation, answers back?
uh . . . no.
THATS the philosophy. Its not wrong, its just bullshit. Its articulating something so basic and implicit that it should be a footnote about a conversation at the kraft services table at a conference on postmodernism.
Also, I think that the perfect example of new sincerity is wikipedia itself.
Think about it, would an encyclopedia include references to "wolphins"? no.
Its both honest and ironic at the same time.
I'd argue that wikipedia is postmodern. Touche.
A friend sent me this link. A couple of things.
* I invented The New Sincerity, and I don't read the Believer. Nor do I keep my high fives secret. And I love Rushmore, but I think Wes Anderson's other films are kind of a mess.
There is no irony to the appreciation of Evel Knievel. Irony is a BS response to something as big and awesome as EK, and I'd say it's primarily a cover for fear. TNS is about getting past irony as a defense mechanism, and embracing stuff that's too big to be comfortable.
I understand that it is similar to situationism. I only have a recieved semi-understanding of situationism, but understand that the driving force behind TNS is not authenticity or "passional" situations. It is about MAXIMUM FUN. There are no riots or anything, unless they are FUN RIOTS.
As far as authorship goes: I have no academic background in philosophy at all, and I created The New Sincerity five years ago out of whole cloth and whatever was floating around in my head. Maybe other people are using the term for something different, but The New Sincerity is not something "transformed and popularized" by The Sound of Young America. It's something created by me, Jesse, host of The Sound of Young America. And my hands are not idiotic.
The fact that it is created by me out of whole cloth makes it a lot more New Sincerity.
"It is about MAXIMUM FUN. There are no riots or anything, unless they are FUN RIOTS"
New Sincerity founder Jesse Thorn describing his movement, or an Orange Revolution candidate promoting their new 'campus community' event?
Jesse Thorn has never, to my knowledge, denied or ignored the holocaust.
Therefore immediately putting him above the Orange Revolution.
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