Quentin S Crisp

The most ironic thing I've ever read

Sunday, 29. June 2008, 00:05:06

This is the most ironic thing I've ever read, here.

I expect I'll write more about irony later.

Additional, as Captain Kirk used to say: It's half past two AM, and I'm about to go to bed. I've just been having a conversation with someone about the article linked to here, which by now is quite a few years old. Anyway, I felt that I wanted to make it clear that I'm not tittering inanely and thinking that I'm clever. That article made me angry. I imagine that I'll write a separate blog entry later explaining why, but basically the whole idea that 'the age of irony' is over only when American lives are lost is offensive. The assumption behind it is that non-American lives are worthless - an assumption that we see at work in the invasion of Iraq.

Oops, wrong planet!Pupil, 2: Buckroyd, 27

Comments

Anonymous # 30. June 2008, 05:59

Justin Isis writes:

Affluent American white people's lives have a greater degree of existential reality than do those of poor non-American non-whites. The reason for this is that affluent white people are performing the important work of civilising the rest of the world, so their their deaths are capable of cutting through irony like a hot knife through butter. The message is clear: when you kill affluent white people, YOU KILL IRONY. It's impossible to be ironic when killing affluent white people, so all who kill affluent white Americans are sincere, in much the same way a high school girl writing a valentine card is sincere.

quentinscrisp # 30. June 2008, 12:27

"Affluent American white people's lives have a greater degree of existential reality than do those of poor non-American non-whites."

A friend of mine commented that, no matter how many of the native people died in Iraq - or how many black people die in Africa - it will never be considered to be of equal value to one single white life.

Another thing that is despicable about this article is that the writer - Roger Rosenblatt - is basically feeding off the deaths of those who were in the Twin Towers, like the vile, shrivelled up old vampire that he is. He is attempting, by an act of Magick, to convert the 'seriousness' points of the event into 'authority' points for himself.

Anonymous # 30. June 2008, 13:09

Justin Isis writes:

Rudyard Kipling understands the Bush administration's frustration in trying to bring democracy and freedom to Iraq. Note the line about "veil the threat of terror" :

"Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought."

quentinscrisp # 30. June 2008, 13:17

The last two lines are a killer.

Kipling was obviously an even greater master of irony than Rosenblatt. Unless he actually was a master of irony here, in which case he really is a greater master of irony than Rosenblatt in a non-ironic way, so to speak.

Anonymous # 30. June 2008, 13:24

Justin Isis writes:

I've just read on Wikipedia that the above poem is in fact an ironic criticism of imperialism and not in fact imperialism. It seems that Rudyard Kipling was ahead of his time in using complex meta-racism to disarm outmoded thought, anticipating Sarah Silverman by over 100 years.

He is also alleged to have invented trance music and pioneered the "crossfading" DJ technique.

Anonymous # 30. June 2008, 13:28

Justin Isis writes:

"Those who defend Kipling from accusations of racism point out that much of the apparent racism in his writing is spoken by fictional characters, not by him, and thus accurately depicts the characters. An example is the soldier who (in "Gunga Din") calls the title character "a squidgy-nosed old idol". However, in the same poem, Gunga Din is seen as a heroic figure; "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din". They see irony or alternative meanings in poems written in the author's own voice, including "The White Man's Burden" and "Recessional."

Clearly the "ironic conspiracy" reaches backwards in time and is probably controlled by some kind of Ironic Illuminati organization.

quentinscrisp # 30. June 2008, 13:29

This irony is getting so confusing these days. I did suspect that Kipling might have been ironic there, just because I've read poems by him before that were anti-imperialism, so I thought it might be a bit odd if he was unironically supporting imperialism there. Unless your comment there is a meta-irony that trumps any irony of Kipling's, intended or otherwise, or, indeed, any lack of irony.

Anonymous # 30. June 2008, 13:37

Justin Isis writes:

I feel like we're on the verge of attaining enlightenment or something.

quentinscrisp # 30. June 2008, 13:40

Oh no! If we think too much about being on the verge on enlightenment, we might ruin it! Act normal!

Anonymous # 30. June 2008, 13:50

Justin Isis writes:

We have to act non-enlightened by clinging to absolutes.

Juno is the capital of Alaska.

Cookies are delicious.

The enlightened man is not subject to the law of causation.

Okay, it's fine now.

quentinscrisp # 30. June 2008, 14:14

Great.