Irony

Salon has an obsession with David Foster Wallace. So on April 13, they wrote DFW was right in saying that irony was ruining our culture. Quoting from his seminal essay “E Unibus Pluram,” "lazy cynicism has replaced thoughtful convictions as the mark of an educated worldview". And then two weeks later was an article titled, "What DFW got wrong about irony: Our culture doesn't have enough of it". Which was fair enough. Because the article was a response to the previous article and had an "irony" "expert" talk about what he read in DFW's article and if he agreed with him. After a bit of back and forth, it was concluded that DFW was calling out a special kind of  Institutionalised Irony, and that may be bad but irony can be sincere and we need this earnest irony.

If that was the end of it, one would have had an interesting if not illuminating take on irony both from its supporters and its naysayers. But no! Salon had another article this time about how Hannah Arendt understood irony and DFW didn't. And another one today about irony and Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Foster Wallace. 

It would be immensely satisfying if something he wrote over twenty years ago has some insight to offer us. But it is frustrating to see DFW's name get dragged on Salon every 2 weeks as entertainment or as some in the industry are calling it "click bait". I don't know if that would be an ironic usage of a dead writer's words. What would David Foster Wallace say?

Update: My version of a comment from Salon. Three things in life are certain; death, taxes and Salon name-dropping DFW every 2 weeks.