The post-ironic era* -- that is, the epoch that has arisen in the wake of Elizabeth Grant's, a.k.a. Lana Del Rey's, landmark work Born To Die -- has changed the way we as participants in culture appreciate and interact with the media which makes up our perception of human existence, that is, Being. Grant's album introduces the technique of oblivious revelation, that is, a seemingly unaware revelation of a will that exists beyond the teleology of the artistic project. She accomplishes this by creating an unblinking persona which she embraces without commentary, and melds herself with said persona unconditionally, despite the criticism of the intellectual and critical establishment, and despite the seeming systemic contradictions which such a melding brings about. In essence, she has created the episteme of the cringe, an episteme greater in its transgressive and disruptive qualities than Bataille's horror or even Derrida's sabotage. Entirely unremarkable (in the most literal sense), Grant's cringe eliminates the possibility of critical commentary, and even destroys the concept of Grant herself. In Born To Die there is nothing but the cringe, that is, the LDR persona. Deconstructionism is defeated, and postmodernity's greatest tool, irony, is bested. The post-ironic era rises from the ashes of Elizabeth Grant's self-immolation.
Without the episteme of irony, modern youth culture, and the community of the internet as a whole, is all but undone. What then is the purpose of FOOD JUSTICE, LA? Irony, now meaningless, has no place in the discussion of FOOD JUSTICE issues or cultural critiques. Without irony, postmodern humor (indeed, perhaps, all humor) is destroyed. Our only tools are now the embrace and the cringe. The embrace cannot survive through the emotionlessness of the digital space, and the cringe, yet to be fully understood, may not yet have a place in the discussions that FOOD JUSTICE, LA wishes to inspire. We have entered a dark age of the internet in which the blog has lost the relevance that it never seemed to have. Perhaps, like the artist of the cringe, the internet must collapse on itself. Perhaps out of that space will arise a new form which can flourish, like the crown of roses atop LDR's head, into a new arena of intellectualism and experience. It is yet to be seen. Until then, FOOD JUSTICE, LA has lost both its techniques and its centralized meaning, and until then, the only essence of FOOD JUSTICE must be FOOD JUSTICE in itself.
-Ben "The Best" Tuthill
*See MateLover, Yerba, Will and Representation in the Post-Ironic Era (2012).
Without the episteme of irony, modern youth culture, and the community of the internet as a whole, is all but undone. What then is the purpose of FOOD JUSTICE, LA? Irony, now meaningless, has no place in the discussion of FOOD JUSTICE issues or cultural critiques. Without irony, postmodern humor (indeed, perhaps, all humor) is destroyed. Our only tools are now the embrace and the cringe. The embrace cannot survive through the emotionlessness of the digital space, and the cringe, yet to be fully understood, may not yet have a place in the discussions that FOOD JUSTICE, LA wishes to inspire. We have entered a dark age of the internet in which the blog has lost the relevance that it never seemed to have. Perhaps, like the artist of the cringe, the internet must collapse on itself. Perhaps out of that space will arise a new form which can flourish, like the crown of roses atop LDR's head, into a new arena of intellectualism and experience. It is yet to be seen. Until then, FOOD JUSTICE, LA has lost both its techniques and its centralized meaning, and until then, the only essence of FOOD JUSTICE must be FOOD JUSTICE in itself.
-Ben "The Best" Tuthill
*See MateLover, Yerba, Will and Representation in the Post-Ironic Era (2012).
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