Instead of Answering, Citing

I've been gathering my thoughts on post-irony, but as I seem to be that type of writer least amicable to blog-writing (i.e. the hording-every-thought to be finally-and-exactly-expressed type) I'm going to just pass along a great article by David Foster Wallace (hereafter in my entries "DFW," or perhaps "Wallace"). The article's going on twenty years old now but I still think it has some interesting ideas on irony in American society and entertainment (read: TV). Though it may not be the easiest thing to follow on an LCD (or perhaps CRT) screen (and is reprinted in DFW wonderful collection A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again) here we go: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-5495526_ITM

Part 1

The first step in beginning to deconstruct such a complex topic is to figure out exactly what it is you're talking about, anyway. This goes double for the post-ironic, a term so nebulous it can often be misconstrued. So here's some operating questions:

What IS post-irony, anyway?

When does it arrise?

If sincerity is the cornerstone of post-irony, what differentiates it from sincerity?