PrettySquareGal
I'll Lock Up
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My issue isn't with segregated snark/shows. It's that it's everywhere. The news. Magazines. Everyday conversation. Social media. Etc.
The snarky, wise cracking, fast talkier sardonic cynics are quintessentially Golden Era icon, almost to the point of cliche . . .
. . . from literature: Philip Marloe, Nick Charles, Reginald Jeeves. From film: the big city cabbie; the apathetic beat cop; the smart ass kid on the corner (in the big city); practically every character Robert Mitchum and Humphrey Bogart ever played!
My issue isn't with segregated snark/shows. It's that it's everywhere. The news. Magazines. Everyday conversation. Social media. Etc.
The overall mood of the actual Era, not that of literature, was actually one of rather stolid, earnest sincerity. People could be abrasive and sharp and sarcastic, but they usually were so because they sincerely believed in something, not because they were trying to maintain an "ironic" distance from people who actually believe in something.
Sarcasm directed at the powerful is defiance.
Sarcasm directed at the powerless is oppression.
On the subject of snarkers of old, for what it's worth, I think Dorothy Parker was a bit of a poltroon. Her famous barbs and her whole "I'm suicidal, isn't it just darling?" schtick strike me the same way as present-day snarkery, adopting a world-weary sang froid to hide the fact that she was basically a coward. And Alexander Woollcott strikes me as one of the most thoroughly repulsive people I've ever heard of. I can't imagine how anyone befriended him except in a spirit of morbid fascination.
My grandparents, and your grandparents weren't snarkers....The Internet is full of people who H. L. Mencken wouldn't spit on if they were all afire, who think they're a lot cleverer than they actually are.
As an aside, my grandparents were pretty snarky--although I think my granny developed it as an adult to cope with her ornery, bayou-bred husband.
I definitely agree with what you're saying though, especially online. You really can't read the comments on any public site without seeing all sorts of sarcasm and vitriol. The only places where it doesn't take over are on private forums and a handful of heavily-moderated blogs. It's not much better away from the computer. People are more civil without the protection of anonymity, but snark - even bordering on hatefulness - seems to rule the day.
And don't even get me started on most modern "comedies." It seems like unless it's crude or crass, it isn't good (ha!) enough for mainstream comedy.
Frank Sinatra Jr. blamed it on the Fab Four. He once said, "I rue the day the Beatles came on the scene!". Seems the Beatles cheeky attitude and quick quips started this whole snarkey business. Frankly, I think it was the Rolling Stones!
i think Bob Dylan's early bored, cynical, confrontational, flippant interview style was more influential than the Beatles' more cheeky one. i'm sure they were influenced by his persona themselves.
Difference was that Bob was always so much cleverer than any of them. What I adore most about Dylan's writing is how he can wrap so much bile into what is, on the face of it, a pretty, melodic little pop song. Positively 4th Street being a great example.
The most rebellious and radical thing anyone can do in the 21st Century is to completely reject the culture of "hipness."
the point isn't whether Dylan is a talented songwriter or not. the point is that in those early interviews his whole demeanour said very clearly 'i'm anti-establishment' and that would have been rapidly picked up on and copied by sectors of youth at the time. the fact that ironic detachment and a hip anti-establishment stance has now become a caricature of a caricature of a caricature of a caricature of a caricature, seems to be an irony that is lost on those who still buy into it.