undefined

points

[-]

> This is an impossible psychological barrier to pass for me. Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" cannot dissolve into any movie's soundtrack for me when used unironically because I consider it a meme song.

The last time I felt this way, I was still in school and disillusioned. Do you not consume unironic media anymore (or ever)?

by retsibsi1 hours ago|

parent|

[-]

I think a specific song becoming irreversibly memeified is different from a person lacking the ability to engage unironically. I don't know if you're from my generation, but if you are, I imagine what they are experiencing is similar to how we would feel if we watched an old movie with Never Gonna Give You Up played completely straight at a key emotional moment. (But worse, because The Sound of Silence is a very delicate and emotional song, whereas Never Gonna Give You Up is inherently a bit cheesy and fun, so the contrast between the original intent and our experience wouldn't be so extreme.)

by afthonos7 hours ago|

parent|

prev|

[-]

I think, without trying to disparage GP at all, that unironic watching is very hard for the generations that came after the 90s. Some gems shone through, like the LoTR movies, which managed to be unironic and good, but the fresh air of “Joss Whedon dialogue”, pointing out storytelling conceits as they were happening live on your screen, let everyone feel smart right when “smart” became the only thing worth being.

AI destroying, at alarming speeds, all the bastions of “smart” I think will lead back to a less ironic mood. “I’m so smart” does not impress people who can reproduce your brilliance by asking Claude for “insights, no mistakes.”

by sublinear7 hours ago|

parent|

[-]

> “I’m so smart” does not impress people who can reproduce your brilliance by asking Claude for “insights, no mistakes.”

I'm not convinced. I'm old enough to remember when people said similar about previous waves of tech (search engines, smartphones, etc.) replacing everything from books and handwriting to thinking. People were talking about "the wisdom of the crowd" and living a "quantified life" as recently as a decade ago.

Being "smart" is not only highly dependent on context beyond what computers can sense or reasonably "live in" (even when you're not querying), but also timing and deeper insight. AI has a very very long way to go if we're even keeping that as a goal for it.

I think it's more often the case that anyone trying to be "smart" can't hide how dumb they are. You're right that nobody is impressed by ego-fragile defensive snark or try-hard quotes. I don't think they ever were though?

by afthonos16 minutes ago|

parent|

[-]

They weren’t enough to impress others, but I think they were enough to feel impressive, which is almost as pleasant psychologically.

by literallyanythi6 hours ago|

parent|

prev|

[-]

Based on your other comments containing "I'm old enough", I'm assuming you are close to over three of my lifetimes years old. It's not about being disillusioned, or consuming media ironically or unironically. It's just about frame of reference. It's kind of like how it's functionally impossible to watch "Birth of a Nation" (which is apparently one of the best films of all time) and actually to SEE it as one of the best films for a multitude of technical and cultural reasons. Sure you can watch a film and deliberately try to have a certain perspective or "gaze" but isn't that just a form of ironic watching with extra steps?

The sibling comment was 100% accurate until "unironic and good" and then I have absolutely no idea what they are talking about with Joss Whedon and how AI somehow got shoehorned into the conversation. I watched The Graduate before ChatGPT came out.

You shouldn't take this n=1 anecdote as an authoritative view on my generation either, lots of people in my generation have more empathy and imagination than I do. Have a good night :)

by watwut3 hours ago|

parent|

[-]

Birth of a Nation is not considered best film of all time. It is considered one of the most racist films tho

by jhbadger1 hours ago|

parent|

[-]

From a technical perspective it really was considered a great movie for decades, It is, as you mention, extremely racist, and that eventually outweighed any merits of the film itself after the techniques it developed had long become routine.

by watwut22 minutes ago|

parent|

[-]

Great movie from technical perspective and "greatest movie of all times" are two different claims tho. It is the same with Triumph of Will btw.

Being racist is part of that movie itself. It is not some kinf of separate thing. It is also part of its appeal and reason why some praise or recommend it.