(Marcus Slease in 1995)
Irony and sincerity combined like Voltron, to form a new movement of astonishing power."
-- Jesse Thorn
How do you feel about irony? And sincerity? Are they really opposites? Like all good art, they make for good cross fertilisation. In 1995, after coming home early from a Mormon mission, to a small town in Utah that was never really my home, I got a perm. I thought I was still alternative but Nirvana had crossed over. The world was never the same, per always, again. Irony creates distance and it is needed to keep us honest with our sincerity. And to be honest, the closer you look, life is absurd. Yes, that is what I need for my well being. Art that cuts through the falseness but with compassionate mindfulness. In a dharma talk by Gil Fronsdal, he said that Buddhism, at its heart, is existentialism without the angst. I can dig that.
Labels: aldous huxley, American Buddhism, art, authenticity, irony, marcus slease, never mind the beasts, new confessionalism, new sincerity, Nomadic Poetics, nomadic travel
