Is our generation capable of pathos without auto-irony?

[Martinus]

The story told by PDH about his grandfather here got me thinking (didn't want to start a discussion there, for obvious reasons).

While I found it cool, I started imagining myself honoring a friend that way (or in a similar manner) and thought that I would do it, but there would always be a sense of auto-irony/postmodernist critique lingering somewhere in my mind about doing something so seemingly irrational. Or would there?

Is our generation capable of doing something that is bona fide "straight face" pathos-filled and not make it at least to an extent ironic? Or perhaps it has always been ironic and a case of "fake it until you make it" approach from our ancestors?

Discuss.

[CountDeMoney]

You're a dickhead.  And there's nothing auto-ironical about that.

[Eddie Teach]

Where is the pathos in PDH's story?

[11B4V]

The story told by PDH about his grandfather here got me thinking (didn't want to start a discussion there, for obvious reasons).

While I found it cool, I started imagining myself honoring a friend that way (or in a similar manner) and thought that I would do it, but there would always be a sense of auto-irony/postmodernist critique lingering somewhere in my mind about doing something so seemingly irrational. Or would there?

Is our generation capable of doing something that is bona fide "straight face" pathos-filled and not make it at least to an extent ironic? Or perhaps it has always been ironic and a case of "fake it until you make it" approach from our ancestors?

Discuss.

WTF are you on about?

[The Brain]

Pitiful.

[LaCroix]

if i understood you correctly (i don't think you worded it very well), then it depends on the person and circumstances. some grieve more than others, and would find such acts fitting. in other cases, it could depend on the connection those have with the deceased. if they were very close with the person, or they shared a bond (military service, for example), or if it fell in line with a sort of tradition, then the act could be received positively in an un-ironic way

i take it you haven't experienced something like this before, marty? maybe that's why you feel this way, through imagining the act you cannot have the full appreciation of it without the emotional aspect present. or maybe you'd still find it silly if it did happen to you, again, it depends on the individual

[starbright]

It's like dancing. Do it in your bedroom and you are fatty light-sabre dude.

[Ed Anger]

[Malthus]

I've raised a monument to my grandfather - it is hidden in an old campsite of ours in the wilderness of northern Quebec, so it isn't really visible to anyone unless they stumble on it by chance. Somehow, that always seemed right to me.

Here's a pic of it (and of my son, named after my grandfather, looking at it):

[PDH]

I actually understand Mart's question, it is the question of the outsider unable to understand the shared emotion of the ritual group.  In the case of this ritual, there was no irony (needed or wanted, thus not present) felt by the group that was bonded in shared memory of one who had passed on.  To an impressionable 11 year old, this impacted to a great extent.

The key is the emotion in the ritual, something which is needed if it is done properly.  Any self-referencial post-modern blase attitude is not for a participant - if they feel this they are basically defined as not part of the group.  The emotion (here in a communitas-like moment) precludes the norms of day to day reaction. The closeness, in effect, creates a group.

I would guess, Mart, you have not felt this because you have not been in such a ritual situation.

[Admiral Yi]

I understood Marty's post better than I did Peedy's.

[PDH]

I understood Marty's post better than I did Peedy's.

Outsider

[Valmy]

Is our generation capable of doing something that is bona fide "straight face" pathos-filled and not make it at least to an extent ironic? Or perhaps it has always been ironic and a case of "fake it until you make it" approach from our ancestors?

Did we not do this in the very thread you are referencing?

[DGuller]

I understood Marty's post better than I did Peedy's.

I don't often agree with Yi, because most of the time he's dead wrong, but I agree with him here.

[jimmy olsen]

I understood Marty's post better than I did Peedy's.

PDH is pretty straight forward there. What's difficult about it?