Dear "Ironic" GenX and Yer:



Your very vocal manner puts air quotes in everything you say. Your ironic voice races for ever subtler shades of understatement in an effort to maximize your utility function of "cool." There is a barely audible "sniff" in each utterance.



You will be surprised to learn that your studied cynicism, hip-to-be-square manner, and moral detachment based on the vague snide comments you've grown up with and now ape transparently are not how it once was. Folks were once quite outwardly embracing of the world with a positive vision of missionary zeal, fuelled both by a love of God and a fear of Hell, both for themselves and you.



But that doesn't mean your weltanshauung has no history. And here it is: the intellectual history of irony.



This excellent work primarily is literary criticism (criticism as in truth-seeking, not the "modern" content of "finding fault with"), but serves as an archaeology of knowledge of the concept of irony (Kierkegaard and Nietzche, move over.....die Hegel, die!!!).



"Know thyself" and add this book to your seeking self understanding.