Neal Pollack “Keep Mars Weird” (47 North, 2016)
In my mind Neal Pollack is lumped together with a group of humorous
writers & musicians who came to some popularity in the late 90s. Their work
has always leaned heavily into ironic distancing. I suppose that they are all the children of
David Letterman in a way – there’s a batch of us Gen X kids who grew up
watching Letterman’s irony, & have deeply absorbed its rules.
Don’t get me wrong – I like these people. Sure, the music side of it is a bit difficult
for me, but the writing especially does tend to resonate with me.
But I think that Keep Mars Weird shows one of the worst
tendencies of this movement. Namely,
where does Pollack stand in all this?
There’s a real danger with a reliance on ironic detachment that you end
up alienating the audience and refusing to take any sort of creative
stand. You begin to take the piss out of
everything and eventually there’s nothing left that isn’t mocked or worthy of
being mocked. At some point it’s
important to show that value X is better than value Y. Simply saying that they both suck may be
attractive to high school students everywhere, but it ends up like a meal made
of candy. Unsatisfying and leading to a
stomach ache.
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