I can think of only three pure or independent eigen- modes of non-earnestness. In order of historical emergence, I think they are humor , irony , and surrealism . I’d guess humor is at least as old as civilization and possibly as old as life. Irony proper seems like an outgrowth of early modern conditions. Surrealism is the newest and youngest... See more

Pragmatic surrealism is a sensibility born of always doing what is obviously necessary, but never being bound by unnecessary ways of seeing what you’re doing. The phenomenology of a behavior is absolute, necessary, and (within the bounds of inventive variation) inescapable. But any construction or narration you place upon that phenomenology need be... See more

I don’t believe in living in the moment. I believe in living slightly off to one side of it