Literary Irony Overload

July 21, 2010 8:43 PM

Unpublished works of Franz Kafka are currently in a legal limbo one party calls 'Kafkaesque' according to NPR*. Meanwhile, NPR* is being accused of 'Orwellian censorship' in its handling of an essay about... "1984". To paraphrase the apparently already paraphrased words of Mark Twain, "reports of the death of irony are greatly exaggerated."
*Don't call it National Public Radio, it's NPR.
posted by oneswellfoop (17 comments total)

Once again, Gregor Samsa woke to discover himself transformed into a giant insect.
posted by unSane at 8:55 PM on July 21, 2010

Isn't this a double?
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:57 PM on July 21, 2010

Well, it's certainly too clever by half.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:05 PM on July 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's like RA-I-AN... on your wedding day...

/got nuthin
posted by randomkeystrike at 9:07 PM on July 21, 2010

Orwellian censorship is about the modification of a (future) essay, it's about censorship of the past. And the Kafka papers seem to be owned just like a bunch of dead author's papers, in similar struggles. Never underestimate people's willingness to map cleverness onto decisively unclever situations.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 9:15 PM on July 21, 2010

Dead authors everywhere!
posted by TwelveTwo at 9:18 PM on July 21, 2010

NPR has a habit of reacting to objections from the loony right long before they come. They automatically flinch to the right and try to pretend they're just being evenhanded.

They're like an abused spouse who cringes when she just thinks of her abuser. I suppose it's a hangover from the days when they were beholden to a hyper-conservative Congress.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 9:18 PM on July 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Whoever is holding up Kafka's unpublished works should be taken to a quarry & stabbed to death.
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:40 PM on July 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Gregor Samsa woke to discover himself transformed into a giant insect.

Wow, that is literally in the book!
posted by qvantamon at 9:40 PM on July 21, 2010

NPR is awesome. If you don't like it STFU.
posted by oddman at 9:53 PM on July 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

I can't work myself into an outrage over the "censorship" of Eisler's essay. The NPR flack who told him the essay was "too political" was stupid and should have just told him it was too tendentious, literal-minded, and preachy. As far as I can tell the main censoring that NPR did was to edit his bloated paragraphs to something readable.
posted by blucevalo at 10:01 PM on July 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Don't call it National Public Radio, it's NPR.

And in Mexico, it's just Enpiar.
posted by straight at 11:00 PM on July 21, 2010

THIS is Enpiar.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:17 PM on July 21, 2010

Don't call it NPR, call it National Pentagon Radio
posted by finite at 12:01 AM on July 22, 2010

They're like an abused spouse who cringes when she just thinks of her abuser.

That is exactly what has become of Jim Leher. Thank you.
posted by Johnny Hazard at 1:06 AM on July 22, 2010

For MONTHS now I have been trying to figure out why the Car Talk podcasts has editted their station break send off (e.g. "Even though BP executives spill oil all over their radios whenever they hear us say it, this is NPR."

And the three beats of silence where "National Public Radio" had been said on air.

Now I know why...NPR wants to emulate KFC.
posted by achmorrison at 4:50 AM on July 22, 2010

NPR jumped the shark a long time ago. Too scared for their jobs and funding to do their jobs. Too much fucking lifestyle crap for the volvo set. Nice polite republicans, indeed. I am always amused to meet clueless bourgies who think listening to NPR means they get "liberal" viewpoints.

Liberally clueless and stupid.
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:43 AM on July 22, 2010