.>
>Funny you should mention this. Angela and I had a similar
disagreement
>over whether the film version of Starship Troopers was ironic, or
whether
>it was a fascist apologia like the book it was based upon. Angela
>contends that since there is no character in the movie to supply the
>necessary "wink" that lets us know the film is ironic, the film is a
>straightforward piece of xenophobic/fascist propaganda.
whoa Alex! that's exactly not what I was saying. is my writing that unintelligible, untranslatable... whatever? I do not think the film is a 'straightforward piece of fascist propaganda'. I THINK IT IS IRONIC WITHOUT BEING CYNICALLY SO. I said this three times in the previous discussion, so I will capitalise it now, just so you don't miss it again. and, this is what makes me think it is one of the best films I have ever seen, as I argued previously as well.
that is: if the film did provide the 'wink' (through a cynical, 'meta-discursive' performance of "I do not really believe this narrative of the third reich") then it would enable the enjoyment of the fascist narrative cynically, i.e., by all those who would otherwise be horrified by being asked to identify with the narrative as such. (I gave the counter example of independence day' with goldblum's cynical winks which halt the moment the war gets serious, i.e.., when the liberal/leftist viewer is called upon to identify, finally, with the american fantasy of saving the world against the alien threat to 'our way of life'.)
this, I noted, was - to put it crudely - the generalised device of the recuperative narrative drive. and, it is in place, not for people who are able to identify with the narrative, but those who like to think of themselves as able to reject it, the structure of the fantasy --- and simply enjoy.
the film is brilliant because it is so entirely detached, ice cold in its gaze of what is a fascist narrative (i.e.., what the thousand year reich would look like had - will it? - come to pass), WITHOUT locating an internal mechanism (either through soundtrack or character) that would allow one to immerse oneself WITHIN the narrative drive, hence to enjoy cynically. most often, the choices we are offered in terms of ideology are either that we cynically enjoy or we censor. 'starship troopers' does neither of these. and it is a highly ironic film.
btw, I think people are right to say that irony isn't sarcasm. sarcasm is a cowardly form of humiliation, mostly. but, maybe another point: irony doesn't have to be funny in order to still be irony.
angela