In 1988's The Real Frank Zappa Book, FZ muses that in addition to the world ending in fire and destruction, one other possiblilty is the world ending in 1) nostalgia or 2) paperwork.
I can see why: up until the 1980's nostalgia was an emotion that old farts felt towards times in their distant past. But, by the 80's, as Zappa notes, the cycles of nostalgia kept getting shorter and shorter. The 70's included nostalgia for the 1950's, and nostalgia for the 70's had already appeared by the 1980's. Zappa predicted that soon people would be having nostalgia for things that had just happened, were happening, or hadn't happened yet.
And now we can add to this list of possibilities the world ending in irony. Take for example Snakes on a Plane. The Internets are convulsing in paroxysms of ironic glee over a film that hasn't even yet been released. Used to be, back in the 90's (yes, I'm feeling nostalgia for only 7 years ago), one would intentionally expose oneself (and others, regretfully) to 1970's or 1960's pop culture in order to enjoy it with a deep sense of irony. I even gave in to this fad on occasion: I recall actually sitting down with friends in the 90's to watch a double-bill of "KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park" and Styx's "Kilroy Was Here"– truly awful, steaming peices of shit enjoyed with thorough dollops of irony. But now, what can we callthe Snakes on a Plane buzz except perhaps "pre-release irony hype".
One of my favourite modern prophets was again ahead of his time: with Snakes on a Plane, Cheepnis has finally graduated from the thrift stores and midnight shows to the first-run googleplexes. Wowie-zowie.
