Do people do this non-ironically? Did they ever?
As far as I can tell, the word only ever shows up when deriding something ("this movie thinks it's so deep"), or as a sidenote when defending something ("well I'm not saying it's DEEP or anything, but..."). Or, when said in a funny stoner voice, to belittle someone's excessively academic take ("maaan, that's deep!")
Personally, when praising a movie (book, song, whatever) I can say that it's smart, intelligent, well thought out...or even that it "asks some interesting questions" about humanity or politics or whatever. But I'd never dream of calling anything deep, because it kinda feels like drawing a big red target on it, asking people to take it down.
Why is this? Have we as a culture become wary of giving too much value to art? Is it just a permanent struggle to distance oneself from some antiquated stereotype of a snotty intelectual that believes all the answers to life's questions are in Godard movies? Are we too used to the stuff we like not getting this label that we've come to decide it's not desirable in the first place? Was the word ever really useful at all?
(Full Disclosure: "Deep" as a criticism showed up in the HAUSU thread recently, but it's been a hobbyhorse of mine for years; wouldn't want people to think this thread was prompted by one off-handed mention.)
As far as I can tell, the word only ever shows up when deriding something ("this movie thinks it's so deep"), or as a sidenote when defending something ("well I'm not saying it's DEEP or anything, but..."). Or, when said in a funny stoner voice, to belittle someone's excessively academic take ("maaan, that's deep!")
Personally, when praising a movie (book, song, whatever) I can say that it's smart, intelligent, well thought out...or even that it "asks some interesting questions" about humanity or politics or whatever. But I'd never dream of calling anything deep, because it kinda feels like drawing a big red target on it, asking people to take it down.
Why is this? Have we as a culture become wary of giving too much value to art? Is it just a permanent struggle to distance oneself from some antiquated stereotype of a snotty intelectual that believes all the answers to life's questions are in Godard movies? Are we too used to the stuff we like not getting this label that we've come to decide it's not desirable in the first place? Was the word ever really useful at all?
(Full Disclosure: "Deep" as a criticism showed up in the HAUSU thread recently, but it's been a hobbyhorse of mine for years; wouldn't want people to think this thread was prompted by one off-handed mention.)
