I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and knows he cannot say to her, 'I love you madly,' because he knows that she knows (and that she knows that he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still, there is a solution. He can say, 'As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly.' At this point, avoided false innocence, having said clearly that it is no longer possible to speak innocently, he will nevertheless have said it what he wanted to say to the woman: that he loves her, but he loves her in an age of lost innocence. [. . .] [B]oth will consciously and with pleasure play the game of irony. Both will have succeeded, once again, in speaking of love.
Postmodernism, Irony, the Enjoyable - Eco
