I think the lack of a definable zeitgeist applies to all media at this point. There's been a sort of death of genres in music where your average musician does a lot of genre hopping and people aren't loyal to specific ones. It's not uncommon to hear guitars and dancehall from rappers nowadays, for example. I'm not sure if we'll ever see a definable zeitgeist again. The internet's made this all a wildcard.
@mariteaux yeah I'm a designer so I tend to take a designer's perspective, but I feel like overall the lack of a definative zeitgeist was the logical progression from post modernism to the contemporary internet age. Since so many people were able to mix and mash their ideas and styles for the first time, the boundaries of genre and style have been blurred. I could be wrong of course, but only time will tell! :D
Yeah, I'd agree. I'm not really sure you can cleanly separate styles anymore, at least not on the grand scale it was on before. Personally, I like the mix. Nothing's really out of style. It can all thrive, so long as it works well.
Interesting essay, but I think the reason Comic Sans is hated is its misuse and overuse. When every uppercase A is the exact same, Comic Sans becomes as mechanical as you say Times is. The point about it being useful for dyslexics is fair and I agree completely though.
I did a little redesign and added a short article on Optician Sans. Hope you enjoy it :D