Re: irony
Luke Seemann (lukeseem@stardot.com)
Fri, 31 Dec 1999 11:06:59 -0700 (MST)
> if, say in a satirical play, there are people on a stage discussing
> the terrible problems they have, e.g. deciding which cheeseburger
> tastes better, mcdonalds or burger kings, and photos of starving
> children are projected onto a screen behind them at the same time,
> the effect will certainly be (intentionally) ironic.
Yes, indeed. This is a perfect illustration of irony: When something said
is different from what is meant.
Ironic, but quite different from this week's news. George Harrision
stabbed at the moment people are discussing the assassination of John
Lennon is coincidental, because it's merely two related things happening
at the same time. There is neither tension nor satire.
Allow me to quote from George Carlin's "Brain Droppings," which has one of
the better explanations:
<carlin>Irony, for example, deals with opposites; it has nothing to do
with coincidence. If two baseball players from the same hometown, on
different teams, recieve the same uniform number, it is not ironic. it is
coincidence. If Barry Bonds attains lifetime statistics identical to his
father's, it will not be ironic. It will be coincidence. Irony is, "a
state of affairs that is the reverse of what was expected; a result
opposite to, and in mockery of, the appropriate response." For instance:
If a diabetic, on his way to to buy insulin, is killed by a
runaway truck, he is the victim of an accident. If the truck was
delivering sugar, then he is the victim of an oddly poetic coincidence.
But, if the truck was delivering insulin, ah! Then he is the victim of
irony.</carlin>
(via http://www.lclark.edu/~lgreene/humour/Barry/irony)
This is not merely pedantry. Irony is a sophisticated literary device; I'd
like to keep it that way.
L.