Hi,
Conformist No. 2 signing in for my inaugural post.
The gentle but persisting nagging of the Nine Pound fraternity has dragged me back to the blogosphere...
Today's topic will be Irony and its misuse...
By far the best and smartest deconstruction of Irony I have ever read occurs in "A Heartbreaking work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers.
That is an unusual book. At it's heart is a very touching and endearing tale about a twenty year old raising his 8 year old brother. Both parents die in quick succession, he steps into the breach - and it is genuinely heartbreaking in places...
If you want to buy it - go ask Amazon, or your local library - not to buy, just to read... Sorry, my html skills are too rusty to allow a suitable direct link...
The deconstruction of Irony however is not actually in the book... It is either in the foreword (which is about 5o pages) or in the addendum (which is about 30 pages). It is also deliberately written in the smallest font I have ever seen in a book...
The point, however is that Dave, quite cleverly notes the difference between coincidence, odd things, funny things and weirdly appropriate things - and irony...
Most of the time, Irony is not ironic at all...
I think I prefer the Urban Dictionaries second version of irony
2. irony
of, resembling, relating to, or tasting much like iron
eg1:"The anvil was delicious, but irony."
All of this is a preamble to the fact that it struck me as odd that to protest the fact that Child Labour is still very much the thing in China, GOAL organised a group of kids to protest today...
Surely, forcing kids to protest Child Labour is... Ironic?
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
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Good things come to those who wait. :-x
ReplyDeleteOkay, the child labor thing is pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the fold, Number 2. Engage.
"The gentle but persisting nagging of the Nine Pound fraternity"
ReplyDeleteKnew there was a reason I nagged you to turn up here! Welcome too. Now, give us your SSIA money.