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I think an important factor in irony is that it's an apparent opposition between two aspects of a situation that do not in fact affect each other. So the diabe
by OscarCunningham 5y ago
I think an important factor in irony is that it's an apparent opposition between two aspects of a situation that do not in fact affect each other.
So the diabetic being killed by the insulin truck is ironic, because the contents of the truck no not in fact affect the lethality of being hit by it.
But the death row pardon coming in too late isn't ironic, because the pardon actually could have prevented the death. Whereas your example of 'Speedy' is ironic, because the nickname of the victim has no causal effect on the speed of the pardon.
Examples where the two oposed aspects of the situation actually do affect each other aren't ironic, they're just an ordinary conflict
- coldtea 5y agoI think whether the two elements affect each other is orthogonal to the situation being ironic. It can be an acausual relationship (e.g. as in the classic observation "it's ironic how the bus always arrives just when you light your cigarette"). Or it can be a casual relationship (e.g. "A marriage councelor in an unhappy marriage" or the article's "the diabetic down on his meds, being run over by an insulin truck"- that is the very thing that he seeked and that would helped his health).
- andi999 5y agoActually the 'always' implies a causal relationship. 'while I lit up mig cigarette, the bus arrived' is not ironic.
- ossopite 5y agoI agree with the sibling, I don't think it's _necessary_ for the contradictory aspects to have no casual link. There just has to be some kind of surprising contradiction, although maybe you tend to feel more entertained by the surprise when there is no obvious cause-and-effect. To my mind a pardon that comes too late, or the lottery-bought racing car accident, are unfortunate but don't really hold a striking contradiction. That seems more significant than the causality.