--- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > > > On Thu, 10 Jun 2004, Jerry Friedman wrote: > > > > > --- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > > > > > > In Modern English Usage, Fowler gives a fairly simple definition: > > > > > > Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, > > > consisting of one party that hearing shall hear and shall not > > > understand, and another party that, when more is meant than > meets > > > the ear, is aware, both of that "more" and of the outsider's > > > incomprehension. > > > > > > He goes on to list three main categories of irony: Socratic irony > > > (Socrates pretends ignorance to manipulate the dogmatists and to > > > amuse his followers), dramatic irony (the point being that > > > audience knew the story already), > > > > This seems to be related the irony that Paarfi mentions in his > > treatment of Tazendra--the reader is amused to understand things > > that she doesn't and see her differently from the way she sees > > herself. > > In my view nothing Tazendra says is ironic - she speaks and does not > understand, but no one hearing her fails to understand. It's > conceivable > that in fact Tazendra is much smarter (in some sense) than people > realize > - then it would be ironic that her hearers (say the other Musketeers) > think she's dumb, but we know otherwise. However, everybody is in fact > aware that she's not that dumb. This is humor, sometimes complex humor, > but I don't think it's irony. I think that, for example, Sethra Lavode's "That's lucky" is an example of undeniably ironic talking to Tazendra. > In fact, I can't at this time identify _anything_ in the Paarfiad that's > ironic. (Except perhaps the fact that Adron destroys the empire in > attempting to save it - his scenes with Aerich in particular have a > powerful ironic character.) I'd hazard a guess that Paarfi eschews this > mode as a historian. But not as a romancer. He specifically says (PotD, Ch. 18) that his treatment of Tazendra is in the ironic mode. I'd say his treatment of Erik qualifies too. Nothing else ironic? I venture to disagree. Dramatic irony: The whole Paarfiad is an example of dramatic irony because we know so much that the characters don't, just as Sophocles's audience knew what Oedipus was going to find out. Then there's a higher level of dramatic irony, as Brust sometimes invites us to feel superior to Paarfi with his House prejudices and his prolix claims to concision. Situational irony: Morrolan et al. and Zerika et al. passing other like cliches in the night might count. Verbal irony: Everywhere, as the characters say "do me the honor" when they mean "insult me", refer to fighting as "play" and "festivities", and such. This may become so familiar that it loses its ironic force. Jerry Friedman __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com/