All 4 Uses of
irony
in
Oryx and Crake
- Once in a while he'd come out with some hoary maxim, served up with a wry irony that did nothing to reduce the boredom quotient;
p. 42..0irony = saying one thing while meaning something else
- Stop snivelling, son, says his father's voice. Pull yourself together. You're the man around here.
"Right!" Snowman yells. "What exactly would you suggest? You were such a great example!"
But irony is lost on the trees.
p. 162..9irony = saying one thing while meaning the opposite
- "So, you got a girlfriend?" ... "I mean, there's quite an array of babes to choose from." He meant this to be ironic. He couldn't picture ... Crake with one of them....
p. 207..2 *
- "You've got the answers?" said Jimmy. He'd come to enjoy needling them, because who were they to judge? The artists, who were not sensitized to irony, said that correct analysis was one thing but correct solutions were another, and the lack of the latter did not invalidate the former.
p. 243..1
Definition:
-
(irony as in: verbal irony) saying one thing, while meaning the opposite or something else -- usually as humor or sarcasm
(With this type of irony, it's not uncommon for the words to say one thing while the tone-of-voice and/or context says another.)editor's notes: This is sometimes referred to as "verbal irony."
All forms of irony involve the perception that things are not what they are said to be or what they might seem.