Comments on: Isn’t It Antitypical? Beyond Morissettian Irony

By: Johann

Johann — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:12:19 +0000

Would “twist of fate” be a good expression for the examples mentioned here? And how about “irony of fate”?

“Ironie des Schicksals” (= irony of fate) was the first expression in German that came to my mind.

By: Gab

Gab — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:13:26 +0000

Is it irony if you go to the gym with a water bottle from McDonald’s?

By: perich

perich — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:01:41 +0000

Stokes: less creative people might use the word “karmic.” I think the term “resonant” works well. You can almost hear the chord being completed.

By: stokes

stokes — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:31:05 +0000

The problem with this is that antitype only covers situations in which something is predicted by something in the past, and that’s not the only place where people misuse the term irony. For instance, people find it ironic that Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was himself executed via guillotine. This is doubly wrong. First of all, it’s not even true… and even if it were true, it wouldn’t be ironic. Or antitypical. And calling it just a coincidence isn’t satisfactory, because like Fenzel says, it *feels* a lot like irony. Any thoughts?

By: Jem

Jem — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:24:35 +0000

Great post, fenzel. I’ll definitely be using the term antitype in the future, accompanied by a plug for the site.

An off-topic question: in the Star Wars Last Supper, who is Judas? I imagine that Lando would be many people’s first answer, but I’d personally cast my vote for George Lucas.