Sinister Dealings

Sinister Dealings

{In keeping with our tradition of welcoming a variety of perspectives on everyday life, we at The Ironist are open to submissions of matters relating to public interest raised by aggrieved contrarians. We recently received the following from an anonymous contributor....
What is Irony?

What is Irony?

“It’s as clear as mud.” Since mud is not clear, the speaker cannot mean what he says. (Let us assume he is male). In fact, he means that what he has heard or read is unclear. Very unclear. He says the opposite of what he means to emphasize his difficulty in...
An Introduction

An Introduction

The modern world has suffered in the past century, and into the present one, from the tyranny of monomaniacs, from murdering monsters of depravity like Hitler, Stalin, and Chairman Mao, to cultural purists infected with the arrogance of privilege, like Trump and...
Happy Valley

Happy Valley

If you haven’t seen it yet, Happy Valley is a television series you should see.  The last of the series just ended so I want to promote it before it disappears under another surfeit of maudlin Disney rehashes which seem to never stop.  You really do want to stay up...
Ozymandias, Egyptian Tombs & the Song of the Harpist

Ozymandias, Egyptian Tombs & the Song of the Harpist

Shelley’s sonnet Ozymandias uses the Greek name for Ramesses II, the most famous of Egyptian pharaohs, and was written as a great statute of him was in transit to the British Museum in a wave of awe and Orientalism sweeping Europe.  The poem captures both the power...