The Ironist

Differing Perspectives

Essays

The Angel of the Archive: The Marginalia of God

The Angel of the Archive: The Marginalia of God

Jonathan writes about a mythic book with marginalia that might reveal more than any book today. What kind of an Ironist are You? Take the quiz and find out. It is well known—at least among those who subscribe to obscure theological journals—that Anselmo of Bruges held...

read more
The Angel of the Archive: A Lost Medieval Legend

The Angel of the Archive: A Lost Medieval Legend

Jonathan revives the myth of an angel who collects the edges of the written world. What kind of an Ironist are You? Take the quiz and find out. Among the minor curiosities of the early Rhineland monastic tradition there exists a nearly forgotten medieval legend,...

read more
Folk Wisdom – Part 2 of 2

Folk Wisdom – Part 2 of 2

In this piece, Peter talks about the enduring power of inherited wisdom and how neglecting it leaves us unmoored. In a speech delivered in 1858, Abraham Lincoln foresaw the consequences of the ruinous Civil War that was to devastate his nation: “A house divided...

read more
Folk Wisdom – Part 1 of 2

Folk Wisdom – Part 1 of 2

In this piece, Peter talks about how Hagar’s pride blinds her to the shared moral wisdom all humans depend on. In Margaret Laurence’s novel The Stone Angel, the combative central character Hagar Shipley (nee Currie) tells the story of her own life. The reader must be...

read more
Fire: The Unforgiving Ironist

Fire: The Unforgiving Ironist

Writers have always feared and worshipped the most perilous ironist of all — the restless, consuming, and merciless fire. “It was a pleasure to burn.” Few first lines have scorched themselves so deeply into memory. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury gave us a world where...

read more
Sea: The Oldest Ironist

Sea: The Oldest Ironist

Aashisha traces writers' obsession with the oldest ironist of all — the boundless, beloved, and beautiful sea. The sea is a fascinating concept, not only because water makes up three-fourths of the planet as well as the human body (thanks, fourth-grade writer mind)...

read more
Rowing with Imagination – On Xenophon

Rowing with Imagination – On Xenophon

Nigel writes an encomium for the Cost of Glory... Twenty minutes on the rowing machine and the display will dutifully say I have rowed 3.7 kilometres. But that is not really where I am. In my mind, memories merge. I am rowing from Miletus on the Maeander to Lesbos....

read more
What The Remains of the Day Teaches About Life’s Ironies

What The Remains of the Day Teaches About Life’s Ironies

In The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro holds up a mirror to our own compromises— how much of life we trade away in the name of duty. “The evening’s the best part of the day. You’ve done your day’s work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.” I wish. To be...

read more

Author

  • Nigel Scotchmer

    Nigel’s peripatetic path in life gives him, he believes, a unique perspective on the world around him. He has worked at many occupations over the years from driving a truck, writing welding standards, to being an international salesman,\ accountant and business owner. Brought up in a family that believed that Antigone in the Greek myth was correct to stand up and die for her belief that fairness and truth were more important than the ranting raves of the unthinking mob – his father accepted the consequences of refusing to fire a homosexual in the 1950s – Nigel believes irony is the greatest tool for both encouraging equity and our enjoyment of life. Since irony involves the interplay between emotions, reality and chance, its appreciation can provide meaning to the often inexplicable world in which we live. He said, when interviewed for this summary: “No, we can’t all be heroes, and too often we make the wrong choice, for the wrong reasons – but at least irony can bring peace to us by helping reconcile the warring elements.”

    Nigel loves literature – especially books and poems that deal with universal themes such as love, war, and justice – and is now happily retired from the world of business. Ironically, (like countless retirees before him!), he says he has the ambition to be a great writer and is currently writing fiction full-time….

    Visit him at https://nigelscotchmer.com/