0017 The Ironic, The Sarcastic, The Sardonic...

These weapons of literary abuse so prevalent in the 17th and 18th century days of literary gents in coffee-houses have fallen into desuetude these amicable days but for the sake of Eng. Lit. studies it might be useful to run them through: they have Greek roots which we should know; it keeps them tidy in the first-aid box of the literary mind: there’s irony: that’s from the Greek meaning ‘simulated innocence’; in practice, saying the opposite of what you mean; the Greeks used it in tragedy – the man who says all’s fine and dandy as the black cloud of disaster gathers; we use it more for humour; as in ‘ you’re a right barrel of laughs, Mona..’ then there’s sarcasm: in Greek, wow, to tear the flesh; gnash the teeth, or simply to speak bitterly; using irony (as above) , to express contempt: ‘that meant to be funny, then…? ’ and the sardonic: Homer used it to describe bitter, mocking laughter, which for undisclosed reasons was associated with the people of Sardinia.. Imagine, perhaps, a tinful of no-head-to-no-tail sardines able to read their label..