Irony & Narrative Commentary & Control in VL

[Terrance]

> 
> Aside from perhaps adding to some of the humor in the passage, in much the
> same way Heller achieves humor by controlling the reader's expectations of
> what may/may not be fully accessible to a given character *and/or the
> reader* at a particular moment (e.g. the Dead Man in Yossarian's tent who
> wasn't there), the "effect" of these passages also adds to Zoyd's
> characterization by making him (and the reader) seem more out of the loop
> than anyone else in the passage.  

The reader is brought into the loop. Not quite into the center, but
inside. Zoyd remains out of the loop. 


By dropping lines like "He sure would" and
> "These were the first of several rude updates," the other characters (Slide,
> et al) and the narrative consciousness are aware of something that Zoyd and
> the reader aren't. You're correct -- technically, this isn't dramatic irony
> (in its classic definition).  But it IS ironic, no?  Question is, what kind?

I can't remember. Help me out. 

Last time I read VL with this group I decided to read Kierkegaard's
Dissertation. Can't remember why? In it, I think, in the section called
"Irony as a Controlled Element: the Truth of Irony,"   Kierkegaard says
that to master irony is to infuse a work with irony, and that once no
non-ironical holds are left the work frees itself from the author and
the author from it.


  From "Irony as a Controlled Element, the Truth of Irony" 
Kierkegaard's The Concept Of
  Irony, with continual reference to Socrates.

  Shakespeare has frequently been eulogized as the grand master of
irony, and there can
  be no doubt that there is justification for that. But by no means does
Shakespeare
  allow the substantive worth to evaporate into an ever more fugitive
sublimate, and as
  for the occasional culmination of his lyrics in madness, there is an
extraordinary
  degree of objective in this madness. When Shakespeare is related
ironically to what he
  writes, it is precisely in order to let the objective dominate.
  Irony is now everywhere present; it sanctions every single line so
that there will be
  neither too much nor too little, in order that everything can have its
due, in order
  that true balance may be achieved in the miniature world of the poem,
whereby the poem
  has the center of gravity in itself. The greater the contrast in the
movement, the
  more is irony required to direct and control the spirits that
willfully want to charge
  forward. The more irony is present, the more freely and poetically the
poet floats
  above his artistic work. Therefor, irony is not present at some
particular point of
  the poem but is omnipresent in it, so that the irony visible in the
poem is in turn
  ironically controlled. Therefor irony simultaneously makes the poem
and the poet free.
  But in order for this to happen, the poet himself must be master over
irony. But this
  does not always mean that just because a poet manages to be master
over the irony at
  the time of writing he is master over it in the actuality to which he
himself belongs.
  It is customarily said that the poets personal life is of no concern
to us. This is
  absolutely right ...