So Is This Irony Then??

Ever since Alanis Morissette did "Ironic" and comedians did sketches and people laughed at her incorrect use of the word I've had problems with the whole concept of irony. I just don't really understand what it is. I've looked it up in dictionaries, I've had writers try to explain it to me and they've got me more confused.

I know what it isn't. It's not getting stuck in traffic on your wedding day. Unless you're a town planner. It's not when you get jammed in a door because you're too fat, unless you're rushing to a weightwatchers meeting and it's not when it rains on a summer's day. They're all just bad luck.

Our Alanis sings about getting a black fly in your Chardonnay. Well even I know that's not ironic, particularly if you live in Sri Lanka where it would be normal. Maybe if you were a pest controller who specialised in wines and spirits it might rank fairly high up in Achcharu's most ironic situations for the week.

In general I'm clueless about this whole irony concept. If I was a bloke who wrote dictionaries then I think that might be ironic, but frankly I'm not sure. Well I'm sure I don't write dictionaries.

One thing I'm totally certain about though is that the following is ironic:

I've never had a single thing published in my life. I did win first prize in the Petersham Flower show's art and craft section once, but you know me, I don't like to brag. Like Cerno, Java and a couple of others I was the "victim" of a bit of journalistic stretching. My post on Sri Lankan Mothers was copied and pasted and put into that Lakbima magazine. I'm a bit chuffed that it was used even though I wasn't asked.

The irony?

I'd quite like to tell my parents that I've had something published. When I hit my forties they pretty much gave up any hope they had of me achieving any sort of success. Academic bro has things published left, right and centre, just google "academic bro" and you'll see what I mean. But me, well writing's never really been my thing. So now I've written something that someone likes, all about Sri Lankan mothers and I dare not tell my parents because my Sri Lankan Mother will quite probably kill me.

That's got to be irony no?