Covid-19: A Crappy Sense of Irony
Several times now we’ve touched on the importance of being able to look at this pandemic from different angles. Perhaps a view through the lens of irony is worth examining. When looking to where irony may have presented itself in this past year or so, my mind immediately goes to the countless social media posts in late 2019. The optimists had covered our timelines with “2020 is going to be my year!”, only to have their hopes and dreams of new adventures and partying hard be crushed by the all-too-heavy fist of Covid-19. (Maybe this summer instead? — Eh, let’s not jinx it.) However, Linda Hutcheon holds a different, rather unique definition of irony that I believe may offer a more personal reaction in representing the pandemic. Her views on irony relate more to having a specific understanding of a concept that’s unanimously known among certain cultural groups. To explain this idea, she uses her personal example of not having caught on to the ironic component of an art exhibit in Germany, as she was new to the culture. It wasn’t until she had spent several years actually living there that she was able to re-reflect on the piece and recognize what she had previously been blind to due to her lack of integration into the German culture. If we were to apply Hutcheon’s definition of irony to the Covid-19 pandemic, perhaps we could find some similarities in the infamous toilet paper “drought.” Years from now, when we’re describing the pandemic to those who hadn’t been around to witness it, we’ll be able to tell them about that strange time when people were buying out shelves in the bathroom supplies aisle of every store. (Does anyone even know why that was what people were hoarding, anyway?) It’s no near-death-war-story — and thank god for that — but it nevertheless was a concerning time for many of us. But those who hadn’t witnessed the odd event won’t understand, and, after giving us a weird look, will probably tell us that that was just a strange dream we had. But for those of us whose anxiety had pinged a bit after eyeing our dwindling stash of toilet paper, it had been a genuine concern. All in all, though, let’s be truly thankful that the hardships of those of us who were the most fortunate only went as far as worrying about having to resort to other methods for our bathroom needs.
