Here’s a koanish question to twist your brain in a knot: if you push an example of paradox against an example of irony, is the resulting collision paradoxical or ironic? Gauge for yourself with two photos I’ve taken in the last couple weeks. The paradox photo is a sign on a restaurant door in Toronto’s Distillery District. The irony photo is outside a snack bar on campus in Guelph.
Based on these photos, I’m inclined to think that paradox challenges the possible while irony challenges the real. Paradox is America. Irony is Canada. Paradox is love and hate. Irony is living together. Paradox is religion. Irony is science. Paradox is war. Irony is peace. Paradox is the poem. Irony, the novel.
Doesn’t help much with the koan, does it?
