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A new proposal for an additional line type in Gemini to meet a clear user need.
date: 20-Sep-2020
acdw has drawn our collective attention to the widespread lack of indicators for tone of voice in Gemini. We have heading styles for the officious among us to impose our notions of structure and control on speech, and quotations for the floating speech bubble, but otherwise we are perpetually at risk of misunderstanding one another.
To rectify this clear conceptual and technical gap in the Gemini specification, acdw proposed another line type for Gemini, to indicate sarcasm, or irony.
> ### 5.5.3 Sarcasm lines
>
> Lines beginning with ":^)" are sarcasm lines. This line type exists to more clearly define when an author is speaking in earnest versus when they are joking or being ironic. Advanced clients may display these lines in a different, "jokey" font, such as Comic Sans, or wrap the entire line in "scare quotes."
Many have pointed out the clear benefits of keeping Gemini as a pure and honest specification. Adding a new line type completely goes against the spirit of Gemini.
I cannot indicate my strong support for this position more intently than I am doing here.
I mean, can someone please tell me:
> Where will it all end?
> Irony is a dish best served uncomprehended
Whilst the above approach may serve to indicate sarcasm to the perpetually unperceptive, it is wholly inappropriate for the expression of irony. A possible irony of irony itself, is that it loses its punch when it has to be pointed out and laid out on a plate.
So rather than the line type being able to signify ironic intent, I would contend that it achieves the opposite through its intention to do so.
In our discussion of this on the #Gemini IRC channel, @tomasino shared a nice article from Brainpickings.org that discusses some of the typographical markers for irony that we could have almost inherited.
> "Alcanter’s point d’ironie dripped with knowing humor: in a nod to the sentiment often conveyed by verbal irony, he described it as “taking the form of a whip,” and, aware that irony loses its sting when it must be signposted in exactly the manner he was proposing, the French name for his new symbol was a pun with the additional meaning of “no irony.”"
So from this reading, acdw's proposal for signifying irony would actually have opposite effect, to no longer signify the ironic by being an overt signifier of the ironic. A sort of double bluff.
Therefore another mechanism must be proposed.
The following scheme is proposed as an alternative line prefix to convey irony.
As many have pointed out, there is an inherent deep risk associated with machine-parsed content, so instead the proposal is not to be machine parsed by the client. Instead it is an ad-hoc convention to be implemented by the reader.
Such ad hoc conventions can thus become part of the Gemini specification.
<irony-prefix> ::= "" | '' <character> ::= <letter> | <digit> | <symbol> <whitespace> ::= " " <expression> ::= <character> | <whitespace> | <expression> <irony-line> ::= <irony-prefix> <expression>
By using the prefix in the manner specified, irony can be precisely signified for readers to parse. No more need for there to be any further confusion between author and the reader as to when an ironic stance is being adopted.
This new line type is to be found widely in the wild in many Gemini documents. It has been applied within this document for illustration purposes.
A final couple of questions to be headed off at the pass:
> Q. Can this proposal implement Morisettian Irony?
> A. No.
> Q. Is Morisettian Irony, actually, like, Irony?
> A. No.
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