Harold Bloom said that irony is the key to reading well, 'even if many of your teachers will not know what it is, or where it is to be found.' And it is remarkable how often, even when watching plays or television, people object to the use of irony. There's a schoolteacher's insistence on explaining, choosing sides, things being unraveled. The idea of implication, or of things meaning the opposite to what they seem to be, is not something many people who read and watch culture are interested in.