irony

An indispensable tool for the writer in all confessional forms -- memoir, essay, poem -- is the fun-house mirror of self-irony.

Looking at oneself slightly askance or in a painfully winking manner has the benefits of staunching pathos, of moderating over-earnestness, of subduing ego, of preempting the tendency to be naturally boring.

That way, the reader isn't horrified or made unreasonably queasy. Self-irony is a tool for turning dubious material and uncalled-for impulse into a semblance of art.

~ TB