In a Slate article, Mimi Swartz says that irony "isn't exactly larded into the Potter books." Holy Scabbers, what version of the books did she read?

The combination of medieval magic, English boarding schools, and modern kids is ripe for irony, and Ms. Rowling delivers. House-elf liberation movements. Standardized achievement tests for wizarding. (Yes, the O.W.L. is the SAT of magic! And the N.E.W.T.--Nasty Exhausting Wizarding Test--is the GRE.) A werewolf teaches Defense against the Dark Arts. A "whomping willow" has an easy-to-use on-off switch. (To be discussed further, no doubt, in Prof. Fred Weasley's "Ergonomics of Magical Devices" course in a future Potter book.) Even the vomit-flavored candy (Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, a Risk in Every Mouthful!) is a magical commentary on modern life.

The Potter books are a post-modernist's delight. Underneath some extraordinary story-telling, beyond the obvious research, woven through the well-constructed background and continuity of the Potter world, there is much to suggest that Ms. Rowling has been exposed to Formalist theory, and to Bakhtin's theories of dialogism and multivoicedness. She understands Kierkegaard's multiple views of irony. Irony becomes a tool for thinking about the world, neither good nor bad, a simple recognition that everything exists at multiple, often contradictory levels. The literary magic of the Potter books is based on taking these different voices and different cultures as given, and letting them play off each other naturally.

The true magic is in taking the magic for granted. The irony of "ordinary magic" is a metaphor for the magic of ordinary technology. We live in a magical world, and irony is a tool for understanding how the extraordinary becomes commonplace. Irony is a Socratic tool for understanding and transcending our limits (too bad Plato didn't learn that from him!).

Beyond all that is the irony of those who object to the Potter books because they teach magic and witchcraft, people who condemn these books as immoral. These books are built on a foundation of human virtues, including friendship, loyalty, achievement, integrity, teamwork, and community, values which are rare enough in the entertainment available to children today. The children of the Potter world learn to respect those who deserve respect, and to recognize those who do not deserve respect. If only there were more such books to give our children a framework for comprehending the modern world. Who would not want their children to be exposed to such values? (Funnymentalist Christians who practice the Dark Arts, one would guess.)

No irony in the Potter books, indeed.