Bill's Song

"Irony and Pity. When you're feeling...Oh, Give them Irony and Give them Pity. Oh, give them Irony. When they're feeling...Just a little irony. Just a little pity..." Bill Gorton is singing this to Jake. I was confused as to why he was telling him this. He is trying to make Jake be a writer and use techniques to help him. When he asks him to say something "ironical" Jake fails. When he asks him to say something pitiful, he says RObert Cohn. Bill says, "you ought to be ironical the minute you get out of bed. You ought to wake up with your mouth full of pity." These quotations occur on page 118-119.