Irony in Chronopolis by JG BallardJ. G. Ballard gives us a good idea of ​​the irony of 'Chronopolis' right from the start - the actual name 'Chronopolis' - city of time - is an ironic name for a city that has no time. Throughout history the vision of Ballard's time acts as the fulcrum of the story, around which the plot revolves. The central point of the story is a timeless world, without which the story would be meaningless, none of this would have happened and it would be just like our world. The impression of time that we are given at the beginning of the story is ironic, because it seems that time is important, but not really understood; we are told that Newman is in prison because he understands time - yet while in prison he controls the situation through his knowledge of time and organizes the day's events for Brocken (the sergeant on the block); “Brocken…was counting on Newman to plan the day for him.” The fact that Newman is “serving” because he is obsessed with time is the first example of irony through language offered to us in Chronopolis. This brings our attention back to the irony of Ballard's view of time and pushes the reader to look deeper into the text, thus discovering more about the way time works in the world of Chronopolis. what happens to Newman, but instead the story has a flashback to when he was a child and became interested in time. In this way the story is anachronistic: it is not in chronological order, but instead moves between different moments in time. This brings our attention to the way time works in “Chronopolis.” Due to the fact that they have no time, their world is confusing and they think it has no real order - and this is reflected in the way Ballard writes the story. We are then told the story of Newman's childhood, and how he slowly discovers time and becomes interested in it. Next Stacey (Newman's English teacher) explains why time is against the law: “You can time [someone], know exactly how long it takes them to do something… so you can make them do it faster".