Dramatic Irony

I am currently on page 92 of The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich. I am enjoying the book for various reasons. First, my favorite genre is autobiography. Although the book is not an autobiography, it is a detailed account of Mark Zuckerberg's college life and journey to the founding of Facebook. Second, the narrative, which is told mostly in Eduardo Saverin's point of view, gives intimate details about the inner workings of Harvard University. I am fascinated by the descriptions of the exclusive "Final Clubs" on the Harvard campus.  Most importantly, I already know how the story is going to end.

The reason I know the resolution of The Accidental Billionaires is not because I saw the movie The Social Network. Because Facebook is enormously  popular today, it is obvious who ends up on top. It is well-known that Mark Zuckerberg, not the Winklevoss twins or Eduardo, is the founder of Facebook. Thus, it is almost as if I create my own dramatic irony as I read. Additionally, I infer that Ben Mezrich realized  his reader knows that Zuckerberg is considered Facebook's creator. Mezrich includes a chapter in which the Winklevoss twins and their friend Divya contemplate why Zuckerberg is ignoring their calls and avoiding conversing about the Harvard Connection (the idea Zuckerberg steals that is similar to Facebook). They eventually conclude that Zuckerberg is "just another computer geek without any real vision" (91). Of course, the reader knows that Zuckerberg is the opposite of "just another computer geek," who in fact has as much vision and drive as all three of them combined. While the twins think Zuckerberg is working for them, Zuckerberg is in fact stealing their idea and making it his own. Consequently, the reader knows more than the characters do.

So far, the story of Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg is compelling and entertaining.