posted
As promised . . . more in depth, perhaps, than a grade school primer, somewhere north of teenage high school, or form school for Commonwealth audiences.
Satire's dictionary definitions and explication essay texts vary, divide parts, conflate parts, assert this or that valid or invalid assumption, refuse some valid criteria, interject invalid criteria, assert some are valid though dubious. A comprehensive approach entails investigation of the whole; a personal approach self-determines self-limitations and this far . . . and no farther.
Irony, satire, and sarcasm overlap and otherwise are distinct, divisible expression modalities: forewarned, forearmed.
In sum, satire, a subtext of moral truth discovery and self-maturation adjustment reversal, expresses insights about human vice and folly, exposes, reveals, portrays facets of moral aptitude: sapience, (Homo sapiens, right?) Sapience is to a species, explicitly, not individuals, and is a species' aggregate capacity for moral aptitude.
Moral aptitude's basis is a spectrum of social interactions' influences by, for, of, and to a social cohort unit, for noble, wicked, neutral, or combinations thereof intents (re: want-problem antagonism, motivation, complication; stakes risked polar opposites causation, conflict; and tension, a tone's emotional attitude toward a social-moral subject and topic). Moral aptitude is to individuals, cohort group entities, social-culture institution forces, and humanity as a whole.
Noble: selfless; wicked, selfish; neutral: of little, if any, social-moral ramifications. Responsible noble-wicked-neutral combinations give necessary care to the self and to the common good. Socially irresponsible combinations give care to the self's status gains more so, and take from the common good, to the common good's detriment, a zero sum scenario. The "greater good" fallacy asserts some many gain, of the self's status group most, though at the expense of some many lose, others of other status groups, another zero sum scenario criteria.
Humans are social beings, arguably, the most social species extant of all, valid due to, as far as is known, perhaps knowable, only humans possess sufficient social awareness to acknowledge moral aptitude. Many or most life species, though, are social, whether consciously aware of moral aptitude, or aware to limited degrees, or due to survival instincts, or altogether unaware, is as yet unknowable.
Satire exposes such human moral-social deficits and attainments, irrespective of if for humorous effect or macabre or sober serious drama, or melds thereof.
Naturalism's pessimistic nihilism's rejection of moral aptitude notwithstood -- exposes human vice and folly through sarcastic scorn, mockery, ridicule, and discredits of human virtue and prudence wisdom. An ironic congruent opposite, Naturalism shows forth the vice and folly of contempt for and denial of moral aptitude.
Parody and lampoon satire use farce and humor to entertain, yet also satirize a subject target, an individual or individuals, a cohort group entity or groups, or social-culture institution or institutions' forces of vice and folly, that is, antisocial conduct, for a self and a self's group, a self's social entity cohort, or a self's social-culture institutional forces, like stock market day trader investments for the sake of immediate self-gratification greed, glutton, lust, pride, envy, sloth gains at the expense of others' cost and loss and wrath.
All worthwhile literature is satire, period: Stage and screenplay scripts and performances, poetry, creative nonfiction essay, fiction, aural and visual creative expression performance, and, anymore, New Journalism and its attached "news" gossip narratives. Genuine Objective Journalism, rare and far between anymore, is absent satire altogether, just the known and knowable facts of a newsworthy matter, no opinion commentary whatsoever attached. But what is the social delight value obtained from bald fact expression?
The several most referenced satire texts here at Hatrack include, number one most common, our host Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game; next most, a trailed-behind pack, include J.K. Rowling and the Potter cycle, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Middle Earth, One Ring cycle; next most, a cadre of many, includes Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight cycle, Suzanne Collins and the Mockingbird, Hunger Games cycle, Ernest Hemingway and The Old Man and the Sea, among several many more. The farther trailed-behind main group comprises numerous other referenced narratives.
Is Ender's Game satire? Not a humorous motion portrait at all, is sober serious and macabre. Not a parody or lampoon. What then establishes the novel as satire? The novel exposes human vice and folly. Not sarcastic overall, though some dialogue expresses sarcasm -- the cynical irony of adults manipulate teenage children into total war through war game simulations, albeit for humanity's survival against a superior enemy's aggressive agenda. Ender's Game Menippean satire targets adult mistreatment of children, for a "greater good," actually, targets "greater good" vice and folly fallacies altogether.
Most renowned and acknowledged humorous satirists of recent times: Jonathan Swift and Maria Edgeworth, though macabre humor and farce. They are Menippean satirists, expose vice and folly of human social-culture institution forces. Menippean humor satire is a lost art, supplanted most so by polarized us and not-of-us them caustic Juvenalean satire humors anymore. Respectively, Swift satirizes government political forces' vice and folly. Edgeworth, social-political forces' vice and folly, family social life especially.
Tune into a cable television "news" gossip broadcast for a minute or so: Juvenalean caustic sarcasm satire that targets individual politicians' vices and follies. Hey, several news channels, a dozen or so or more, and only a few daily event reports worthwhile, yet twenty-four hours of airtime to fill, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five or -six days a year, now eighty-plus years along from television culture's social distortions, or all of human time's grapevine dissemination, really.
Of course, those channels fill airtime with myopic, distinct to pundit and audience niche opinion commentary, caustic sarcastic satire targeted at public government individual politicians' vices and follies. Juvenalean satire. The coincidence of "Juvenal" and juvenile's situational irony congruence is not to be missed.
Horatioan satire targets cohort-group entities, some subversively through actual factual, non-sarcastic though caustic cynical reports. Local daily news channels, for example, nonconsciously, maybe subconsciously, perhaps consciously, after all, dramatic local-scandal fears sell airtime, dramatize and sensationalize, satirize "Othered" identities, exclusions' moral pageantry on parade forces: ethnic minorities, low-income status persons, non-culture dominant identity persons, social dissenters of alternative lifestyles, and women, low-status folks' violence, and collar-less, blue-collar, and pink-collar crimes.
Esoteric and exoteric cohort-group forces are centrifugal, force out and exclude, or centripetal, persuade and force social cohesion and inclusion. General forces of social exclusion or inclusion, and by degree of each, are satire's vice and folly portraits' deeper or deepest subtext, next most to tension's less deep reader-effect emotional subtext.
Creative expression Horatioan satire portrays cohort-group entities' vices and follies and fall-outs and consequences and ramifications therefrom. John Grisham, each and all of his legal thriller novels, satirizes the legal profession and overall jurisprudence cohort culture generally, white-collar and social elitists' crime, cohort-group entity satire targets, for example. Horatioan satire.
Menippean satire is of most appeal, due, one, to no extant specific individual or individuals, per se, particularly targeted and cause likely audience alienation therefore; two, likewise, no extant group entity satirized, per se, either; three, portrays moral truth discovery and maturation reversal, for good or ill or both; four, that the satire type of its fullest realization obtainment targets everyday-common and widespread social vice and folly, obvious to all, of others' vices and follies, not, per se, of the self's, which a self will not observe, or would refuse or will assert "everyone does _it_ all the time" for self-justification, would assign external blame and yield personal responsibility likewise, and invoke hypocrisy pro and con assertions of a tu quoque, you too, justification mannerism; human vice and folly forces all on their lonesome own.
Albeit, dramatic criteria demands personas and settings and events of some familiar and relatable yet exotic audience access appeal, specific enough personas and settings and milieus and events developed with which audiences can identify and stand apart from. Relevant, judicious, and timely Menippean satire dramatic event, setting and milieu, and character and source personae (narrator, implied creator, real creator), and covert message and moral developments portrayed altogether for audience immersion and appeal's sakes.
Menippean satire examples of excellence: George Orwell, 1984; Ray Bradbury, Farhenheit 451; Mark Richard, "Strays" (Ice at the Bottom of the World collection, evergreen.edu hosted PDF); Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, among many Card cycles; C.J. Cherryh, The Cuckoo's Egg; Isaac Asimov, Foundation; Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mists of Avalon; Patrick O'Brien, Master and Commander; Flannery O'Connor, "Good Country People", "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"; Dorothy Parker, "The Banquet of Crow"; Alice Munro, "Save the Reaper"; Margaret Atwood, "Stone Mattress"; Nevil Shute, On the Beach; J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for Barbarians; Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants; Tobias Wolff, This Boy's Life; Jack Kerouac, On the Road; O Henry, "Gift of the Magi"; oh so many Menippean prose satirists, many much are of worthwhile prose.
Satire, like creative expression overall, is a social arts and sciences, among the many social sciences and arts. "Soft" prose in particular entails make-believe, even fantastic social science satire, of each and all genres, irrespective: science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, mystery, thriller, "literary," fiction and creative performance essay, poetry, script.
Floor open for satire discussion, assertion contributions, counter-assertions, questions, requests for elaboration, and points of information.
Can't anything be aatirized? I mean, the left can satirize the right, and the left will like it and it will make the right angry but they won't change. And the right can satirize the left, and the right will like it and the left will get angry but not change.
So it's just divisive?
I think you mean more than this, but I'm not sure. I do use cynicism in my writing.
And to try to answer my question, I guess I would use it to give people more awareness of what is happening in their life. Is that what you mean?
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posted
You're thinking of satire in the sense that most people use the word-social commentary couched in biting humor, sarcasm and/or exaggeration.
Extrinsic asserts, as I understand it, basically that any story with social commentary is satire.
It's valid, just very rarely used. Most other stuff with social commentary is usually just called "stuff with social commentary" or "dystopia" and such.
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More personal awareness, yes, of a consciousness of self and others' moral aptitude mannerism.
Yes, factions satirize their opposition factions, caustic Juvenalean sarcasm satire hypocrisy, that is. About as centripetal a social force virtue as candy floss preparation. Centrifugal forces, rather, an eliminationism force.
Eliminationism: "Would no one would rid me of this turbulent priest?" (Henry II, said and taken as a command for court attendants to eliminate Archbishop Thomas Becket.) Similar was said of a certain recent, turbulent Washington Post correspondent.
Pluralist Menippean satire, though, satirizes such turbulent factional nonsense, ideally to persuade social cohesion and inclusion in its place.
Did you hear about the lightbulb that burnt out in the town hall's subbasement sump mop closet? All and sundry weighed in every which-a-way, denial, blame, and all: mayor, town manager, town counsel, party ward bosses and factions, unions, light socket manufacturers, plumbers, medical techs, professors, rocket scientists, lawyers, book and garden clubs, candle makers, biker gangs, psychologists, conspiracy theorists, temperance movements, the press, vegan burger salespersons, refugees, citizens and citizen civil rights advocacy groups, county, state, and federal legislators, judges, and executives and their staffs, NGOs, United Nations' staff, foreign statespersons, Code War social media warriors, etc.
The lightbulb replacement total cost exceeded $,$$$,$$$ in all talk and no action expenses; actual revenue return to the job and manufacture economy, ¢¢. Transformation of any social-political faction moral aptitude, nil. All and sundry patted themselves attaboys on their backs for successful lightbulb replacement, several years later, and false self-promotion stolen from the false demotions of others.
Much gossip followed about how good the old lightbulb was, that only the downstairs janitor stiff -- who was terminated without cause so that a majority faction crony could take the job and sleep away hangover day shifts -- ever saw lit. The old lightbulb was interred at sea with full honors. Its consumption by a dolphin killed the mammal. And the cheese stands alone.
posted
Good satire ridicules the current mores and sensibilities for what they are; social shackles forced on the few by the untutored masses. Regardless of their academic achievements in paper shuffling and finger pointing.
Phil.
BTW, the 'few' comprises roughly 40% of the population, the 'Privledged Few' roughly 10%. And the untutored masses? I'll leave that to you to work out.
[ December 23, 2018, 04:49 AM: Message edited by: Grumpy old guy ]
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So, that's funny. And it might not offend anyone, because no one is that concerned about a light bulb. Actually, everyone is going to agree that other people spend too much time worrying about worthless things and trying to avoid blame.
No one's going to see that as being about them. If they do, then they'll just be angry.
It made me think of the huge amount of energy put into the issue of people refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.
But I decided that was an important issue, something on the fault lines of our culture. I currently wish people were actually discussing that. Instead of treating it like a legal problem.
Could you be including cynicism? I will do that.
Ugh, she hated cute young girls. Cute little dogs were almost as bad. They had been struck by a tornado, for heaven's sake. Why weren't they dead? Or at least suffering some horrible injury? She sighed -- sometimes the world just wasn't fair.
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EmmaSohan posted: ". . . Or at least suffering some horrible injury? She sighed -- sometimes the world just wasn't fair."
Situational irony, exquisite. Cynical, too, yes. Satire? Whom, what cohort, or whatever social force is the target? A moral matter of pride, certainly. Vice pride's opposite virtue is humility. Self before others, consciousness only of self, utter lack of empathy. Menippean satire that targets pride's vice and folly.
An onomatopoeia figure exclamation, interjection "Ugh"; an apt deesis figure, too, "for heaven's sake," invokes "heaven" to give witness to unwanted tornado survivors, that curses heaven, instead of a godly prayer or summons for aid to the injured. Cosmic irony. Hilarious! Schadenfreude's amusement obtains from the uncalled-for negative evaluation of injured storm survivors yet is irony.
The irony is a congruent opposite contrary to social expectations. Subtext, she knows she must render what first aid she can, irrespective of how self-inconvenient; surprised and content, too, the injuries are survivable and manageable. Figure, litotes: "Deliberate understatement, especially when expressing a thought by denying its opposite." (Gideon Burton, Silva Rhetoricae, rhetoric.byu.edu)
And platinum-standard prose. Flawless.
The lightbulb satire is cynical, yes, a shaggy dog story that emulates numerous, briefer lightbulb jokes. How many ____ does it take to change a lightbulb? One janitor, all the world to make a turf zit a mountain range. Caustic commentary about external blame assignment and utter denial of self-blame for a trivial circumstance, any circumstance: is pride's vice and folly satire, also. ---- "Untutored" knows no status station distinction, per se. Tutored or untutored are states of existential conscious of self-identity, potentially applicable to all and sundry, re: sapience and moral aptitude. Let thee who is without trespass sin cast a first stone -- though a trespass itself.
Folklorists label that type of situational irony a conundrum, a cognitive dissonance regards other social sciences' labels, know and own thy hypocrisy the persuasive intent of the Biblical parable. Reason for Socrates self-execution by hemlock draught? Gadfly he unwisely trespassed against those who believed themselves wisest and were shown unwise. Socrates' most notorious fame, the Oracle of Delphi Pyhtias said he was most wise, because he knew himself unwisest. History remembers Socrates, not his accusers.
quote:Originally posted by extrinsic: Did you hear about the lightbulb that burnt out in the town hall's subbasement sump mop closet? All and sundry weighed in every which-a-way, denial, blame, and all: mayor, town manager, town counsel, party ward bosses and factions, unions, light socket manufacturers, plumbers, medical techs, professors, rocket scientists, lawyers, book and garden clubs, candle makers, biker gangs, psychologists, conspiracy theorists, temperance movements, the press, vegan burger salespersons, refugees, citizens and citizen civil rights advocacy groups, county, state, and federal legislators, judges, and executives and their staffs, NGOs, United Nations' staff, foreign statespersons, Code War social media warriors, etc.
The lightbulb replacement total cost exceeded $,$$$,$$$ in all talk and no action expenses; actual revenue return to the job and manufacture economy, ¢¢. Transformation of any social-political faction moral aptitude, nil. All and sundry patted themselves attaboys on their backs for successful lightbulb replacement, several years later, and false self-promotion stolen from the false demotions of others.
Much gossip followed about how good the old lightbulb was, that only the downstairs janitor stiff -- who was terminated without cause so that a majority faction crony could take the job and sleep away hangover day shifts -- ever saw lit. The old lightbulb was interred at sea with full honors. Its consumption by a dolphin killed the mammal. And the cheese stands alone.
Pluralist Menippean satire. [/QB]
Thanks for this, extrinsic. Lifted my flagging Christmas spirits mightily!
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I don't know how to discuss this. I normally don't like ridicule even when it attacks something I don't like, but a recent commentary in an online news was amazing.
It starts with citing the words from someone's speech and saying "the heartfelt emotion, the truth, the elegance, the care and deeply humanitarian consideration of the man who wrote them, [redacted], were so beautifully evident.
He was being sarcastic! But there was no clue! (Other than no one says that, as far as I know.)
Then:
While watching [redacted]'s historic message..., I was reminded of Jonathan Swift's classic...
Citing 1729 Swift? Really?
The rest is ruthlessly logical and I end up learning things and thinking about the issues from a totally different way.
There was nothing funny about any of it, to me. Does that mean it wasn't ridicule?
I just . . . I guess I never thought of satire being used that way. I think it's the first satire I ever liked, though it might have helped that extrinsic suggested the value of ridicule and I started being aware of how often I was cynical.
I still wouldn't have enjoyed it if it had attacked something I liked, though.
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Sarcasm's ridicule, mockery, scorn, and discredit target some aspect, as do satire's vice and folly or wisdom and prudence target an aspect of the human condition. Mass culture generally associates humor with irony, satire, sarcasm, parody, and lampoon, though more sublime appeals if sober serious, deadpan whatever.
Prose, actually, often uses extended irony appeal types rather than per se humor appeals. Dramatic irony is all but a given for prose satire. Dramatic irony is when one person, persona, or cohort knows the circumstances, and others do not know. At the least, a writer knows the dramatic movement through to an outcome conclusion. Practical irony is another; that is, wiser to leave a persona discover a moral truth by self-initiative than bar or shape or usurp leadership for moral truth self-discovery. Socratic irony, too, teases, tempts, entices self-initiated discovery.
Due to Juvenalean satire targets individuals for sarcasm and is easiest and most common, a type of schadenfreude attack appeal, satire aficionados favor it least. Horatioan targets group cohorts is next most favored, moderate challenges and commonness. Menippean satire is most favored for its strongest challenges, least commonness, and targets of broad though focused human condition moral aptitude facets.
"the heartfelt emotion, the truth, the elegance, the care and deeply humanitarian consideration of the man who wrote them, [redacted], were so beautifully evident."
At one and the same time, that above is irony's congruent opposites, satire, sarcasm, and targets an individual, a cohort, and a human condition. Actually, litotes is the figure: "Deliberate understatement, especially when expressing a thought by denying its opposite." (Gideon Burton, Silva Rhetoricae, rhetoric.byu.edu) Plus, that expression is also courtly irony: condemns through praise or praises through condemnation. Sublime. Amusing to me, too.
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