Indeed, in my (and nothing but humble) opinion, reading and writing satire is one of the greatest pleasures known in the literary realm. This in no way implies that satire is easy to write, because nothing is further from the truth.
Many people think that satire and comedy are synonymous. It should be noted that although many satires use humor, not all comedies are satires. As a minor point of interest, in the Middle Ages a “comedy” was any play, book, play, etc. that “he had a happy ending (hence Dante’s Divine Comedy, where he ends up with Beatrice).
Dr. Quick, in the “Preface” to On the War of Books and Other Short Pieces, defines satire.
Satire is a kind of glass in which the beholders do not generally discover the face of everyone, but their own; which is the main reason for this kind of reception when he meets in the world, and that there are so few. He was shocked. But if it happens otherwise, there is no great danger; and I learned from long practice that I could never exasperate evil from those senses: for anger and fury, though they add strength to the nerves of the body, are nevertheless found to relax and restore the mind. every effort makes his weak and powerless.
There is brain, which is one thing with haste to endure: the master gathers wisely, and governs his little stock with agriculture: but among all things he is careful to subdue the whips of his betters, because this will boils everything into impudence, and will find no new supply. A genius without knowledge of the cream, which gathers it to the top at night, and quickly whips it into foam with a skilful hand; that below, unless it be thrown to the swine.’
After a few days of personal discussion, I selected 10 titles based on the authors’ unique representation of genre and style. In no particular order or person’s acceptance (except Bierce), however, they provide a good example of my “it’s my article and I can write it any way I like” philosophy of writing.
I know that many will disagree with these selections, and because of the urgent criticism I have prepared this short defense: What then?
N. B. Unless otherwise noted, all links to Project Gutenberg web copies are freely available. Please consider helping out by dropping in a few bucks or paying in kind.
***
Epistles of John the Bull (1712
Available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2643
John Arbuthnot (1667 – 1735).
John Arbuthnot was a contemporary and friend of Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and John Gay (among others). The nature of this book and the cutting, and it contains a huge saturated, I have often wondered why it is hidden unknown.
An allegorical book dealing with the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 – 1714, between France, Bavaria, and Spain on the one hand, and essentially the rest of Europe on the other). The war is presented as a lawsuit filed by Bull and his friends against Louis Baboon (Louis Bourbon; Louie XIV of France) over who will sell clothes and other linens to the heirs of the late Lord Strutt (Charles II, next to the Hapsburg King of Spain. .
There are numerous other figures representing other nations or important persons of that era. Thankfully, Arbuthnot added many notes to his manuscript to help readers of his time and these notes have been published in an HTML file at Project Gutenberg. If you want to brush up on your Latin history before reading John Bull, Wikipedia’s entry on the War of the Spanish Succession. but a short treatment of this matter.
***
On the War of Books and Other Short Pieces (1704
Available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/623
Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745)
Most people think that Jonathan Celer wrote Gulliver’s Travels (actually, the title given by Celer to his masterpiece
The title I have chosen is not well-known, but, in my opinion, it is Jonathan Celeri’s greatest work. The title looks at the metaphorical battle between the works of “Ancients (Classical Authors)” and “Moderns” (Enlightenment-era and/or contemporaries) while also remembering the social and political contexts of that era.
This anthology also contains a true story of a prank by Swift (so writing Isaac Bickerstaff) against a contemporary writer/almanac /etc. by the name of Partridge. Quick gives this reason for the actions of “Bickerstaff”;
"It is written that the English people should not be further imposed by the common almanac makers."
Bickerstaff writes a parody of almanacs (what we call tables) produced in his era with one twist: he “predicts” that a partridge will die on a certain day. On the day before mentioned, Bickerstaff writes that Partridge died in the night. When Partridge wakes up, he finds that no one believes him to be alive because they read in Bickerstaff’s newspaper that Partridge is dead. Much more to history, and to every part of pure genius.
***
Candid
Available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19942
Voltaire (nee François-Marie Arouet; 1694 – 1778)
This book is probably the second most widely-read, after Gulliver’s Travels, satire in European literature. As a reader once commented, “Voltaire after all.”
The story of the arrival of Candide (Voltaire’s average citizen) and Dr. Pangloss, which illuminates the light and means “the best of all possible worlds.” Unfortunately for both men, their voyages take them to places that seem to represent the “worst” possible worlds.
Their arrival in Lisbon coincides with an earthquake, which the Church interprets as a sign of God’s wrath. The Inquisition is promptly summoned to drive away the heretics and infidels to burn at the stake to keep God from sending another earthquake. By this round and “Dr. Pangloss and his audience Candide, one to speak and the other to listen with approval, were apprehended.”
The concluding sentence of this book is after Candide and his friends have finished their journey. In the conclusion to yet another defense of the “best possible world” philosophy by Pangloss, Candide speaks of a line whose meaning has been debated for 200 years: “True enough… but we must go and work in the garden.”
***
Fenimore Literary Crimes Cooper
Available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3172
Diary of Eve
Available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8525
Mark Twain (nee Samuel Clemens, 1835 – 1910)
It is now time to observe the Master American satirical literature. Mark Twain was only one and I seriously doubt that God will send us another until we clean up our acts (not to mention carpets, carports, environments, and anything that is not yet worthy of a cleanup).
As you can easily imagine, choosing a literary treatise to represent the impossibility of a twin character. Instead I have chosen two short stories, which are unknown to many readers, but should give the reader an idea of the prevailing literary mind.
Rather than attempt to summarize these works, I will present representative sections from each. From Cooper’s Fenimore Literary Crimes:
" Cooper's art has some flaws. At one point in Deerslayer and in the narrow space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper scores 114 attacks against literary art out of a possible 115. He breaks the record.
"There are nineteen rules of literary art governing the realm of romantic fiction - some say twenty-two. In Deerslayer Cooper violated eighteen of them.
And about Eve’s Diary:
Another experiment was following me yesterday from afar, what he could see if I could. But he could not do that. I think he is a man. I had never seen a man, but I saw him as one, and I am sure that he was. I feel that I am more curious about him than about any of the other snakes. if it is a reptile, and I believe it is; for he has blue eyes and blue hair and has the appearance of a serpent. No hips; to wax parsnip; when he stands, he separates himself like a derrick; therefore I think it is reptilian, although it is architectural.
For I was afraid at first, and began to run every time, because I thought I would be excommunicated; but I soon found that he had to leave, so that afterwards I was no longer afraid, but had been looking at her for several hours about twenty yards, which made him afraid and unhappy. At last he was much troubled, and climbed the tree. I waited for a while, then he left and went home.
***
Earth beyond the Stroke, in
Collecti Ambrose Bierce, Vol. I,
Available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13541
Devil’s dictionary
Available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/972
Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914?).
I will admit that I was swayed by Bierci’s favor and have been so since I saw weeks (20 minutes). production (I believe the program published by General Electric) of his short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (Not funny at all, but probably among the greatest short stories of all time).
The first story mentioned above, Terra Beyond the Strike is pure Swiftian and is a satire of politics and society in “The Gilded Age” (a term first used by Mark Twain in the book of the same name). The narrator of the story recounts his adventures in such places as Mogon-Zwair (where work is considered a luxury and the citizens give employers) and Tamtonia ( where holding political office is the highest good and its leader is “… depraved from birth, the Tamtonians having great reverence for such, believing them to be divinely inspired….”
Rather than attempt to sum up the Devil’s Dictionary, I will defer to another of my heroes, H.L. Mencken:
“… it remains to be wondered at that his character is so little remembered. In The Devil’s Dictionary there are some of the gravest epigrams ever written. “Ah that we could fall into the arms of women without cutting hands. ‘ : ‘ It is difficult to find a match for Oscam himself. … a man: he who has dined has been ordered to take care of the cat. *
If you haven’t read Bierce, you’re missing one of the sharpest characters in American literary history.
***
Available at http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Animalium_Farm/anglorum/.
George Orwell (1903 – 1950)
For years anyone caught in the Soviet Union could hope to have a copy of the Animal Farm in their possession, but at best, a. to go into prison or into exile in Siberia. In the irony of all ironies, the link listed above is a slave to Moscow.
Animal Farm tells of what happened behind the animals of the Manor Farm, led by the Old Major (Lenin) Mr. Jones (“Tsar Nicholas 2) overthrows and establishes a communist society under the umbrella of “Animalism”. ), after the viburnum proposes that the mill was built so that the animals would have more leisure.
As in Stalinist Russia, the animal revolution fell into dictatorship, as a classic example at the time when the animals see the sign written on the side of the barn (Kremlin) changed from “All animals are equal” to all animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.
When I read this book, I remember Orwell himself being a Marxist-Leninist who had abandoned the communism practiced by Stalin during WW II.
For the Satire Student and Die Hard Satirist
Laughter: An Essay on the Sense of Comedy
Available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4352
Henry Bergson (1859 – 1941)
Exposition on Comedy and the Use of the Comic Spirit
Available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1219
George Meredith (1828 – 1909)
***
*H.L. Mencken: A Mencken Chrestomathy, New York: Vintage Library (first published 1946, Alfred A. Knopf; reprinted 1982) p. 495
