Saturated in Satire

Satire is so prevalent in our culture these days. We see it in the media, in the arts, and even in everyday conversation. Isn't satire supposed to be a genre, not an all encompassing mode of speech and writing that we use without even thinking? Satirists of the past, such as Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift, were we renowned for their wit and accessible writing. Some may even call Swift the "father of modern satire". His work, "A Modest Proposal", detailed a thorough plan for dealing with famine in Ireland: cannibalize children. This of course sounds monstrous, but that is the point. The main goal of a satirist is to evoke a change in the reader for the better. The satire we see nowadays is all humorous. Before, this was not something that was mutually exclusive to the genre. All of the "South Park's" and "Family Guy's" of the world, while still attempting to stay true to the purpose of satire, have desensitized their audiences so much that they don't even think about what they're experiencing. What's the point then? The state of the English language, especially in the US, is even worse. When was the last time you remember having a conversation where someone wasn't using sarcasm? What about something being ironic? I can't either. We can't even take our daily lives seriously anymore. It's disgusting.

Oedipus

Just recently I read Oedipus the King/Rex/Tyrannus/etc. and it provoked a lot of reactions from me. My first thought upon finishing the work was whether Oedipus' situation was fate's doing.


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Ishmael

Ishmael, written by Daniel Quinn, is a novel about how there needs to be change. Now, that is the theme of many books, but this book specifically was very influential for me pre-high school. The novel chronicles the discussions between an unnamed narrator and a gorilla appropriately named Ishmael. The narrator begins his journey with Ishmael when he delivers

What I expect from IR Novel #3

Reflections on Hamlet

The Trial of the Trial

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My Life and "The Destructors"

Hello again, denizens of the Internet! Life keeps on trundling on for me. All the usual things are on my mind: homework, scouts, music, that one episode of DS9, et cetera. I've been cast as Grimsby in Dunbar's production of The Little Mermaid (Jr.). That's something, I suppose. I'm just having a lot of trouble being motivated about things right now. Now that the initial "back-to-school excitement" has faded, I've fallen back into blase attitude about academia, much to my dismay. I know it's Senior year and that I'm supposed to be yukking it up with my friends while I can, but I can't even do that. I guess you could say I'm depressed. I've often wondered if I have Clinical Depression, but I feel like it would be a lot more noticeable if this was the case. 

Anyways, it was recently assigned that my AP Literature class read a short story called The Destructors. During class, we discussed who the protagonist of the story was, their respective antagonist, their conflict, and what the correct interpretation was. While we had all come up with various ideas, Mr. Mullins had told us that none of us had hit the "accepted" interpretation. One of the things mentioned once or twice was how the gang was filled with a bunch of snot-nosed brats. I think this is putting it a bit lightly. These kids in this gang were in their developmental years during the war; because of the destruction The Blitz wrought, the children in turn became destructive. They were entropic, to say the least. This new generation of children attacked a kindly old man and destroyed his house. Mr. Thomas (aka "Old Misery") had kept his house in very nice condition, considering it was at least two hundred years old. T. says he doesn't hate the Mr. Thomas, but he continues to light the bank notes on fire as he says this. They, in a sense, aren't lashing out against Mr. Thomas, but the old generation as a whole because they no longer feel connected to it and want to create something new. After all, if you think about it, creation is a form of destruction.

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Literature I'm reading:

• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

Stuff I want to read:

• Journey to the West (abridged, also known as Monkey King) by Wu Cheng'en 

                - One of these days, I'll get to it! I swear!

• Revolt in 2100 by Robert Heinlein
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick