What is the advantage of using satire instead of criticizing a situation or problem head-on and straightforwardly? The main advantage to
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The purpose of satire is to criticize something of which the writer disapproves, usually in hopes of bringing about a change. Satire criticizes by saying what it doesn’t mean or by saying much more than it means. It blends a critical attitude with humor and wit. Usually, modern satire attacks a group, an abstraction, an injustice, or a prejudice. What is the advantage of using satire instead of criticizing a situation or problem head-on and straightforwardly? The main advantage to using the satirical approach is that it grabs attention and provokes thought. And it is fun. Everyone hates to be preached at; everyone enjoys a nice “mind game.” How does satire work? By reducing to the ridiculous whatever it chooses to attack in one or more of these ways: 1. It may grossly exaggerate (as Orwell does in 1984 by taking totalitarian control beyond its 1949 level). 2. It may playfully reverse the facts (as Swift does in the fourth book of Gulliver’s Travels, when men (the Yahoos) are beasts and horses (the Houyhnhnms) are intelligent, rational, and virtuous creatures). 3. It may transfer the situation to a different area where its ridiculousness will be more apparent (as a writer annoyed by excesses of time and motion studies in a government bureau once did when he applied the same principles of the efficiency experts to the equipment and conduct of a symphony orchestra)
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