72 The Satiric Literature
Perhaps the most striking quality of satiric literature is its freshness, its originality of perspective. Satire rarely offers original ideas. Instead, it presents the familiar in a new form. Satirists do not offer the world new philosophies. What they do is to look at familiar conditions from a perspective that makes these conditions seem foolish, harmful, or affected. Satire jars us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked realization that many of the values we unquestioningly accept are false. Don Quixote derides the stupidity of knights Brave New World ridicules the pretensions of science; A Modest Proposal dramatizes starvation by advocating cannibalism. None of these ideas is original. Chivalry was suspect before Cervantes, humanists objected to the claims of pure science before Aldous Huxley, and people were aware of famine before Swift. It was not the originality of the idea that made these satires popular. It was the manner of expression, the satiric method that made them interesting and entertaining. Satires are read because they are aesthetically satisfying works of art, not because they are morally wholesome or ethically instructive. They are stimulating and refreshing because with commonsense briskness they brush away illusions and secondhand opinions. With spontaneous irreverence, satire rearranges perspectives, scrambles familiar objects into incongruous juxtaposition, and speaks in a personal idiom instead of abstract platitude. Satire exists because there is need for it. It has lived because readers appreciate a refreshing stimulus, an irreverent reminder that they live in a world of platitudinous thinking, cheap moralizing, and foolish philosophy. Satire serves to prod people into an awareness of truth, though rarely to any action on behalf of truth. Satire tends to remind people that much of what they see, hear, and read in popular media is sanctimonious, sentimental, and only partially true. Life resembles in only a slight degree the popular image of it. Soldiers rarely hold the ideals that movies attribute to them, nor do ordinary citizens devote their lives to unselfish service of humanity. Intelligent people know these things but tend to forget them when they do not hear them expressed.
体坛英语资讯:Concussion substitutes to be used in trials agreed by IFAB
伦敦警方出新招 破不了案就送花
南非近三成在校女生携艾滋病毒
研究:女性更善于做商业决策
Playing Basketball 打篮球
塞浦路斯否决存款征税提案 救助搁浅
“话唠”用英语怎么说?
金发已过时 男人更爱娶深发女做老婆
难忘童年
女性30岁后结婚收入更高 男性正相反
无成人陪同 14岁以下儿童禁入迪士尼
硅谷机器人聚会-与机器人并肩生活
服用避孕药的女性更喜欢阴柔男
澳商店收取“观赏费” 防止只看不买
解除或放松疫情限制措施需考虑这6项标准
金砖国家领导人第五次会晤德班宣言(中英对照)[1]
2013两会代表精彩语录之九(双语)
晚上起床尿尿会降低白天工作效率
华盛顿非法移民或将获大学助学金资格
李克强总理答中外记者问精彩语录(双语)
当我崩溃在异乡越南的时候
研究:夜猫子收入更高
针对新冠疫情的隔离措施可能要持续到2022年
澳推出2013世界最好工作 数万人争夺
体坛英语资讯:Ghanas Black Queens to participate in Turkish Womens Cup
专家预测:针对新冠疫情的隔离措施可能要持续到2022年
习近平博鳌亚洲论坛开幕式演讲(双语)
体坛英语资讯:Chinese Taipeis Hsieh to ascend to womens doubles world No. 1 spot
研究:过度烦恼可引发炎症
女性出轨的五大现实理由
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |