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Recommend me some satire..

GogMickGog

07:41 / 20.06.05

Chaps,

I have the coming summer to dredge up a final dissertation topic and I want it to be someone of a blackly satirical nature, preferably pre-1900.
any suggestions?

Have already covered the big hitters (Swift, Waugh, Firbank etc), and I desperately want to study someone a little off the beaten track.

O assembled Barbeloids, can you be of help?

Kavboj

10:25 / 04.07.05

well, you might try Gogolj (Gogol).

Whisky Priestess

14:09 / 04.07.05

Tobias Smollett is mildly satirical.

What about Thomas Love Peacock? He's super fun, very bitchy and much neglected.

Do Peacock do Peacock do Peacock do Peacock do Peacock!

sleazenation

14:32 / 04.07.05

Voltaire's classic Candide is surely required reading here as is Alexander Pope's the Dunciad.

15:12 / 05.07.05

Bulgakov is post 1900, but enjoyable Soviet-era satire if you're into that. He makes good dissertation material, anyway.

paranoidwriter waves hello

15:38 / 05.07.05

I read 'The Messiah' by Gore Vidal last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Dark, deep, and funny satire of the highest order (IMHO).

Pre 1900: off the top of my head I'd say (some of) De Sade. I can't find my edition of his collected works, but one piece I particularly remember as being a "corker" was entitled something along the lines of 'Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man'.

I second Bulgakov as well.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:36 / 06.07.05

Totally. If it doesn't absolutely HAVE to be pre-1900 then The Master And Margarita is not only a great book, but as sentimentity says there's more than enough in there to get a dissertation out of it and still have change for the bus home.

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

10:33 / 06.07.05

Tristram Shandy? It's sort of satire, if rather gentle, and if it gives you an excuse to read it, then all the better...

A fall of geckos

15:01 / 06.07.05

There's John Wilmot - "A God-haunted atheist, pornographer and panegyrist of "that lost thing (Love)," misogynist and protofeminist.."

He's an interesting character who lived the life of a total rake (there's an amazing film to be made about his life). His poetry ranges from some of the most beautiful love poems I've ever read, to brutally misanthropic pieces that seem to want to tear apart the entire world. For the extremes of his writing check out A Ramble in St James' Park and Absent from Thee.

I was taught that he came from a period when they were re-discovering Roman satire, and his poetic style came from a misinterpretation of the origins of the word. Rochester’s satire was thought to be linked to Satyr – creatures both bestial and human whose lashing animal anger mocked the world around them.

He certainly has more in common with Catullus (and Chris Morris) then Pope.

This Sunday

01:17 / 08.07.05

D.A.F. de Sade, yes, that one. Anything from '120 Days...' to the plays and shorts. Unless you're one of those people who think he wasn't satirizing but parodying... or just a realist.

Ambrose Bierce. El Gringo's a bitter bastard but he's good for a righteous laugh.

Whisky Priestess

13:39 / 08.07.05

It occurs to me to wonder how much of Rochester Sade read, if any, and how much he knew about the Evil Earl's lifestyle too ...

paranoidwriter waves hello

14:44 / 08.07.05

Not sure if you can strictly call him a satirst as such, but may I also remind you of good old Uncle Anton Chekhov?

I remember reading a story in a friend's collection about a writer / offical who is visited (a la 'Scrooge') by different puntuation marks (anybody out there know what that was called?). Pure Guiness.

Digital Hermes

06:44 / 13.07.05

I don't know too many pre-1900's, but I know a post: Thomas Pynchon. In particular, 'The Crying of Lot 49', is a great satire of paranoia. 'Gravitiy's Rainbow' is a satire of many things, WW2 to start off with.

GogMickGog

11:11 / 14.07.05

Thanks for numerous responses, luvvies.

Candide is a firm favourite already, and I will be certain to look into Gogol et al.

I have settled on a combination of Lear/Carroll, and a smidgeon of Peake (post 1900, I know, but a slight bending of the rules is permitted). My notion is that the "nonsense" tag belies the layers of reference inherent to each work..a topic to explore elsewhere?

Totem Polish

14:50 / 14.07.05

That's something that could be quite pertinent when you look at Pinchon, seeing as his books are so labyrinthine and, some would argue, convoluted that the plot appears as nonsense and whats left are the meanings and inferences that build up the satire. Though I might be going a bit far there...

Lord Morgue

02:45 / 17.07.05

Voltaire! Voltaire and Johnathan Swift.
Man, Gulliver's Travels is a lot more vicious than it gets credit for these days...

GogMickGog

09:43 / 23.07.05

Absolutely!

The whole sequence in the science academy (poo humour a go-go), and the descriptions of the Brobdignagian masses, outsized tumours n' all, are all far more cruel than any adaptation likes to admit (lookin' at you, mister Danson).

Love it.

Elsewhere, Tale of a tub is rather mean too, but never quite musters the spite of Gulliver. Am also loving early Aldous Huxley (espec. Crome Yellow) as his satire is tempered by genuine affection and sweetness.

paranoidwriter waves hello

19:52 / 23.07.05

You could also get into satirising academia in general by reading David Lodge. I probably shouldn't recommend someone who's work I haven't actually experienced, but I'm told by a few people whom I respect that he's a good, funny, and insightful read.

TeN

02:32 / 25.07.05

Candide is a great one, as is Gulliver's travels.
Other good choices include: Ubu Roi, Satyricon, The Devil's Dictionary, the cartoons of Thomas Nast, and the later works of Mark Twain.

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