High Desert Sketches: Satire strikes (back?) in the Last Frontier

A recent national poll shows that the regular readers of this column are exceptionally intelligent, unusually witty and unbelievably charming people. The poll also shows that none of these people have bad breath.

However, occasionally a reader may stumble upon High Desert Sketches without realizing the nature of the beast. The content of High Desert Sketches falls within a form of writing called "satire."

This form in Western civilization is best represented by Jonathan Swift and the Frenchman Voltaire.

Swift, an Irish minister, once outraged (actually, he did it a lot more than once) the English by suggesting that an Irish famine could be overcome if the Irish only learned the proper way to cook and eat children.

Voltaire's work involved criticism of 17th century French royalty and the aristocracy. Because of his satire, he lived 14 miles from the Swiss border. After publication of many of his works, he would spend time across the border in Switzerland waiting for the heat to cool down.

Satire is in the eye or the ear of the beholder. Because of this fact, everybody has his/her own idea about satire.

"I'm only 17 and I know what satire is," says Alpine High senior and column assistant Angel Rodriguez.

He says "Quoting Merriam Webster, '1: a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn 2: trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly.' "

Leo Dominguez, a world leading authority on raising money for small state universities, states, "My definition of satire is simply the cognitive conjuring of complicated criticism that causes comical critical and convoluted condemnation of a condition."

Roxann Chavez, Avalanche general manager and one of the country's leading ad salespersons, says (perhaps after reflecting on Mr. Dominguez's quote): "I've always considered satire to be like plagiarism - the most sincere form of flattery."

Exaggeration of facts - and, in some situations, ignoring them totally - is one element of satire.

I am certain that Jonathan Swift did not intend for his recipes to be used for cooking Irish children.

In the past, I have stated in a definition of an Aggie: "They are small, smelly and furry little rodents found throughout Texas." Of course, this is an exaggeration; most Aggies don't smell. I have even stated that you can identify the unsafe Mexican trucks and their drivers because the drivers will be wearing sombreros and attempting to clear the road by shooting at puppies, kittens and small children.

To my knowledge no Mexican trucker has ever shot at a kitten. They're just too fast.

In short, satire engages in an extremely dangerous activity; it attempts to make you think. It seldom persuades and often infuriates, but I always try to do it with a sense of humor.

If Aggies didn't have a sense of humor, I would have been dead long ago.

Justice of the Peace Jerry Sotello, known as the punniest judge west of the Pecos, gives us a glimpse of a satirical line: "Fred Allen said it best: 'I like long walks ... especially when they're taken by people who annoy me.' "

High Desert Sketches: Satire strikes (back?) in the Last Frontier

A recent national poll shows that the regular readers of this column are exceptionally intelligent, unusually witty and unbelievably charming people. The poll also shows that none of these people have bad breath.

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