 Drama: May 26, 2010 Issue [#3755] |
  Drama
This week: Dramatic effect need not be 'dramatic' Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet
To run amuck, and tilt at all I meet.
Alexander Pope
Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.
Lord Byron
Welcome to this week'd edition of the WDC Drama Newsletter ~ I'm honored to be your guest host once again. 
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Greetings, I'd like to explore human folly and its exposition in literature prosaic and poetic. Satire does this with both irony and exaggeration, subtle or overt as the writer chooses. Satire provokes though by problematizing seemingly positive aspects of the world, critically examiing negative themes, and creative use of language (i.e., irony and exaggeration). It can be funny, tragic, melodramatic, but always provocative, focusing on or attacking human vice or folly through irony, derision or wit.
Satire is best expressed in literature and drama (both stage and film). In the 17th and 18th centuries, writers were able to appeal to a shared sense of normal conduct from which vice and folly were seen to stray. In this classical tradition, 'formal' or 'direct' satire directly addressed the reader (or recipient of a verse letter) with satiric comment. (Consider earlier also the plays of Shakespeare.) The alternative form of 'indirect' satire usually found in plays and novels allows one to draw his/her own conclusions from the actions of the characters (for example, the novels of Evelyn Waugh). (Definition of the two types of satire courtesy of Literary Dictionary.
Fables and fairy tales (in their original form) were often satirical comments on society of the times. And, just as melodrama is often maligned by those unfamiliar with its variety of tones, so too satire has become associated over time with a lower merely commercial or bourgeois form of writing. Voltaire would beg to disagree, as would Shakespeare, Horace, Moliere, Sartre, Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels a satirical look at society in its basest), Mark Twain, Dickens, Oscar Wilde. You can see from the writers I've noted the variety of satirical expression in verse and prose. Read again or think back on some of your favorite writers, the ones whose work you grew up reading, whose voices remain relevant and readable, either provocative or entertaining, through ages of living. How many use satire, either subtle or overt, to focus on the frivolity or injustice or inopportune actions of leaders of their times?
Satire lives on as a vital and creative form of writing, to provoke, entertain, and perhaps effect change even if it be in the vision or acts of one reader. Consider it marginalized by those whom it exposes, whose ideas or dogmas are brought to light.
Because satire criticizes or provokes in an ironic, indirect way, it frequently escapes censorship in a way more direct criticism might not, and the characters or scenes you craft often remain in your readers' minds long after the politician has left office or norms have become passe or defunct.
So, satire is a viable and fluid form of verse and prose, creative and vital, not trivial. Know your facts, and mirror them with a twist of wit, to create a satirical image in verse or prose that will give your readers something to think about as they are entertained in the 'otherworld' you've created for them out of the mundane.
 Take a common perception, dogma, ideal, theme or issue and give it an alternative twist; often, but not always negative, sometimes merely a different means of perception. Weave your image in fantasy, a mystery, horror, adventure, comedy - it's your vision to re-create!
Do the research. Know the facts before giving them a snug twist. Begin the story or verse as though it's real, and your readers will be hooked and believe. Then, when you misdirect it not mere play on words; your readers will see and appreciate the irony whether subtle or overt. The more 'normal' your readers think it is, the more impact your words will have in taking them for a time out of the mundane.
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Check out a few of our writers who use satire for dramatic effect to provoke and entertain and let them know if they've lead you for a time out of the mundane
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As a guest host, I don't have a formal ask and answer, but would like to share several comments in response to our exploration of melodrama last month. I invite you to visit with the writers who have shared their comments and enjoy the creative and versatile verse and prose you will find in each of their portfolios
Presenting: SantaBee 
Kate, awesome newsletter about melodrama. Very informative and tasty - with fava beans. hehe. Smiles, Steph
Presenting: Ẃeβ࿚ẂỉԎḈĥmas 
Great Newsletter, Kate. I loved the info on writing melodramas!I was pleasantly surprised to see my item, "DO NOT ANNOY THE UNMEDICATED PERSON" highlighted in your Newsletter. Thank you for that BTW!!!
Regards,
Webwitch
Presenting: Jeff 
Really enjoyed your NL this week, Kate. I agree that melodrama's gotten a bad rap... to the point where people even use it as a criticism! "I liked it, but it was a tad melodramatic." It's not the melodrama that's the problem, it's how you use it.
Presenting: Adriana Noir 
Great newsletter, Kate! I love the light you shed on melodrama. Certainly makes it feel more palable!
Thank you each for sharing your thoughts and for sharing your words in prose and verse that always transport me as a reader out of the mundane ~ Write On!
Until we next meet,
Write the Muse Creative
Remember ~ 'all the world's a stage,'
and our words direct the players 
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading |
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