Satire

   /ˈsætaɪ^ər/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [sat-ahy^uhr] Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

2.	a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.

3.	a literary genre comprising such compositions.

This week’s readings were perhaps the most enjoyable since the Wilmot poems we read earlier in the semester.  Above all I enjoyed Swift’s modest proposal.  I mean seriously, eating the infants of the impoverished.  Come to think of it, I think I had read that before.  It was the core text of Bush’s ”No Child Left Behind” policy.  Defoe, I admit, is still a little hard to wade through.

 So, to the task at hand.  Satire exists in creating distance between the superficial position assumed, and the perception of an underlying intent of the text.  By stressing an earnest tone in A Modest Proposal, proposing a humble offering while delivering its absurd messege.  

Antislavery Narratives

First things first, what is with all the adjectives?!  Both of this weeks readings, as well as a good many others besides, are overflowing with superfluous language of decoration and finesse.  My modern mind and eye are not well adjusted to the style.  I suppose this is a legacy of the renaissance, which certainly had no dearth of description.

During my readings I tried to place myself in a pre-emancipation frame of mind, to get a sense of how these pieces might have been received.  Aphra Bhen’s short romance “Oroonoko” was really not all that different from any other swashbuckling adventure story.  In fact this is probably the text’s strongest antislavery premise.  By framing the story of a black couple in terms that a British audience would find exciting and sympathetic, Behn is essentially making the argument that master and slave are essentially the same.

That being said, Behn’s defense of the rights of slaves was a little wanting.  Oroonoko and Imoinda seem only to be deserving of more equal treatment as particular exceptions and not a rule.  Behn goes to some length, and spares no adjectives, to describe how superior, brave, modest, athletic, strong, humble, noble, beautiful, honest, etc ad nauseum.  Of all the laurels that she bestows on the royal couple, it was Oroonoko’s cultured education which stood out most to me.  By depicting him as an intelligent prince of his people who loves the history, language and culture of Europe, Behn reveals an inherent cultural superiority.  I would argue that this is the same character trait that would make Equiano palatable to european readers of his day.  Not so much that he was human being who suffered, but that he was a human being who could quote from paradise lost.

One other thing a found intriging about Behn’s text was the way in which it tended to depict everyone as slaves in one way or another.  For instance the way in which Imoinda is bound by the obligations of her culture.

Did he just… yeah, he said “Fucking Post”!

Oh those dirty 18th century poets.  I honestly had no idea.  Forget Restoration Poetry, this unit should have been called Shock and Awe. 

The first poet threw me off a bit.  “The Virgin” was so didactic and prescriptive.  The singsong lyricism of Katherine Philips’ rhyming couplets merged with the moralizing content of the poem to produce a kind of catechism to be recited by proper young ladies who hoped to please prospective husbands.  I found myself deeply pitying the poor girls who followed Ms. Philips instructions to become perfectly boring, with “conversation, at once, free/ from Passion, and from Subtlety” (Demaria 253).  What kind of girl aspires to “prudent negligence” (Demaria 253)?  After reading “The Virgin” and “Parting with Lucasia, A Song”, I was convinced that they were the product of a society that highly valued virtue and moral rectitude, and which believed strongly in the perfectability of the self.  Most of all I came away with the strong opinion that women of the so called “Age of Experience” had genitals for only one reason (and not one that would particularly interest Sir Wilmot).  

Aphra Behn, on the other hand, was a welcome breath of fresh ribaldry.  Far from the speaker in “Parting with Lucasia”, Cloris succumbs to the sticky sweet temptations of the flesh.  Although she remains a more or less passive participant in the thicket shanannigans, laying “half dead and breathless”, with “soft eyes”, “a victim to Love’s Sacred Flame”, Cloris none the less participates.  All to often in paternal cultures the reality of female sexualty is absent.  Add to this that Behn uses Lysander as the name for her amourous shepherd and I think there is a good case to be made

for “The Disappointment” as a dig at male dominated society.  Lysander was a pretty major Greek general during the persian wars.  His story is one of those featured in Plutarch’s Lives, so it is reasonable to assume that Behn would have been aware of him given her familiarity with that other A-list Latin author, Ovid.  Given the martial prowess of his namesake, Lysander’s inability to “perform the sacrifice”, immasculates the whole heroic tradition.  

My question of the day is this: why does Cloris recoil the way that she does?

And then there is the Second Earl of Rochestor, John Wilmot.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that this man died from an STD he contracted while composing the sequel to “The Imperfect Enjoyment”.  Beyond its shock value, however, I found Wilmot’s poems fairly thin.  Their wit is undeniable, but it is all punch line and no impact.  “Singior Dildo” became tiresome after a while.  I could imagine it scrawled on the inside of a toilet stall in the Cockpit playhouse and all the gentlemen of the audience getting a good laugh at the expense of the society women Wilmot names.  This sense of the ‘old boys club’ pervades Wilmot’s writing.  One can picture him, drunk at a party, being asked to recite, consertedly pushing the prostitute off of his lap so he can stand, swaying, and say the king’s “Scepter and his Prick are of a length” (Demaria 351).

Introductions

There were a few faces that I recognized in Thursday’s class, but there were more that I didn’t.  Not surprising really since this is only my second semester at UNBSJ.  I thought I’d make this preliminary post to introduce myself.  

I transferred here from Kwatlen College in Vancouver BC after I moved here almost two years ago.  I’ve been chipping, laboriously away at my degree for quite a while now.  September 11th 2001 was my first day of University.  Currently I have five semesters left, taking three courses a semester.

I am married, and I have a daughter who is a year and a half old.  The three of us just moved into our new home on the Kingston Peninsula.  Over the summer we have pretty well gutted the place.  All the years I spent doing construction to pay the bills has paid off. 

Aside from the renovations I spent the summer reading a ton of modernist literature for courses I took with Professors Moore and Creelman (American novel, and British prose and poetry respectively).  I also work full time at the Sitel call center.  Between 11pm and 7am I take calls for Microsoft.  Yeah, it rocks.  All told my schedule keeps me pretty well occupied, not to say exhausted.  If you find I’ve fallen asleep by all means slap me.

So, here’s to a good semester.  Looking forward to what the rest of you have to blog.

Scott

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