Satire: Part 2

The problem with claiming that my book is satirical is that it leads readers to think it’s going to be funny and you may not find it all that funny.

Fair enough.

If I claimed that The Human Template was a satire, then that’s much a promise of multiple laughs per page. But I assure you, “A book can be satirical without being a satire.”

“What’s the difference?” You may challenge, and you probably will, because you’re kinda like that.  

In my opinion a “satire” is satirical through and through. Satire is a noun indicating a thing built of satire. Satire is its raison d’etre. Remove the satire and chances are all you have left is words. Word to word and sentence to sentence, they may make sense, but if the plot is as satirical as the style, they may not actually hook up in a way that makes any sense at all.

But I merely claimed that my book is “satirical,” an adjective. It’s a science fiction epic that contains some satire. “A generous dollop!” I promise.

“This from the asshole who led me to believe one thing and then immediately started backpedaling,” you may think. In fact, you may even say it out loud because you’re like that. Just can’t hold it in can ya? Nitpick, nitpick, nitpick.

Fair enough. But consider; a book can be thrilling, but that doesn’t make it a thriller. It can be set in the future and not be science fiction. The possibilities are endless.

So, there you go.  Can you tell I just set down a Chuck Palahniuk book (Invisible Monsters – very funny social satire that is biting throughout) to write this blog post? If it’s a parody, it can still be a blog post, can't it? Hmm. Okay, I admit, this is actually less parody than pure imitation that crept through my fingertips and travelled up to my brain. Then, wham, bam, blog; just barfed itself onto the page. I don’t think it’s contagious, but if you find onomatopoeia creeping into your account ledger, I’m sorry…in advance.