SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!

 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: Father Terrence who wrote (45690)7/15/1999 1:06:00 PM
From: jbe  Read Replies (1) of 108807
 
I am only an innocent, if interested, bystander in this dispute, Terrence. I can only point you to one definition of satire (which includes such sub-genres as parody):

Satire arouses laughter or scorn as a means of ridicule and derision, with the avowed intention of correcting human faults. Common targets of satire include individuals ("personal satire"), types of people, social groups, institutions, and human nature. Like tragedy and comedy , satire is often a mode of writing introduced into various literary forms; it is only a genre when it is the governing principle of a work. (See also Irony.)

In direct satire, a first-person speaker addresses either the reader or a character within the work (the adversarius) whose conversation helps further the speaker's purposes, as in Alexander Pope's "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" (1735).

Indirect satire uses a fictional narrative in which characters who represent particular points of view are made ridiculous by their own behaviour and thoughts, and by the narrator's usually ironic commentary. In Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) the hero narrating his own adventures appears ridiculous in taking pride in his Lilliputian title of honour, "Nardac"; by making Gulliver look foolish in this way, Swift indirectly satirizes the pretensions of the English nobility, with its corresponding titles of "Duke" and "Marquess."


Of course, the works referred to above are all fictional (whether in verse or in prose). And what you are talking about, I gather, is a sub-genre of satire/parody that straddles the line between "non-fiction" and "fiction": "news" items that purport to be "straight news," but that are really "made up." It would be nice if there were a separate word for this. I personally can't think of one, which of course does not mean that there isn't one. In any event, the word you are looking for is definitely not "fictitious," because the meaning of "fictitious," as has been pointed out, is, unequivocally: "not real, pretended, false, non-existent."

jbe
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext