166-604: Kurt Vonnegut ( / ˈ v ɒ n ə ɡ ə t / VON -ə-gət ; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works over fifty-plus years; further works have been published since his death. Born and raised in Indianapolis , Vonnegut attended Cornell University , but withdrew in January 1943 and enlisted in
332-549: A Hessian dialect in particular, is still spoken by several hundred people in seven villages in the Amana Colonies in Iowa , which were founded by Inspirationalists of German origin. Amana German is derived from Hessian dialects which fused into a so-called Ausgleichsdialekt that adopted many English words and some English idioms . Bernese German, ( Standard German : Berndeutsch , Alemannic German : Bärndütsch )
498-683: A leveled dialect form, like, e.g., in southeastern Pennsylvania, where Pennsylvania German as a leveled dialect emerged, but remained distinct. In the link provided, an archive of Wisconsin German field recordings can be found on the Datenbank für Gesprochenes Deutsch hosted by the Leibniz Institut für Deutsche Sprache. Other field recordings can be found at the Max Kade Institute as well. An urban legend , sometimes called
664-527: A master's degree . There, he studied under anthropologist Robert Redfield , his "most famous professor". He also worked as a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago . Jane, who had graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore, accepted a scholarship from the university to study Russian literature as a graduate student. Jane dropped out of the program after becoming pregnant with the couple's first child, Mark (born May 1947), while Kurt also left
830-499: A volunteer fire department and by giving away money to those in trouble or need. Stress from a battle for control of his charitable foundation pushes him over the edge, and he is placed in a mental hospital. He recovers and ends the financial battle by declaring the children of his county to be his heirs. Allen deemed God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater more "a cry from the heart than a novel under its author's full intellectual control", that reflected family and emotional stresses Vonnegut
996-514: A German seeking naturalization in St. Louis, Missouri, who was accused on the night of April 14, 1914, of being a German spy by a mob of 300 "men and boys" after he had allegedly shared words at a socialist meeting earlier that evening. The jail into which he had taken refuge from the crowds was quickly overrun and being stripped of his clothes, he was led down Main Street with a rope tied around his neck and
1162-409: A Martian invasion of Earth, as experienced by a bored billionaire Malachi Constant. He meets Winston Niles Rumfoord, an aristocratic space traveler, who is virtually omniscient but stuck in a time warp that causes him to appear on Earth every 59 days. The billionaire learns that his actions and the events of all of history are determined by a race of robotic aliens from the planet Tralfamadore , who need
1328-599: A Purple Heart for frost-bite ." He was discharged from the U.S. Army and returned to Indianapolis. After he returned to the United States, 22-year-old Vonnegut married Jane Marie Cox, his high-school girlfriend and classmate since kindergarten, on September 1, 1945. The pair moved to Chicago; there, Vonnegut enrolled in the University of Chicago on the G.I. Bill , as an anthropology student in an unusual five-year joint undergraduate/graduate program that conferred
1494-562: A collection of Vonnegut's short fiction. Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis , on November 11, 1922, the youngest of three children of Kurt Vonnegut Sr. (1884–1956) and his wife Edith (1888–1944; née Lieber). His older siblings were Bernard (1914–1997) and Alice (1917–1958). He descended from a long line of German Americans whose immigrant ancestors settled in the United States in the mid-19th century; his paternal great-grandfather, Clemens Vonnegut , settled in Indianapolis and founded
1660-515: A collection of essays entitled A Man Without a Country (2005), became a bestseller. Vonnegut married his first wife, Jane Marie Cox, in 1945. She later embraced Christianity, which was contrary to Vonnegut's atheistic beliefs, and after five of their six children having left home, Vonnegut said that the two were forced to find "other sorts of seemingly important work to do". The couple battled over their differing beliefs until Vonnegut moved from their Cape Cod home to New York in 1971. Vonnegut called
1826-414: A cynic, but there was something tender in his nature that he could never quite suppress; he could have become a bore, but even at his most despairing he had an endless willingness to entertain his readers: with drawings, jokes, sex, bizarre plot twists, science fiction, whatever it took. Lev Grossman , Time , 2007 In a 2006 Rolling Stone interview, Vonnegut sardonically stated that he would sue
SECTION 10
#17327722409071992-538: A daughter named Edith . Still working for GE, Vonnegut had his first piece, titled " Report on the Barnhouse Effect ", published in the February 11, 1950, issue of Collier's , for which he received $ 750. The story concerned a scientist who fears that his invention will be used as a weapon, much as Bernard was fearing at the time about his cloudseeding work. Vonnegut wrote another story, after being coached by
2158-463: A dialect of German known as Pennsylvania German , widely called Pennsylvania Dutch , where Dutch is used in its archaic sense, thus not limited to Dutch but including all variants of German. It is a remnant of what was once a much larger German-speaking area in eastern Pennsylvania . Most of the "Pennsylvania Dutch" originate from the Palatinate area of Germany and their language is based on
2324-463: A fall at his brownstone home. His death was reported by his wife Jill. He was 84 years old. At the time of his death, he had written fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction books. A book composed of his unpublished pieces, Armageddon in Retrospect , was compiled and posthumously published by his son Mark in 2008. Satire Satire is a genre of
2490-417: A far more obviously extreme and unrealistic tale, involving interplanetary exploration, war among alien life forms, and life inside a 200 mile long whale back in the terrestrial ocean, all intended to make obvious the fallacies of books like Indica and The Odyssey . Medieval Arabic poetry included the satiric genre hija . Satire was introduced into Arabic prose literature by the author Al-Jahiz in
2656-402: A genre held in disdain by writers at that time. He defended the genre and deplored a perceived sentiment that "no one can simultaneously be a respectable writer and understand how a refrigerator works". After Player Piano , Vonnegut continued to sell short stories to various magazines. Contracted to produce a second novel (which eventually became Cat's Cradle ), he struggled to complete it, and
2822-464: A home in Barnstable . In 1952, Vonnegut's first novel, Player Piano , was published by Scribner's . The novel has a post-Third World War setting, in which factory workers have been replaced by machines. Player Piano draws upon Vonnegut's experience as an employee at GE. The novel is set at a General Electric-like company and includes many scenes based on things Vonnegut saw there. He satirizes
2988-640: A large German population from the mid-1840s onward due to the Adelsverein . After Texas was granted statehood in 1845, it required that all laws be officially translated into German. This remained in force until 1917, when the United States entered the First World War. As cultural ties between Germany and the United States have been historically strong, a number of important German and U.S. authors have been popular in both countries. In modern German literature, this topic has been addressed frequently by
3154-423: A large German-American population, German was long permitted as a language of instruction in public schools. State documents were available in German until 1950. As a result of widespread anti-German sentiment during World War I, German fluency decreased from one generation of Pennsylvanians to the next, and today only a small fraction of its residents of German descent are fluent in the German language. Texas had
3320-413: A little even as you chuckle. Laughter is not an essential component of satire; in fact, there are types of satire that are not meant to be "funny" at all. Conversely, not all humour, even on such topics as politics, religion or art is necessarily "satirical", even when it uses the satirical tools of irony, parody, and burlesque . Even light-hearted satire has a serious "after-taste": the organizers of
3486-538: A machine-smashing, museum-burning revolution. Player Piano expresses Vonnegut's opposition to McCarthyism , something made clear when the Ghost Shirts, the revolutionary organization Paul penetrates and eventually leads, is referred to by one character as " fellow travelers ". In Player Piano , Vonnegut originates many of the techniques he would use in his later works. The comic, heavy-drinking Shah of Bratpuhr, an outsider to this dystopian corporate United States,
SECTION 20
#17327722409073652-477: A matter of years. The Liebers' brewery closed down in 1921 after the advent of prohibition . When the Great Depression hit, few people could afford to build, causing clients at Kurt Sr.'s architectural firm to become scarce. Vonnegut's brother and sister had finished their primary and secondary educations in private schools, but Vonnegut was placed in a public school called Public School No. 43 (now
3818-546: A means of expression and an outlet for common people to express their anger against authoritarian entities. A popular custom in Northern India of "Bura na mano Holi hai" continues, in which comedians on the stage mock local people of importance (who are usually brought in as special guests). German language in the United States Over 50 million Americans claim German ancestry , which makes them
3984-509: A place at the university's independent newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun , first serving as a staff writer , then as an editor. By the end of his first year, he was writing a column titled "Innocents Abroad", which reused jokes from other publications. He later penned a piece "Well All Right" focusing on pacifism , a cause he strongly supported, arguing against US intervention in World War ;II. The attack on Pearl Harbor brought
4150-426: A play called Happy Birthday, Wanda June , which opened on October 7, 1970, at New York's Theatre de Lys . Receiving mixed reviews, it closed on March 14, 1971. In 1972, Universal Pictures adapted Slaughterhouse-Five into a film , which the author said was "flawless". When the last living thing has died on account of us, how poetical it would be if Earth could say, in a voice floating up perhaps from
4316-497: A positive review, favorably comparing it to Aldous Huxley 's Brave New World . Hicks called Vonnegut a "sharp-eyed satirist". None of the reviewers considered the novel particularly important. Several editions were printed—one by Bantam with the title Utopia 14 , and another by the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club —whereby Vonnegut gained the reputation as a writer of science fiction ,
4482-429: A prominent example from ancient Greece , philosopher Plato , when asked by a friend for a book to understand Athenian society, referred him to the plays of Aristophanes . Historically, satire has satisfied the popular need to debunk and ridicule the leading figures in politics, economy, religion and other prominent realms of power . Satire confronts public discourse and the collective imaginary , playing as
4648-625: A prominent role in Indian and Hindi literature , and is counted as one of the " ras " of literature in ancient books. With the commencement of printing of books in local language in the nineteenth century and especially after India's freedom, this grew. Many of the works of Tulsi Das , Kabir , Munshi Premchand , village minstrels, Hari katha singers, poets, Dalit singers and current day stand up Indian comedians incorporate satire, usually ridiculing authoritarians, fundamentalists and incompetent people in power. In India, it has usually been used as
4814-511: A public opinion counterweight to power (be it political, economic, religious, symbolic, or otherwise), by challenging leaders and authorities. For instance, it forces administrations to clarify, amend or establish their policies. Satire's job is to expose problems and contradictions, and it is not obligated to solve them. Karl Kraus set in the history of satire a prominent example of a satirist role as confronting public discourse. For its nature and social role, satire has enjoyed in many societies
4980-529: A replacement part that can only be produced by an advanced civilization in order to repair their spaceship and return home—human history has been manipulated to produce it. Some human structures, such as the Kremlin , are coded signals from the aliens to their ship as to how long it may expect to wait for the repair to take place. Reviewers were uncertain what to think of the book, with one comparing it to Offenbach 's opera The Tales of Hoffmann . Rumfoord, who
5146-399: A special freedom license to mock prominent individuals and institutions. The satiric impulse, and its ritualized expressions, carry out the function of resolving social tension. Institutions like the ritual clowns , by giving expression to the antisocial tendencies , represent a safety valve which re-establishes equilibrium and health in the collective imaginary , which are jeopardized by
Kurt Vonnegut - Misplaced Pages Continue
5312-461: A teacher, shall, in any private, denominational, parochial or public school, teach any subject to any person in any language other than the English language." It forbade foreign instruction to children who had not completed the eighth grade. In Montana, speaking German was banned in public for two years during World War I. Pennsylvania 's legislature passed a German-language ban, but it was vetoed by
5478-725: A technical writer, then publicist, for the company's Schenectady, New York , News Bureau, a publicity department that operated like a newsroom. His brother Bernard had worked at GE since 1945, focusing mainly on a silver-iodide-based cloud seeding project that quickly became a joint GE- U.S. Army Signal Corps program, Project Cirrus. In The Brothers Vonnegut , Ginger Strand draws connections between many real events at General Electric, including Bernard's work, and Vonnegut's early stories, which were regularly being rejected everywhere he sent them. Throughout this period, Jane Vonnegut encouraged him, editing his stories, strategizing about submissions and buoying his spirits. In 1949, Kurt and Jane had
5644-408: A world of illusion". Also published in 1961 was Vonnegut's short story " Harrison Bergeron ", set in a dystopic future where all are equal, even if that means disfiguring beautiful people and forcing the strong or intelligent to wear devices that negate their advantages. Fourteen-year-old Harrison is a genius and athlete forced to wear record-level "handicaps" and imprisoned for attempting to overthrow
5810-610: Is a subdialect of High Alemannic German which is spoken by Old Order Amish in Adams County, Indiana , and their daughter settlements. There are several thousand speakers of the dialect in the US. A link to an interview on YouTube featuring Berndeutsch from Indiana can be found in the citation below. Hutterite communities in the United States and Canada speak Hutterite German , an Austro-Bavarian dialect. Hutterite
5976-612: Is a mix of historical words, English loan words, and new words which together are found in the German language used by non-Amish nor Mennonite descendants. The study of the German language in the United States was suppressed during World War I, but has since regained coverage by major universities, most notedly at the University of Kansas from scholars such as William Keel, the Max-Kade Institute of German-American Studies of
6142-424: Is a satire in hexameter verses, was a literary genre of wholly Roman origin ( satura tota nostra est ). He was aware of and commented on Greek satire, but at the time did not label it as such, although today the origin of satire is considered to be Aristophanes' Old Comedy . The first critic to use the term satire in the modern broader sense was Apuleius . To Quintilian, the satire was a strict literary form, but
6308-512: Is able to ask many questions that an insider would not think to ask, or would cause offense by doing so. For example, when taken to see the artificially intelligent supercomputer EPICAC, the Shah asks it "what are people for?" and receives no answer. Speaking for Vonnegut, he dismisses it as a "false god". This type of alien visitor would recur throughout Vonnegut's literature. The New York Times writer and critic Granville Hicks gave Player Piano
6474-415: Is an apotropaic rite in which the sin-eater (also called filth-eater), by ingesting the food provided, takes "upon himself the sins of the departed". Satire about death overlaps with black humor and gallows humor . Another classification by topics is the distinction between political satire, religious satire and satire of manners. Political satire is sometimes called topical satire, satire of manners
6640-601: Is an enclave in which satire can be introduced into mass media , challenging mainstream discourse. Comedy roasts , mock festivals, and stand-up comedians in nightclubs and concerts are the modern forms of ancient satiric rituals. One of the earliest examples of what might be called satire, The Satire of the Trades , is in Egyptian writing from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The text's apparent readers are students, tired of studying. It argues that their lot as scribes
6806-580: Is based on Franklin D. Roosevelt , also physically resembles the former president. Rumfoord is described this way: he "put a cigarette in a long, bone cigarette holder, lighted it. He thrust out his jaw. The cigarette holder pointed straight up." William Rodney Allen , in his guide to Vonnegut's works, stated that Rumfoord foreshadowed the fictional political figures who would play major roles in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Jailbird . Mother Night , published in 1961, received little attention at
Kurt Vonnegut - Misplaced Pages Continue
6972-543: Is found in Parke County , in western Indiana. Many English words have become mixed with this dialect and it is quite different from Standard German ( Hochdeutsch ), but quite similar to the dialect of the Palatinate region. Usually, Pennsylvania Dutch (often just "Dutch" or Deitsch ) is spoken at home, but English is used when interacting with the general population. The Amish and Old Order Mennonites of northern Indiana often differentiate between themselves and
7138-406: Is not only useful, but far superior to that of the ordinary man. Scholars such as Helck think that the context was meant to be serious. The Papyrus Anastasi I (late 2nd millennium BC) contains a satirical letter which first praises the virtues of its recipient, but then mocks the reader's meagre knowledge and achievements. The Greeks had no word for what later would be called "satire", although
7304-521: Is often constructive social criticism , using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. A prominent feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm —"in satire, irony is militant ", according to literary critic Northrop Frye — but parody , burlesque , exaggeration , juxtaposition , comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This "militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural)
7470-453: Is often pessimistic, characterized by the use of irony, sarcasm, moral indignation and personal invective, with less emphasis on humor. Strongly polarized political satire can often be classified as Juvenalian. A Juvenal satirist's goal is generally to provoke some sort of political or societal change because he sees his opponent or object as evil or harmful. A Juvenal satirist mocks "societal structure, power, and civilization" by exaggerating
7636-465: Is sometimes called satire of everyday life, and religious satire is sometimes called philosophical satire. Comedy of manners , sometimes also called satire of manners, criticizes mode of life of common people; political satire aims at behavior, manners of politicians, and vices of political systems. Historically, comedy of manners, which first appeared in British theater in 1620, has uncritically accepted
7802-479: Is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington , Montana , North and South Dakota , and Minnesota ; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta , Saskatchewan , and Manitoba . There is also a significant population of Amish and Old Order Mennonites located in rural areas of Elkhart County and LaGrange County , Indiana, who speak Pennsylvania Dutch. A much smaller community of Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking Amish
7968-552: Is the reactionary side of the comic ; it limits itself to a shallow parody of physical appearance. The side-effect of teasing is that it humanizes and draws sympathy for the powerful individual towards which it is directed. Satire instead uses the comic to go against power and its oppressions, has a subversive character, and a moral dimension which draws judgement against its targets. Fo formulated an operational criterion to tell real satire from sfottò , saying that real satire arouses an outraged and violent reaction, and that
8134-582: Is the first to define this concept of Yuyan. During the Qin and Han dynasty, however, the concept of yuyan mostly died out through their heavy persecution of dissent and literary circles, especially by Qin Shi Huang and Han Wudi . The first Roman to discuss satire critically was Quintilian , who invented the term to describe the writings of Gaius Lucilius . The two most prominent and influential ancient Roman satirists are Horace and Juvenal , who wrote during
8300-431: Is used. Despite the lack of such stabilized syntax, communication is still possible. One speaker might recognize however, that another may be from another community, town, or area. These nouns have been found in all regions of the United States and are not exclusive to any particular region. Some English loanwords are found via cultural diffusion with English speaking populations and often were introduced given
8466-645: The 106th Infantry Division . In December 1944, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge , one of the last German offensives of the war. On December 22, Vonnegut was captured with about 50 other American soldiers. Vonnegut was taken by boxcar to a prison camp south of Dresden , in the German province of Saxony . During the journey, the Royal Air Force mistakenly attacked the trains carrying Vonnegut and his fellow prisoners of war , killing about 150 of them. Vonnegut
SECTION 50
#17327722409078632-595: The Brown & Williamson tobacco company, the maker of the Pall Mall -branded cigarettes he had been smoking since he was around 12 or 14 years old, for false advertising: "And do you know why? Because I'm 83 years old. The lying bastards! On the package Brown & Williamson promised to kill me." Vonnegut died in Manhattan on the night of April 11, 2007, as a result of brain injuries incurred several weeks prior, from
8798-628: The Early Middle Ages , examples of satire were the songs by Goliards or vagants now best known as an anthology called Carmina Burana and made famous as texts of a composition by the 20th-century composer Carl Orff . Satirical poetry is believed to have been popular, although little has survived. With the advent of the High Middle Ages and the birth of modern vernacular literature in the 12th century, it began to be used again, most notably by Chaucer . The disrespectful manner
8964-579: The Echo allowed him to write for a large audience—his fellow students—rather than for a teacher, an experience, he said, was "fun and easy". "It just turned out that I could write better than a lot of other people", Vonnegut observed. "Each person has something he can do easily and can't imagine why everybody else has so much trouble doing it." After graduating from Shortridge in 1940, Vonnegut enrolled at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York . He wanted to study
9130-578: The Hugo Award for best science fiction or fantasy novel of the year. His short-story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House , was published in 1968. Vonnegut's breakthrough was his commercially and critically successful sixth novel, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). Its anti-war sentiment resonated with its readers amid the Vietnam War , and its reviews were generally positive. It rose to
9296-572: The Ig Nobel Prize describe this as "first make people laugh, and then make them think". Satire and irony in some cases have been regarded as the most effective source to understand a society, the oldest form of social study. They provide the keenest insights into a group's collective psyche , reveal its deepest values and tastes, and the society's structures of power. Some authors have regarded satire as superior to non-comic and non-artistic disciplines like history or anthropology . In
9462-563: The James Whitcomb Riley School). He was bothered by the Great Depression, and both his parents were affected deeply by their economic misfortune. His father withdrew from normal life and became what Vonnegut called a "dreamy artist". His mother became depressed, withdrawn, bitter, and abusive. She labored to regain the family's wealth and status, and Vonnegut said that she expressed hatred for her husband that
9628-485: The Muhlenberg legend after Frederick Muhlenberg , states that English only narrowly defeated German as the U.S. official language. In reality, the proposal involved a requirement that government documents be translated into German. The United States has no statutory official language; English has been used on a de facto basis, owing to its status as the country's predominant language. In Pennsylvania , which had
9794-743: The Renaissance were Giovanni Boccaccio and François Rabelais . Other examples of Renaissance satire include Till Eulenspiegel , Reynard the Fox , Sebastian Brant 's Narrenschiff (1494), Erasmus 's Moriae Encomium (1509), Thomas More 's Utopia (1516), and Carajicomedia (1519). The Elizabethan (i.e. 16th-century English) writers thought of satire as related to the notoriously rude, coarse and sharp satyr play. Elizabethan "satire" (typically in pamphlet form) therefore contains more straightforward abuse than subtle irony. The French Huguenot Isaac Casaubon pointed out in 1605 that satire in
9960-571: The Resaleh-ye Delgosha , as well as Akhlaq al-Ashraf ("Ethics of the Aristocracy") and the famous humorous fable Masnavi Mush-O-Gorbeh (Mouse and Cat), which was a political satire. His non-satirical serious classical verses have also been regarded as very well written, in league with the other great works of Persian literature . Between 1905 and 1911, Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi and other Iranian writers wrote notable satires. In
10126-667: The Sharia " and later Arabic poets in turn using the term "Farazdaq-like" as a form of political satire. The terms " comedy " and "satire" became synonymous after Aristotle 's Poetics was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world , where it was elaborated upon by Islamic philosophers and writers, such as Abu Bischr, his pupil Al-Farabi , Avicenna , and Averroes . Due to cultural differences, they disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as hija (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply
SECTION 60
#173277224090710292-522: The Texas Hill Country still exists but has been dying out since the end of World War II . Following the introduction of English-only schooling during both World Wars, Texas German speakers drifted towards English and few passed the language to their descendants. In the link provided, an archive of Texas German field recordings can be found. Texas German Archive The various German dialects that were brought to Wisconsin did not develop into
10458-698: The U.S. Army . As part of his training, he studied mechanical engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee . He was then deployed to Europe to fight in World War II and was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge . He was interned in Dresden , where he survived the Allied bombing of the city in a meat locker of the slaughterhouse where he
10624-493: The University of Wisconsin–Madison and George J. Metcalf from the University of Chicago . While towns may have differing grammatical structures and sometimes pronunciations as influenced by the first immigrant families, their regions, and consequent contact with English, there is no set in stone official grammatical syntax of the American German variety of German and so when taught, that of standard German from Germany
10790-742: The Vonnegut Hardware Company . His father and grandfather Bernard were architects; the architecture firm under Kurt Sr. designed such buildings as Das Deutsche Haus (now called "The Athenæum"), the Indiana headquarters of the Bell Telephone Company , and the Fletcher Trust Building . Vonnegut's mother was born into Indianapolis's Gilded Age high society, as her family, the Liebers, were among
10956-523: The repressive aspects of society . The state of political satire in a given society reflects the tolerance or intolerance that characterizes it, and the state of civil liberties and human rights . Under totalitarian regimes any criticism of a political system, and especially satire, is suppressed. A typical example is the Soviet Union where the dissidents , such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov were under strong pressure from
11122-405: The visual , literary , and performing arts , usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction , in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or shaming the perceived flaws of individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose
11288-414: The "Dutchman," and the German language quickly went from being viewed as distinguished and the language of the educated to being distrusted, and as such, anyone fluent in the language regardless of age associated with or who practiced traditions viewed as foreign of any type was subject to several public harassments, distrust, and on a few occasions, death. One such death of note was that of Robert Prager ,
11454-685: The "art of reprehension", and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or troubled beginnings and happy endings, associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century , the term "comedy" thus gained a new semantic meaning in Medieval literature . Ubayd Zakani introduced satire in Persian literature during the 14th century. His work is noted for its satire and obscene verses, often political or bawdy, and often cited in debates involving homosexual practices. He wrote
11620-567: The 19th century, the German press increased in importance and the number of dailies exploded. In 1909 a report stated "every American city or town with a large German population possesses one or more German newspapers. In New York City there are twelve or more... the best... being... the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung . The Illinois Staats-Zeitung has nearly as large a circulation, and the Milwaukee Germania claims
11786-450: The 9th century. While dealing with serious topics in what are now known as anthropology , sociology and psychology , he introduced a satirical approach, "based on the premise that, however serious the subject under review, it could be made more interesting and thus achieve greater effect, if only one leavened the lump of solemnity by the insertion of a few amusing anecdotes or by the throwing out of some witty or paradoxical observations. He
11952-664: The Army and in March 1943 reported to Fort Bragg , North Carolina, for basic training. Vonnegut was trained to fire and maintain howitzers and later received instruction in mechanical engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee as part of the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). In early 1944, the ASTP was canceled due to the Army's need for soldiers to support
12118-471: The Boston-born author of German and English lyrical poetry Paul-Henri Campbell . According to a government-financed survey, German was taught in 24% of American schools in 1997, and only 14% in 2008. German is third in popularity after Spanish and French in terms of the number of colleges and universities offering instruction in the language. What here is referred to as Standard American German
12284-518: The D-Day invasion , and Vonnegut was ordered to an infantry battalion at Camp Atterbury , south of Indianapolis in Edinburgh, Indiana , where he trained as a scout. He lived so close to his home that he was "able to sleep in [his] own bedroom and use the family car on weekends". On May 14, 1944, Vonnegut returned home on leave for Mother's Day weekend to discover that his mother had committed suicide
12450-465: The German Empire, and even speaking German was seen as unpatriotic. Many German-American families anglicized their names (e.g. from Schmidt to Smith , Schneider to Taylor , Müller to Miller ), and German nearly disappeared in public in many cities. In the countryside, the presence became quieter but persevered particularly in regions of many Germans. Many states otherwise forbade
12616-423: The German language, dialects, and different traditions of the regions of Germany have played a role in the social identity of many German-Americans. By 1910, an account of 554 newspaper issues were being printed in the standard German language throughout the United States as well as several schools that taught in German with class time set aside for English learning. As a result of anti-German sentiment during WWI,
12782-519: The Latin satura; but "satirize", "satiric", etc., are of Greek origin. By about the 4th century AD the writer of satires came to be known as satyricus; St. Jerome, for example, was called by one of his enemies 'a satirist in prose' ('satyricus scriptor in prosa'). Subsequent orthographic modifications obscured the Latin origin of the word satire: satura becomes satyra, and in England, by the 16th century, it
12948-472: The Roman fashion was something altogether more civilised. Casaubon discovered and published Quintilian's writing and presented the original meaning of the term (satira, not satyr), and the sense of wittiness (reflecting the "dishfull of fruits") became more important again. Seventeenth-century English satire once again aimed at the "amendment of vices" ( Dryden ). In the 1590s a new wave of verse satire broke with
13114-436: The Roman satirist Horace (65–8 BCE), playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humour. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) wrote Satires to gently ridicule the dominant opinions and "philosophical beliefs of ancient Rome and Greece". Rather than writing in harsh or accusing tones, he addressed issues with humor and clever mockery. Horatian satire follows this same pattern of "gently [ridiculing]
13280-529: The Scandinavian, had only 115. With the repression of the German language during World War I, the German press in America was reduced dramatically. Throughout much of the 19th century, there were fierce debates in many large American metropolitan areas with German immigrant communities, such as Chicago and St. Louis to determine whether public schools should offer German-language education. The issue
13446-515: The US in the mid-1800s. There are fewer speakers of Alsatian in Indiana than of Bernese German, even though there are several thousand speakers. There are also speakers of Bernese German and Pennsylvania German living in the community. Most speakers of Alsatian also speak or at least understand Pennsylvania German. Speakers of Alsatian in Indiana are thus exposed to five languages or dialects: Alsatian, Bernese German, Pennsylvania German, Standard German and English. Amana German , West Central German ,
13612-627: The US to sell "liberty bonds." Newspapers of the time have stories of harassment of "slackers," who were forced to buy bonds and burn German books during the exhibition. It should be mentioned at this time that the dialects presented below are only partials to the whole dialectal picture of the stratum of German dialects spoken in the US. Alsatian, ( German : Elsässisch ), is a Low Alemannic German dialect spoken by Old Order Amish and some Old Order Mennonites in Allen County, Indiana , and their daughter settlements. These Amish immigrated to
13778-531: The United States into WWII . Vonnegut was a member of Reserve Officers' Training Corps , but poor grades and a satirical article in Cornell's newspaper cost him his place there. He was placed on academic probation in May 1942 and dropped out the following January. No longer eligible for a deferment as a member of ROTC, he faced likely conscription into the U.S. Army . Instead of waiting to be drafted, he enlisted in
13944-662: The United States, was invited to speak at numerous rallies, and gave college commencement addresses around the country. In addition to briefly teaching at Harvard University as a lecturer in creative writing in 1970, Vonnegut taught at the City College of New York as a distinguished professor during the 1973–1974 academic year. He was later elected vice president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and given honorary degrees by, among others, Indiana University and Bennington College . Vonnegut also wrote
14110-433: The absurdities and follies of human beings". It directs wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humour toward what it identifies as folly, rather than evil. Horatian satire's sympathetic tone is common in modern society. A Horatian satirist's goal is to heal the situation with smiles, rather than by anger. Horatian satire is a gentle reminder to take life less seriously and evokes a wry smile. Juvenalian satire, named for
14276-450: The aim of humanizing his image. Types of satire can also be classified according to the topics it deals with. From the earliest times, at least since the plays of Aristophanes , the primary topics of literary satire have been politics , religion and sex . This is partly because these are the most pressing problems that affect anybody living in a society, and partly because these topics are usually taboo . Among these, politics in
14442-434: The antiwar message of Slaughterhouse-Five resonated with a generation marked by the Vietnam War . He later stated that the loss of confidence in government that Vietnam caused finally allowed an honest conversation regarding events like Dresden. After Slaughterhouse-Five was published, Vonnegut embraced the fame and financial security that attended its release. He was hailed as a hero of the burgeoning anti-war movement in
14608-444: The banning of performing of music from German composers at symphony concerts including the attempt to rename certain foods. Sauerkraut for example would become Liberty Cabbage. "Hamburger" would be for a short while "Liberty Steaks." Language use had also been the primary focus of legislation at state and local levels. Some of these regulations included the publication of charters banning speaking German within city limits. A total ban on
14774-416: The broader sense is considered the pre-eminent topic of satire. Satire which targets the clergy is a type of political satire , while religious satire is that which targets religious beliefs . Satire on sex may overlap with blue comedy , off-color humor and dick jokes . Scatology has a long literary association with satire, as it is a classical mode of the grotesque , the grotesque body and
14940-518: The captives abandoned by their guards, Vonnegut reached a prisoner-of-war repatriation camp in Le Havre , France, in May 1945, with the aid of the Soviets. Sent back to the United States, he was stationed at Fort Riley , Kansas , typing discharge papers for other soldiers. Soon after, he was awarded a Purple Heart , about which he remarked: "I myself was awarded my country's second-lowest decoration,
15106-423: The city was gone ... They burnt the whole damn town down." Vonnegut and other American prisoners were put to work immediately after the bombing, excavating bodies from the rubble. He described the activity as a "terribly elaborate Easter-egg hunt". The American POWs were evacuated on foot to the border of Saxony and Czechoslovakia after U.S. General George S. Patton 's 3rd Army captured Leipzig . With
15272-802: The city's schools sparked outrage from the city's German community. Hermann Raster , the Republican editor-in-chief of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung, and the Socialist politician Adolph Douai strongly opposed the new rule, and both became known as vocal critics of enforcing English-only education in the United States. When the U.S. joined in World War I , an anti-German hysteria quickly spread in American society. German-Americans, especially immigrants, were blamed for military acts of
15438-531: The dialect of that region. While the language is stable among the Old Orders and the number of speakers growing due to the high birth rate among the Old Orders, it is quickly declining among the non- plain Pennsylvania Germans (also called Fancy Dutch ). Plautdietsch , a Low German dialect, is spoken and most often associated with "Russian" Mennonites who immigrated mostly to Kansas in
15604-434: The disagreements "painful" and said that the resulting split was a "terrible, unavoidable accident that we were ill-equipped to understand". The couple divorced but remained friends until Jane's death in late 1986. Beyond his failed marriage, Vonnegut was deeply affected when his son Mark suffered a mental breakdown in 1972, which exacerbated Vonnegut's chronic depression and led him to take Ritalin . When he stopped taking
15770-488: The drive to climb the corporate ladder, one that in Player Piano is rapidly disappearing as automation increases, putting even executives out of work. His central character, Paul Proteus, has an ambitious wife, a backstabbing assistant, and a feeling of empathy for the poor. Sent by his boss, Kroner, as a double agent among the poor (who have all the material goods they want, but little sense of purpose), he leads them in
15936-421: The drug in the mid-1970s, he began to see a psychologist weekly. In 1979, Vonnegut married Jill Krementz , a photographer whom he met while she was working on a series about writers in the early 1970s. With Jill, he adopted a daughter, Lily, when the baby was three days old. They remained married until his death. Vonnegut's sincerity, his willingness to scoff at received wisdom, is such that reading his work for
16102-522: The early days of the Roman Empire . Other important satirists in ancient Latin are Gaius Lucilius and Persius . Satire in their work is much wider than in the modern sense of the word, including fantastic and highly coloured humorous writing with little or no real mocking intent. When Horace criticized Augustus , he used veiled ironic terms. In contrast, Pliny reports that the 6th-century-BC poet Hipponax wrote satirae that were so cruel that
16268-487: The early modern period. The dutch translation Van den vos Reynaerde is considered a major medieval dutch literary work. In the dutch version De Vries argues that the animal characters represent barons who conspired against the Count of Flanders. Direct social commentary via satire returned in the 16th century, when texts such as the works of François Rabelais tackled more serious issues. Two major satirists of Europe in
16434-423: The expression lanx satura literally means "a full dish of various kinds of fruits". The use of the word lanx in this phrase, however, is disputed by B.L. Ullman. The word satura as used by Quintilian , however, was used to denote only Roman verse satire, a strict genre that imposed hexameter form, a narrower genre than what would be later intended as satire . Quintilian famously said that satura, that
16600-516: The fashion was brought to an abrupt stop by censorship. Another satiric genre to emerge around this time was the satirical almanac , with François Rabelais 's work Pantagrueline Prognostication (1532), which mocked astrological predictions. The strategies François utilized within this work were employed by later satirical almanacs, such as the Poor Robin series that spanned the 17th to 19th centuries. Satire ( Kataksh or Vyang ) has played
16766-533: The fiction editor at Collier's , Knox Burger, and again sold it to the magazine, this time for $ 950. While Burger supported Vonnegut's writing, he was shocked when Vonnegut quit GE as of January 1, 1951, later stating: "I never said he should give up his job and devote himself to fiction. I don't trust the freelancer's life, it's tough." Nevertheless, in early 1951 Vonnegut moved with his family to Cape Cod, Massachusetts , to write full time, leaving GE behind. He initially moved to Osterville , but he ended up purchasing
16932-507: The fictional fathers of the atomic bomb, seeking to cover the scientist's human side. Hoenikker, in addition to the bomb, has developed another threat to mankind, "ice-nine", solid water stable at room temperature, but more dense than liquid water. If a particle of ice-nine is dropped in water, all of the surrounding water becomes ice-nine. Felix Hoenikker is based on Bernard Vonnegut's boss at the GE Research Lab, Irving Langmuir , and
17098-480: The first decade of his life, for raising him and giving him values; he said, "she gave me decent moral instruction and was exceedingly nice to me", and "was as great an influence on me as anybody". He described her as "humane and wise" and added that "the compassionate, forgiving aspects of [his] beliefs" came from her. The financial security and social prosperity that the Vonneguts had once enjoyed were destroyed in
17264-402: The first time gives one the sense that everything else is rank hypocrisy. His opinion of human nature was low, and that low opinion applied to his heroes and his villains alike—he was endlessly disappointed in humanity and in himself, and he expressed that disappointment in a mixture of tar-black humor and deep despair. He could easily have become a crank, but he was too smart; he could have become
17430-486: The floor of the Grand Canyon, "It is done." People did not like it here. Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country , 2005 Vonnegut's difficulties in his personal life thereafter materialized in numerous ways, including the painfully slow progress made on his next novel, the darkly comical Breakfast of Champions . In 1971, he stopped writing the novel altogether. When it was finally released in 1973, it
17596-586: The following varieites of Stinkkatze / Stinkkatz' / Stinkkotz / Stinkchaatz (Swiss-German speaking communities) have been found in many midwestern states spanning to Texas. die Schulmeisterin Schulmeisterin (f) Throughout the history of the German language in the United States, through the coexistence with English, there are many loanwords which have been absorbed into the American variety of German. There are also many usages which have been preserved in American German varieties including usages from
17762-562: The general population by referring to them, respectively, as the "Amish" and the "English." Pennsylvania "Dutch" is sometimes used in worship services, though this is more common among the Amish than the Mennonites. More mainstream (city) Mennonites may have a working knowledge of the language, but it is not frequently used in conversation or in worship services. Old Order Amish , Old Order Mennonites and other Pennsylvania Germans speak
17928-472: The government. He escapes to a television studio, tears away his handicaps, and frees a ballerina from her lead weights. As they dance, they are killed by the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers. Vonnegut, in a later letter, suggested that "Harrison Bergeron" might have sprung from his envy and self-pity as a high-school misfit. In his 1976 biography of Vonnegut, Stanley Schatt suggested that
18094-600: The government. While satire of everyday life in the USSR was allowed, the most prominent satirist being Arkady Raikin , political satire existed in the form of anecdotes that made fun of Soviet political leaders, especially Brezhnev , famous for his narrow-mindedness and love for awards and decorations. Satire is a diverse genre which is complex to classify and define, with a wide range of satiric "modes". Satirical literature can commonly be categorized as either Horatian, Juvenalian, or Menippean . Horatian satire, named for
18260-767: The governor. Churches during this period such as the Lutheran Church became internally divided over services and religious instruction in German and English. Closely related to the forced decline of German is the near default of the American war loans to the Triple Entente resulting in the introduction of the first to the fourth Liberty Bonds by the Federal Reserve. After March 1918, the Federal Reserve Bank started to use dozens of mobile "war exhibits" stationed on trains that drove through
18426-521: The humanities and had aspirations of becoming an architect like his father, but his father and brother Bernard, an atmospheric scientist, urged him to study a "useful" discipline. As a result, Vonnegut majored in biochemistry , but he had little proficiency in the area and was indifferent towards his studies. As his father had been a member at MIT , Vonnegut was entitled to join the Delta Upsilon fraternity, and did. He overcame stiff competition for
18592-406: The lack of certain objects (ie. der Truck) in pre-20th century German. Dialect leveling is also found throughout regions where German is still found. Though previous studies have tried to pinpoint certain words to specific locations such as Stinkkatze with Texas German dialects, further research has since found these words in use extending beyond their originally perceived regions. For example
18758-598: The larger community the self identifies with. The audience's understanding of the context of reflexive humour is important for its receptivity and success. Satire is found not only in written literary forms. In preliterate cultures it manifests itself in ritual and folk forms, as well as in trickster tales and oral poetry . It appears also in graphic arts, music, sculpture, dance, cartoon strips , and graffiti . Examples are Dada sculptures, Pop Art works, music of Gilbert and Sullivan and Erik Satie , punk and rock music . In modern media culture , stand-up comedy
18924-446: The largest circulation of all. The Milwaukee Herold comes not far behind. Philadelphia has its Demokrat , Baltimore its Correspondent , Cincinnati its Volksblatt , St. Louis... its... Die Westliche Post , where Joseph Pulitzer started his career, and Der Anzeiger des Westens ." It also reported that compared to 17,194 English papers in the U.S. in 1900, there were 613 German ones. The next largest language group,
19090-520: The largest single claimed ancestry group in the United States. Around 1.06 million people in the United States speak the German language at home. It is the second most spoken language in North Dakota (1.39% of its population) and is the third most spoken language in 16 other states. Ever since the first ethnically German families settled in the United States in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608,
19256-611: The mid-1870s. These Mennonites also found in Canada tended to slowly assimilate into the mainstream society over several generations, but Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonite immigrants—mainly from Mexico , where there is lesser to no assimilation—brought Plautdietsch back to Kansas. Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonite migrants from Mexico formed a new settlement in Seminole, Texas , in 1977. In 2016 there were about 6,000 Plautdietsch speakers around Seminole. A dialect called Texas German based in
19422-561: The mid-1920s. The Supreme Court case in Meyer v. Nebraska ruled in 1923 that these laws were unconstitutional. In October 1918, a bill intended to restrict federal funds towards states that enforced English-only education was created. On April 9, 1919, Nebraska enacted a statute called "An act relating to the teaching of foreign languages in the state of Nebraska," commonly known as the Siman Act. It provided that "No person, individually or as
19588-664: The middle of the 19th century, English was used as a second language in the churches, but there were regions in which German was the main church language into the 20th century. In 1937 both churches fused and joined the United Methodist Church in 1968. The first German newspaper in the U.S. was der Hochdeutsch-Pennsylvanische Geschicht-Schreiber, oder Sammlung Wichtiger Nachrichten aus dem Natur- und Kirchen-Reich ("the High German-Pennsylvanian story-writer, or collection of important news from
19754-725: The more they try to stop you, the better is the job you are doing. Fo contends that, historically, people in positions of power have welcomed and encouraged good-humoured buffoonery, while modern day people in positions of power have tried to censor, ostracize and repress satire. Teasing ( sfottò ) is an ancient form of simple buffoonery , a form of comedy without satire's subversive edge. Teasing includes light and affectionate parody, good-humoured mockery, simple one-dimensional poking fun, and benign spoofs. Teasing typically consists of an impersonation of someone monkeying around with his exterior attributes, tics , physical blemishes, voice and mannerisms, quirks, way of dressing and walking, and/or
19920-418: The most excruciatingly painful things. His novels have attacked our deepest fears of automation and the bomb, our deepest political guilts, our fiercest hatreds and loves. No one else writes books on these subjects; they are inaccessible to normal novelists. The book went immediately to the top of The New York Times Best Seller list . Vonnegut's earlier works had appealed strongly to many college students, and
20086-496: The oceans are converted to ice-nine, wiping out most of humankind, John wanders the frozen surface, seeking to save himself and to make sure that his story survives. Vonnegut based the title character of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1964) on an accountant he knew on Cape Cod, who specialized in clients in trouble and often had to comfort them. Eliot Rosewater, the wealthy son of a Republican senator, seeks to atone for his wartime killing of noncombatant firefighters by serving in
20252-410: The offended hanged themselves. In the 2nd century AD, Lucian wrote True History , a book satirizing the clearly unrealistic travelogues/adventures written by Ctesias , Iambulus , and Homer . He states that he was surprised they expected people to believe their lies, and stating that he, like them, has no actual knowledge or experience, but shall now tell lies as if he did. He goes on to describe
20418-410: The other. Max Eastman defined the spectrum of satire in terms of "degrees of biting", as ranging from satire proper at the hot-end, and "kidding" at the violet-end; Eastman adopted the term kidding to denote what is just satirical in form, but is not really firing at the target. Nobel laureate satirical playwright Dario Fo pointed out the difference between satire and teasing ( sfottò ). Teasing
20584-477: The phrases he typically repeats. By contrast, teasing never touches on the core issue, never makes a serious criticism judging the target with irony ; it never harms the target's conduct, ideology and position of power; it never undermines the perception of his morality and cultural dimension. Sfottò directed towards a powerful individual makes him appear more human and draws sympathy towards him. Hermann Göring propagated jests and jokes against himself, with
20750-584: The planet Tralfamadore nine years earlier, and the execution of Billy's friend Edgar Derby in the ashes of Dresden for stealing a teapot—disclosed in the story's first pages. In 1970, Vonnegut was also a correspondent in Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War . Slaughterhouse-Five received generally positive reviews, with Michael Crichton writing in The New Republic : he writes about
20916-427: The previous night by overdosing on sleeping pills . Possible factors that contributed to Edith Vonnegut's suicide include the family's loss of wealth and status, Vonnegut's forthcoming deployment overseas, and her own lack of success as a writer. She was inebriated at the time and under the influence of prescription drugs. Three months after his mother's suicide, Vonnegut was sent to Europe as an intelligence scout with
21082-549: The publication of Hall 's Virgidemiarum , six books of verse satires targeting everything from literary fads to corrupt noblemen. Although Donne had already circulated satires in manuscript, Hall's was the first real attempt in English at verse satire on the Juvenalian model. The success of his work combined with a national mood of disillusion in the last years of Elizabeth's reign triggered an avalanche of satire—much of it less conscious of classical models than Hall's — until
21248-558: The realms of nature and the church"), later known as die Germantauner Zeitung . It was a German-language paper, Der Pennsylvanische Staatsbote that on July 5, 1776, was the first paper to report the American Declaration of Independence , and it did so in German translation. English readers would have to wait a day later to read the English text in The Pennsylvania Evening Post . In
21414-431: The same cell block as Adolf Eichmann . Vonnegut wrote in a foreword to a later edition: "we are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be". Literary critic Lawrence Berkove considered the novel, like Mark Twain 's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , to illustrate the tendency for "impersonators to get carried away by their impersonations, to become what they impersonate and therefore to live in
21580-499: The satiric grotesque. Shit plays a fundamental role in satire because it symbolizes death , the turd being "the ultimate dead object". The satirical comparison of individuals or institutions with human excrement , exposes their "inherent inertness, corruption and dead-likeness". The ritual clowns of clown societies , like among the Pueblo Indians , have ceremonies with filth-eating . In other cultures, sin-eating
21746-461: The short story shows "in any leveling process, what really is lost, according to Vonnegut, is beauty, grace, and wisdom". Darryl Hattenhauer, in his 1998 journal article on "Harrison Bergeron", theorized that the story was a satire on American Cold War understandings of communism and socialism. With Cat's Cradle (1963), Allen wrote, "Vonnegut hit full stride for the first time". The narrator, John, intends to write of Dr. Felix Hoenikker, one of
21912-489: The social code of the upper classes. Comedy in general accepts the rules of the social game, while satire subverts them. Another analysis of satire is the spectrum of his possible tones : wit , ridicule , irony , sarcasm , cynicism , the sardonic and invective . The type of humour that deals with creating laughter at the expense of the person telling the joke is called reflexive humour. Reflexive humour can take place at dual levels of directing humour at self or at
22078-580: The target of Allied forces . In the hours and days that followed, the Allies engaged in a firebombing of the city . The offensive subsided on February 15, with about 25,000 civilians killed in the bombing. Vonnegut marveled at the level of both the destruction in Dresden and the secrecy that attended it. He had survived by taking refuge in a meat locker three stories underground. "It was cool there, with cadavers hanging all around", Vonnegut said. "When we came up
22244-508: The teaching of German in both public and private education could be found in at minimum 14 states, including some states that would extend this to ban the teaching of all languages except for English, although the majority would ban non-English languages typically only banned German. A total ban on teaching German in both public and private schools was imposed for a time in at least 14 states, including California , Indiana , Wisconsin , Ohio , Iowa and Nebraska . California's ban lasted into
22410-481: The term soon escaped from the original narrow definition. Robert Elliott writes: As soon as a noun enters the domain of metaphor, as one modern scholar has pointed out, it clamours for extension; and satura (which had had no verbal, adverbial, or adjectival forms) was immediately broadened by appropriation from the Greek word for "satyr" (satyros) and its derivatives. The odd result is that the English "satire" comes from
22576-567: The terms cynicism and parody were used. Modern critics call the Greek playwright Aristophanes one of the best known early satirists: his plays are known for their critical political and societal commentary , particularly for the political satire by which he criticized the powerful Cleon (as in The Knights ). He is also notable for the persecution he underwent. Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease. His bawdy style
22742-628: The time of its publication. Howard W. Campbell Jr., Vonnegut's protagonist, is an American who is raised in Germany from age 11 and joins the Nazi party during the war as a double agent for the US Office of Strategic Services , rising to the regime's highest ranks as a radio propagandist. After the war, the spy agency refuses to clear his name, and he is eventually imprisoned by the Israelis in
22908-481: The top of The New York Times Best Seller list and made Vonnegut famous. Later in his career, Vonnegut published autobiographical essays and short-story collections such as Fates Worse Than Death (1991) and A Man Without a Country (2005). He has been hailed for his darkly humorous commentary on American society. His son Mark published a compilation of his work, Armageddon in Retrospect , in 2008. In 2017, Seven Stories Press published Complete Stories ,
23074-601: The university without any degree (despite having completed his undergraduate education). Vonnegut failed to write a dissertation, as his ideas had all been rejected. One abandoned topic was about the Ghost Dance and Cubist movements. A later topic, rejected "unanimously", had to do with the shapes of stories. Vonnegut received his graduate degree in anthropology 25 years after he left, when the university accepted his novel Cat's Cradle in lieu of his master's thesis. Shortly thereafter, General Electric (GE) hired Vonnegut as
23240-599: The use of German declined. The daily use would recede in public view to primarily Amish , Old Order Mennonite and Hutterite communities. Around 1800, two German-language Methodist churches were founded, the Vereinigten Brüder in Christo and the Evangelische Gemeinschaft . Both used Methodist hymnals in German and published German newspapers, of which one existed until 1937. From
23406-620: The use of German in public and the teaching of German in schools. During the early 20th century, as influential White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the United States sought to regain the upper hand of power and social influence, which had been heavily threatened by the waves of immigration, used politics and through the funded formation of the Ku Klux Klan , would help to give rise to anti-immigrant and distrust aimed at German-Americans among other groups of people. Through advertising and government-funded marketing, German-Americans also known as
23572-427: The very things the satirist wishes to question. Satire is found in many artistic forms of expression, including internet memes, literature, plays, commentary, music , film and television shows, and media such as lyrics. The word satire comes from the Latin word satur and the subsequent phrase lanx satura . Satur meant "full", but the juxtaposition with lanx shifted the meaning to "miscellany or medley":
23738-449: The war, but unable to write anything that was acceptable to himself or his publishers; chapter one of Slaughterhouse-Five tells of his difficulties. Released in 1969, the novel rocketed Vonnegut to fame. It tells of the life of Billy Pilgrim, who like Vonnegut was born in 1922 and survives the bombing of Dresden. The story is told in a non-linear fashion, with many of the story's climaxes—Billy's death in 1976, his kidnapping by aliens from
23904-405: The way ice-nine is described in the novel is reminiscent of how Bernard Vonnegut explained his own invention, silver-iodide cloudseeding, to Kurt. Much of the second half of the book is spent on the fictional Caribbean island of San Lorenzo, where John explores a religion called Bokononism , whose holy books (excerpts from which are quoted) give the novel the moral core science does not supply. After
24070-543: The way it is called in Chinese, goes back at least to Confucius , being mentioned in the Book of Odes (Shijing 詩經). It meant "to criticize by means of an ode". In the pre-Qin era it was also common for schools of thought to clarify their views through the use of short explanatory anecdotes, also called yuyan (寓言), translated as "entrusted words". These yuyan usually were brimming with satirical content. The Daoist text Zhuangzi
24236-622: The wealthiest in the city based on a fortune deriving from a successful brewery. Both of Vonnegut's parents were fluent speakers of the German language , but pervasive anti-German sentiment during and after World War I caused them to abandon German culture ; many German Americans were told at the time that this was a precondition for American patriotism . Thus, they did not teach Vonnegut to speak German or introduce him to German literature , cuisine , or traditions, leaving him feeling "ignorant and rootless". Vonnegut later credited Ida Young, his family's African-American cook and housekeeper during
24402-461: The words or position of his opponent in order to jeopardize their opponent's reputation and/or power. Jonathan Swift has been established as an author who "borrowed heavily from Juvenal's techniques in [his critique] of contemporary English society". In the history of theatre there has always been a conflict between engagement and disengagement on politics and relevant issue, between satire and grotesque on one side, and jest with teasing on
24568-406: The work Reynard the Fox , written by Willem die Madoc maecte, and its translations were a popular work that satirized the class system at the time. Representing the various classes as certain anthropomorphic animals. As example, the lion in the story represents the nobility, which is portrayed as being weak and without character, but very greedy. Versions of Reynard the Fox were also popular well into
24734-592: The work languished for years. In 1954, the couple had a third child, Nanette. With a growing family and no financially successful novels yet, Vonnegut's short stories helped to sustain the family, though he frequently needed to find additional sources of income. In 1957, he and a partner opened a Saab automobile dealership on Cape Cod, but it went bankrupt by the end of the year. He designed a World War II–themed board game called "GHQ" (General Headquarters), but publishers did not buy it. In 1958, his sister, Alice, died of cancer two days after her husband, James Carmalt Adams,
24900-511: The writer's workshop at the University of Iowa , teaching one course each term, Vonnegut was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for research in Germany. By the time he won it, in March 1967, he was becoming a well-known writer. He used the funds to travel in Eastern Europe, including to Dresden, where he found many prominent buildings still in ruins. Vonnegut had been writing about his war experiences at Dresden ever since he returned from
25066-901: The writings of the Roman satirist Juvenal (late first century – early second century AD), is more contemptuous and abrasive than the Horatian. Juvenal disagreed with the opinions of the public figures and institutions of the Republic and actively attacked them through his literature. "He utilized the satirical tools of exaggeration and parody to make his targets appear monstrous and incompetent". Juvenal's satire follows this same pattern of abrasively ridiculing societal structures. Juvenal also, unlike Horace, attacked public officials and governmental organizations through his satires, regarding their opinions as not just wrong, but evil. Following in this tradition, Juvenalian satire addresses perceived social evil through scorn, outrage, and savage ridicule. This form
25232-513: Was "as corrosive as hydrochloric acid ". She often tried in vain to sell short stories she had written to Collier's , The Saturday Evening Post , and other magazines. Vonnegut enrolled at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis in 1936. While there, he played clarinet in the school band and became a co-editor (along with Madelyn Pugh ) for the Tuesday edition of the school newspaper, The Shortridge Echo . Vonnegut said that his tenure with
25398-566: Was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedian Menander . His early play Drunkenness contains an attack on the politician Callimedon . The oldest form of satire still in use is the Menippean satire by Menippus of Gadara . His own writings are lost. Examples from his admirers and imitators mix seriousness and mockery in dialogues and present parodies before a background of diatribe . As in the case of Aristophanes plays, menippean satire turned upon images of filth and disease. Satire, or fengci (諷刺)
25564-615: Was an Arabian Nights tale called "Ali with the Large Member". In the 10th century, the writer Tha'alibi recorded satirical poetry written by the Arabic poets As-Salami and Abu Dulaf, with As-Salami praising Abu Dulaf's wide breadth of knowledge and then mocking his ability in all these subjects, and with Abu Dulaf responding back and satirizing As-Salami in return. An example of Arabic political satire included another 10th-century poet Jarir satirizing Farazdaq as "a transgressor of
25730-458: Was considered "unchristian" and ignored, except for the moral satire , which mocked misbehaviour in Christian terms. Examples are Livre des Manières by Étienne de Fougères [ fr ] (~1178), and some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales . Sometimes epic poetry (epos) was mocked, and even feudal society, but there was hardly a general interest in the genre. In the High Middle Ages
25896-430: Was disgruntled by the personal nature of his detractors' complaints. In subsequent years, his popularity resurged as he published several satirical books, including Jailbird (1979), Deadeye Dick (1982), Galápagos (1985), Bluebeard (1987), and Hocus Pocus (1990). Although he remained a prolific writer in the 1980s, Vonnegut struggled with depression and attempted suicide in 1984. Two years later, Vonnegut
26062-521: Was forced to walk the route. With shattered glass bottles being thrown down in his walking path, he was forced to sing patriotic songs. He was forced during this walk to kiss an American flag which had been wrapped around him. He was walked to a hanging tree at the edge of town where he was lynched. In an article from The St. Louis Global-Democrat, it was reported that there had been multiple incidences of mobs tarring and feathering individuals. Other acts of discrimination based on ethnic background included
26228-561: Was going through at the time. In the mid-1960s, Vonnegut contemplated abandoning his writing career. In 1999, he wrote in The New York Times : "I had gone broke, was out of print and had a lot of kids..." But then, on the recommendation of an admirer, he received a surprise offer of a teaching job at the Iowa Writers' Workshop , employment that he likened to the rescue of a drowning man. After spending almost two years at
26394-476: Was imprisoned. After the war, he married Jane Marie Cox. He and his wife both attended the University of Chicago while he worked as a night reporter for the City News Bureau . Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano , in 1952. It received positive reviews yet sold poorly. In the nearly 20 years that followed, several well regarded novels were published, including The Sirens of Titan (1959) and Cat's Cradle (1963), both of which were nominated for
26560-560: Was killed in a train accident . The Vonneguts took in three of the Adams' young sons—James, Steven , and Kurt, aged 14, 11, and 9, respectively. A fourth Adams son, Peter (2), also stayed with the Vonneguts for about a year before being given to the care of a paternal relative in Georgia. Grappling with family challenges, Vonnegut continued to write, publishing novels vastly dissimilar in terms of plot. The Sirens of Titan (1959) features
26726-548: Was of considerable local interest, as German-speaking families overwhelmingly sent their children to parochial schools at which instruction was conducted in German. In some German immigrant neighborhoods in Chicago, public school attendance was so low that the press reported the institutions as being practically empty. The decision of the Chicago Public Schools to make English the sole language of instruction in
26892-644: Was panned critically. In Thomas S. Hischak's book American Literature on Stage and Screen , Breakfast of Champions was called "funny and outlandish", but reviewers noted that it "lacks substance and seems to be an exercise in literary playfulness". Vonnegut's 1976 novel Slapstick , which meditates on the relationship between him and his sister (Alice), met a similar fate. In The New York Times 's review of Slapstick , Christopher Lehmann-Haupt said that Vonnegut "seems to be putting less effort into [storytelling] than ever before" and that "it still seems as if he has given up storytelling after all". At times, Vonnegut
27058-489: Was seen by a younger generation when he played himself in Rodney Dangerfield 's film Back to School . The last of Vonnegut's fourteen novels, Timequake (1997), was, as University of Detroit history professor and Vonnegut biographer Gregory Sumner said, "a reflection of an aging man facing mortality and testimony to an embattled faith in the resilience of human awareness and agency". Vonnegut's final book,
27224-488: Was sent to Dresden, the "first fancy city [he had] ever seen". He lived in a slaughterhouse when he got to the city, and worked in a factory that made malt syrup for pregnant women. Vonnegut recalled the sirens going off whenever another city was bombed. The Germans did not expect Dresden to be bombed, Vonnegut said. "There were very few air-raid shelters in town and no war industries, just cigarette factories, hospitals, clarinet factories." On February 13, 1945, Dresden became
27390-443: Was well aware that, in treating of new themes in his prose works, he would have to employ a vocabulary of a nature more familiar in hija , satirical poetry." For example, in one of his zoological works, he satirized the preference for longer human penis size , writing: "If the length of the penis were a sign of honor, then the mule would belong to the (honorable tribe of) Quraysh ". Another satirical story based on this preference
27556-456: Was written 'satyre.' The word satire derives from satura , and its origin was not influenced by the Greek mythological figure of the satyr . In the 17th century, philologist Isaac Casaubon was the first to dispute the etymology of satire from satyr, contrary to the belief up to that time. The rules of satire are such that it must do more than make you laugh. No matter how amusing it is, it doesn't count unless you find yourself wincing
#906093