Yesterday I bumped into an old teacher of mine who taught us Thomas Swift's Modest Proposal. Our conversation got me thinking about how I read the piece back then. It was mixed amid a curriculum of things like Inrik Ibsen's A Doll's House and The Illiad and The Oddesy. For some reason that semester we read all of those as well as Modest Proposal and we watched Mighty Python and the Holy Grail and listened to Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon while watching the Wizard of Oz. It was odd, yes. What was the theme? I don't know and neither does my old teacher. All I can remember is that the only things I ever found humorous in his class were his pathetic attempts to be humorous (which he knew were pathetic attempts--yes irony heaped on irony).
Why didn't I find Modest Proposal humorous however though? I started thinking about this. I was different back then, but I don't think that was the problem. I did realize that Modest Proposal was satire, so the reason I didn't find it humorous was not that I thought it was a real proposal. We started talking about the other teachers however and I realized what else I was studying at the time: World War II and the Holocaust.
What does this have to do with anything? Think. Humans really are capable of doing what Swift only jokes about. For instance, the Nazi's did make clothing accessories out of human skin. They also made things out of teeth. Without getting any more graphic, I will leave it by saying that generally they treated the Jews and other social outcasts like the American Indians treated buffalo. Yes, take a close look and there are even reports of cannibalism, although not widespread. The reality of something like this makes the humor melt away when the reality of it is in the forefront of our minds.
The problem with using humor for an argument is that there are some truly gruesome things that people try to combat with humor. Swift tries to combat poverty with his humorous argument. I think there is a problem with this however. It seems that when the serious problem (the real argument is being presented) either people will laugh it off or they will think so much about the serious issue that it ceases to be funny any longer.
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True, but you also have to take things in context. I don't think Swift would have written Modest Proposal if those atrocities were going on at the time. Like you said, readers would draw comparisons between his satire and real-life tragedy, and any humor would be lost completely. If anything, there would be a backlash against the author, doing more harm than good for his chosen cause. An effective satirist sees the line between good humor and poor taste and makes sure to stay on the right side of it- if just barely.
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