Mindmap
Here’s what I want you to learn during this unit.
Invention work: Listing
Satire often starts with a grain of irritation. The satirist wants to point out something that’s wrong, and push the rest of us toward change. Ready to get irritated?
-What pisses you off? Take five minutes and list as many things as possible (if you put 750s on the list, I will make you eat your paper).
-Richard Nixon had an “enemies list.” On it were his top political enemies. Make your own enemies list of public figures.
Pick your top 3 in each list. Expand and explore those three by writing out their vices & follies, their biggest flaws, what you really can’t stand about it/them.
Finally, let’s make these things concrete. Let’s embody these flaws. For each of your irritations, pick one representative person and action (e.g. lack of empathy irritates me, so I might portray a trust-fund kid telling a homeless guy to get a job). For each one of your top enemies, pick one action that embodies their biggest flaw. This action can be real or an exaggeration.
Process Writing
“PRKA” is a super-short piece, and I’d like you to read it at least twice. The first time, just read Saunders’ text. The second time, read my comments on the side, too.
I included the comments for a couple of reasons: to help you make meaning with the text, and also to model annotation, so you can continue to develop your skills in this area.
Here are some process-writing prompts:
Is this satire? If so, what makes it satire? If not, why not?
Why did Saunders use the form of a manifesto?
Who are the targets (remember to support all your claims with evidence from the text)? What do the targets have in common?
What’s the underlying message? What change or reform does Saunders want?
What abstractions is Saunders talking about?
This manifesto makes me think of horrible, depressing things 😀 . Why should people bother to read it? (Or why shouldn’t they read it?)