NEED FOR SATIRE

Hokitika Guardian, 9 January 1933, Page 2

NEED FOR SATIRE

CORRECTING MODERN WORLD TENDENCIES. The need for satire as a- corrective of modern : world tendencies was urged by Mr James Laver, novelist and critic, addressing the Liverpool Round Table. Mr Laver prescribed satire as a sort of “pick-me-up” for the enfeebled condition of present-day society As a people we were . Incoming terribly soft and. extremely touchy. We needed to get back -to the, early years of the eighteenth century, when satihC was in full swing. The ideal satirist was not the man whose satire sprang from hatred of humanity,, as in the case of Swift, but the man who loved mankind very much and was yet extremely conscious of the ridiculous side of human nature. One of the objects to which the modern satirist might direct his shafts was the vociferous effort of minorities to tame the natural man. This was a world , 0 f well-trained busy-, bodies. Satire could restore to- people of that kind and their deluded followers a. central view of life, a sense of balance and proportion. •Satire was like a draught of quinine, which cleared away the cold in the head caused by wandering too long in the realms of sentimentality. “In the

day 3 before us, however dark they may be,” added Mr Laver, “it is more important to think clearly than" to have the best intentions in the world.”