Editing Writer (section)

====Satirist====
{{Main|Satire}}

A satirist uses wit to ridicule the shortcomings of society or individuals, with the intent of revealing stupidity. Usually, the subject of the satire is a contemporary issue such as ineffective political decisions or politicians, although human vices such as [[greed]] are also a common and prevalent subject. Philosopher [[Voltaire]] wrote a satire about optimism called ''[[Candide]]'', which was subsequently turned into an opera, and many well known lyricists wrote for it. There are elements of [[Absurdism]] in ''Candide'', just as there are in the work of contemporary satirist [[Barry Humphries]], who writes comic satire for his character [[Dame Edna Everage]] to perform on stage.

Satirists use different techniques such as [[irony]], [[sarcasm]], and [[hyperbole]] to make their point and they choose from the full range of genres – the satire may be in the form of prose or poetry or dialogue in a film, for example. One of the most well-known satirists is [[Jonathan Swift]] who wrote the four-volume work ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' and many other satires, including ''[[A Modest Proposal]]'' and ''[[The Battle of the Books]]''.

{{Quotation|''It is amazing to me that ... our age is almost wholly illiterate and has hardly produced one writer upon any subject.''<br />[[Jonathan Swift]], satirist (1704)<ref>The Epistle Dedicatory of ''[[A Tale of a Tub]]''. For text at Wikisource, see [[s:A Tale of a Tub|''A Tale of a Tub'']]</ref>}}