Satire can be a suitable tool for education

In an interview with the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA), Abbas Goudarzi Dehrizi, author of the book “A Practical Guide to Satire Writing,” stated: “Satire can be an effective and suitable tool for education, provided we move away from clichés and stereotypes and take it seriously, not as mere jest and mockery.”

He added: “This book has a different perspective from other works in the field of satire. It is a practical guide and focuses less on the theoretical aspects of satire. My experience teaching satire writing workshops showed that one of our weaknesses in this area is that we either do not have a practical and applied guide for writing satire or, if we do, it is either a translation or poorly compiled.”

Dehrizi continued: “The main purpose of writing this book was to create a practical guide for satire enthusiasts, and for this reason, I tried to include more exercises in the book. This guide is for those who are interested in satire and want to become satire writers. A good satire writer must be knowledgeable, meaning they must be familiar with literature and current events. Satire is the child of wit and knowledge.”

Regarding the structure of the book, he said: “The book consists of seven chapters, titled: ‘What is Satire?’, ‘Essentials of Satire’, ‘Creative Thinking Techniques in Satire’, ‘Forms of Satire’, ‘Satirical Prose’, ‘Satirical Poetry’, and ‘Satire Writing Exercises’. The topics are organized in a way that, after the theoretical and introductory discussions, the book moves toward practical content.”

The author of “A Practical Guide to Satire Writing” emphasized: “In this book, I have tried to gather and categorize the essentials of satire from various sources. These essentials are presented in a simple and fluent language. My main sources were books on satire that I have studied over the years, combined with my own experiences. The book has been written over a period of about two years.”

He concluded: “Satire can serve education, including in our education system, where we can use satire to make educational materials more engaging for students. Of course, this requires thorough and expert work, but it is possible. The book ‘A Practical Guide to Satire Writing’ has been published by Soroush Publications.”