Satire
As a logician, Zinoviev was able to reduce many features of Soviet communism to what he calls "scientific laws". The book is also filled with numerous paradoxes and logical twists, à la Catch 22. The book begins with a logically-reflexive definition: a preface claims that the book details the result of an experiment. The preface identifies the purpose of the experiment as follows:
- "to uncover those who disapprove of its implementation, and to take the appropriate measures".
One satire in a late chapter is that, after conquering the whole world in the Great Ibanskian Kissoff, the leaders of Ibansk discover another nation, Sub-Ibansk, whose inhabitants live underground beneath Ibansk and subsist of the sewage generated by Ibansk.
Read more about this topic: Yawning Heights
Famous quotes containing the word satire:
“What satire on government can equal the severity of censure conveyed in the word politic, which now for the ages has signified cunning, intimating that the state is a trick?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“I’ll publish, right or wrong:
Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)