Satire State

<p><strong>Satire State: Dispatches from the Obedient Republic</strong></p><p> </p><p><strong>by Christina di Pensare</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>What if democracy didn't die in darkness-but in daylight with polite applause and a standing ovation? In this searing collection of satirical fables Christina di Pensare takes aim at the absurdities of authoritarianism disguised as order obedience and patriotic performance.</span></p><p></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>With sharp wit and dark hilarity di Pensare issues a series of dispatches from the Obedient Republic -each more chilling absurd and uncomfortably familiar than the last-that chart the bureaucratic banality of modern authoritarianism.</strong></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> In the Obedient Republic citizens nod hourly perform thrice-daily nationally-mandated splits and wear matching crutches in solidarity with their Supreme Leader's stubbed toe.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>No feeling is safe. No metaphor is approved. No citizen is taller than the President.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>From ministries that ban cutlery and metaphors to trials for teenagers who dared to moon the Presidential motorcade Satire State conjures a nation teetering on the edge of madness-one bureaucratic decree at a time.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Reminiscent of the dark irony of Jonathan Swift the gallows humor of George Saunders and the prophetic sting of George Orwell these dispatches read like parody-until they don't.</strong></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>These aren't warnings from the future. They're funhouse reflections of the present.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Satire State is laugh-out-loud funny-until it isn't.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>