Sunday, February 03, 2008
Satire succeeded in getting reaction
Shanna Flowers
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The column was satire.
The point of my lament in this space last Sunday was to bemoan the idea of Advance Auto Parts' possibly leaving Roanoke to move 1,100 miles away to Minneapolis.
Rather than write a predictable, chamber-of-commerce piece about what the Fortune 500 company would lose if it left Roanoke -- the lovely mountains, the friendly people, the loyal work force -- the column used humor to show what the business would gain if it moved to Minneapolis.
As a taxpaying resident of Roanoke, it's not my job to make the competition sparkle by boosting its cultural and recreational amenities, its recent honor as the nation's most literate city, its endless list of major corporations, etc., etc.
So I wrote about some of our Minnesota friends' other hallmarks -- with some embellishment and levity. And believe it or not, some of the material was inspired by jokes Minnesotans tell about themselves.
Problem was, many readers weren't in a laughing mood.
"Honestly, your attempt to slam Minneapolis is so desperate that not only do you make yourself look ignorant, but you make the rest of us look bad as well," someone identified only as "J." posted on my blog.
Pat Jensen of Vinton fired off a letter to the editor. "Someone from Minnesota must have broken Ms. Flowers' heart. What else could explain her tirade of personal attacks on everything Minnesotan?"
Though I'm fond of a good chuckle in conversation, my writing tends to be serious and straightforward. To give readers insight into my diversion from the sober, just-the-facts-ma'am track last week, I called a master of satire and humor writing -- nationally syndicated columnist Rick Horowitz.
Flowers: "What is satire?"
Horowitz: "An exaggeration of reality to make a point."
(Conversation is a common element in Horowitz's columns, which run Thursdays on The Roanoke Times' Commentary Page.)
Horowitz said the exaggeration can be small and subtle or it can be broad and obvious.
"Part of the fun for the readers is that moment when you're not quite sure it's real or not," Horowitz said. "I always think that's fun. Different readers will catch it at different points along the way."
I will not get into rehashing -- and defending -- last Sunday's column point by point. But the first clue that maybe the piece would take a ridiculous route to a serious point was the headline, "Roanoke outstrips Minn. city every way."
Now while Roanoke is a lovely place to live, I'll hazard a guess that even my buddies Beth Doughty and Joyce Waugh over at the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce would agree that Roanoke isn't as easy a sell as Minneapolis -- yet.
But whatever one's feelings about Minnesota, Roanoke or Advance Auto for that matter, the column sparked reaction -- and that is my job.
Folks from both here and Minnesota weighed in. Readers posted their responses on my blog. One man left a voicemail at 7 a.m. last Sunday. Others wrote letters to the editor.
"Roanoke outstrips Minnesota city every way, including ignorance, bigotry and bad manners," wrote someone who signed a missive, "Born in Minnesota, Living in Roanoke."
"AH," who identified herself as an Advance Auto employee, wrote, "I cannot believe you actually have a column to write this stuff. ... I think your childish comparisons and stereotypes say a lot for your integrity and gives the rest of us with true 'Southern Charm' bad names."
Leaving myself even more open for hits, I failed to catch a typo in my first reference of Advance. (Note: A correction ran in Tuesday's paper.)
"The thing that struck me immediately in the SECOND sentence was the misspelling of the local Fortune 500 company on which the entire article was prefaced," said Dan Webster.
The Roanoke man agreed with the premise of the column but didn't like the satire.
"How can you expect the remainder of the article to be taken seriously if you can't even get the name of the principal focus correct?"
Someone who identified himself as "Jeremy" sent an e-mail alerting me to a Minneapolis Web site with a link to the column.
"Take a look at what locals are talking about pertaining to your ridiculous article." That was after he called it "crazy and desperate."
Some readers, though, suspected devilment.
"Wow, I hope this column was meant to be tongue-in-cheek," wrote a Ms. E, who gets points for ingenuity. In case it wasn't, she directed traffic to her blog "for a different perspective."
"I'm going to go under the assumption this article was a joke, as even the headline makes no sense," someone named Mike wrote. " 'Roanoke outstrips Minneapolis in every way'? Are you kidding me?"
But the satire was evident to others.
"Oh, c'mon people, lighten up," someone identified as "Not Too Serious" urged blog posters. "I'm certain this article was intended to be humorous or the writer would've chosen more serious things with which to make comparisons. Instead she picked harmless subjects like hobbies and the weather."
"You really nailed Advance ... Stores, and I especially liked your humor, which was so fitting," Guy Byrd wrote in an e-mail. "Let's see that more often."
I may take you up on that, Guy.
Horowitz said he found the column "well within bounds" of satirical fair play.
"I'd keep going for it," he added. "If someone thinks you believe [Minnesota has] mosquitoes the size of Jesse Ventura's head, you're not the one at fault."
Shanna Flowers' column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
