Swift said in a letter to Pope that life is a ridiculous tragedy, which is the worst kind of composition. That is to say, life is self-contradictory, which is not only awkward but, from the viewpoint of a novelist, unsuccessful. To make good art—to compose, through use of images or symbols, a nonself-contradictory entity including and exceeding experience—you must get away from life without, obviously, ignoring or denying life. You may take any attitude toward life, toward what you have, provided you simultaneously affirm the negation of existing reality—ultimate freedom. You write satire because you don't like what you have but know that you need it.