 Lavery makes his trope historical, but it still resonates in the 21st century. When satire takes the form of a short story, the writer runs up against the fact that fiction, by nature, often doesn't have a point, or at least not only one point, but satire probably does. And we need satire, because the times we live in are overwhelming in their absurdity and outrageousness, and we can't let them have the last word. We'll always need smart writers to comment on them.