ABSTRACT
There is an embarrassingly large number of theories which explain why a writer writes. A number of writers have offered a motivation quite different, at least superficially, from the desire for immortality. For many reasons one must be wary of accepting at face value people's statements about their motivations. Vanity, rationalization, cowardice, ignorance may embellish the truth. Some critics believe that under certain conditions the ironic attitude is a healthy one. It is generally agreed that both criticism and humor have to be present in a work before it can be called satiric. A "creative impulse" of some sort has been generally accepted as a suitable motivation- for writers other than satirists. The most vigorous spokesman for the theory that the satirist is motivated by an aesthetic drive is Wyndham Lewis.
