The Examined Path Through Parody and pastiche

To parody something is to love it enough to mock it — a form of intimacy available only to those who have really paid attention. Nasreddin parodied scholars, judges, and mystics not as an outsider but as someone who had studied them closely enough to find exactly the seam where their dignity came apart. Good parody is always a kind of homage; bad parody is just cruelty with better timing.

The course sequence, in order.

Each step builds on the last.