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1mydomino1978
I am in the middle - well actually near the end, of Gulliver's Travels and I am surprised at how much I am liking it (although a little wordy). HIs social commentary still holds true today. If you don't mind here is a quote:
"You have made a most admiral panegyric upon your country; you have clearly proved that ingorance,idleness and vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator; that laws are best explained, interpreted and applied by thoses whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding and eluding them" Jonathan Swift
Sounds like a modern statement of fact to me.
"You have made a most admiral panegyric upon your country; you have clearly proved that ingorance,idleness and vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator; that laws are best explained, interpreted and applied by thoses whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding and eluding them" Jonathan Swift
Sounds like a modern statement of fact to me.
3andyray
swift was the premium satirst of his time. in the essay "A Modest Proposal," he advocates fattening the children of Ireland so as to slow cook them and feed them to the English. In his delicious language he reasons they are killing them anyway, so why not derive the benefit of a good meal from the situation?
4Jargoneer
The true standing of Gulliver's Travels as one of the first great novels in English (he predates major writers such as Samuel Richarson and Henry Fielding) has been clouded by it being constantly bowderlised and published as a children's novel.
A taster (sic) of "A Modest Proposal" -
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.
I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, increaseth to 28 pounds.
I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.
Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent than at any other season; therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of popish infants is at least three to one in this kingdom: and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of papists among us.
The whole thing can be found readily on the web.
A taster (sic) of "A Modest Proposal" -
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.
I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, increaseth to 28 pounds.
I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.
Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent than at any other season; therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of popish infants is at least three to one in this kingdom: and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of papists among us.
The whole thing can be found readily on the web.
5mydomino1978
I have been wanting to read more of Swift, but I have so many things on the TBR. Working on the Pulitzers and the 1001 right now.
6Kell_Smurthwaite
I'm currently about half-way through an audio book of Gulliver's Travels and although I'm enjoying parts of it, I'm surprised at how dreary I'm finding large parts of it. I know it's satire, but much of it is just so preposterous that I find myself scoffing at the ideas Swift is satirising. I'm going to stick with it, though.
(I'm not very far into part three...)
(I'm not very far into part three...)
7andyray
I suggest that there are some works not made to be translated to audio. This is the case for Gulliver's Travels. If you are not blessed with an imaginative mind, you can find most any audio book boring. I do. I must have the paper before me, and if I can find one of the age it was written (a first or second edition) so much the better. I'm able to leave this world of corruption and Bushism and war behind and develop the more rational war about which end of the egg should be opened first. Now there is a reason to fight!
8Kell_Smurthwaite
Actually, I since found out there was a law in the UK about boiled eggs!
Any person found breaking a boiled egg at the sharp end will be sentenced to 24 hours in the village stocks (enacted by Edward VI).
Seems Gulliver's Travels wasn't all nonsense after all!
Any person found breaking a boiled egg at the sharp end will be sentenced to 24 hours in the village stocks (enacted by Edward VI).
Seems Gulliver's Travels wasn't all nonsense after all!
