This is my first time reading Gulliver’s Travels, and I'm not enjoying it as either an adventure story or a satire. As to the latter point, none of the satire is understandable without the footnotes, of which there are far too many.
On an unrelated point, I want to see a picture of you bowing to a whiteboard marker.
Well done John. I must confess, I am not a great fan of this story. However, I always enjoy your writing and ability to bring new light to a tale. Thanks.
My fancy pocket watch is chrome plated. I read Gulliver's Travels in childhood as an exciting adventure. It was actually one of my favourite books. Then I got older and noticed the nastiness and decided it wasn't a nice book. Now I see the satire.
The opening of Gulliver's Travels reminded me not only of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, but of the autobiographical account of John Newton, the slave captain who turned evangelical preacher, ended up at sea. Newton lived later than Defoe and Swift, so they wouldn't have been inspired by him, although Defoe was influenced by the story of castaway Alexander Selkirk. I wonder rather if the similarities are emblematic of just how this era of British culture was influenced by the seafaring empire they were building.
And this seafaring culture may have reached its extreme with the British attempt to find a northwest passage through the Arctic. They were fanatical in their determination to find this passage which btw doesn't exist but even if it had, you didn't need to find it to know that it was useless to maritime travel or shipping anyway because it's too cold to be navigable and too remote to be economical. It was a very expensive ego trip that cost tons of money and a lot of lives.
Somehow I think this connects to GT, maybe the egg cracking business and the stacked heel shoes -- the absurdism of how we become so passionate and militant about things that are either irrelevant or not even real? And that definitely feels familiar to me now in this particular climate.
FYI, everything I know about this is from the movie Terror and a few google searches. 😁
I am Canadian, so the search for the Northwest Passage is part of the history of our country's formation, and the Franklin expedition was the most infamous. The wreck of Franklin's ships, H.M.S. Erebus and Terror, were finally found because the indigenous Inuit of the far north had preserved stories that helped relocate it. There is a Northwest Passage through the islands of Canada's far north, but it is frozen over most of the year. Yet in that short window each year oil barges and container ships delivers vital supplies to the communities on Canada's Arctic Islands. The European whaling industry killed off most of the Inuit's source of fuel and building materials - the whale - so the communities now need fuel and building materials from further south.
Reading GT for first time, only because your posts on Substack intrigued me. Half way through I looked up the publication date, 1726. Based on the disparagement of England and the publication date I wondered why the author wasn’t hanged upon publication. I found that GT was published anonymously. Is that correct? I also feel that the satire is a perfect commentary on the state of affairs of 2024. My brain is struggling with that thought as I find it both amazing and depressing, but I, like JS, find humans to be the most deplorable species on the planet, so maybe it’s an apt response.
It was anonymous, but it was widely known to have been written by Swift, who had already established himself as a satirist. It was actually pretty common in the 18th century to criticize the government, especially since the establishment of the party system after the Glorious Revolution.
Interesting. I didn’t know that. My thinking has been influenced by watching Netflix (Outlander, Turn, etc) rather than reading. There’s a lesson in that.
I’ve finished GT. I’m so glad I’ve read it. It has given me much to think about.
I'm a couple pages from the end of Ch 6. I have to admit I definitely don't find it interesting as an adventure, and only a little amusing as a satire. The body humor is some of the funniest bits, the image of him putting out a fire by pissing on it was funny. And absurd bits like on p. 48 in the Norton edition where the dead are buried head down because they believe the earth will flip and then they'll be right side up on judgment day is funny and effective at pointing out how we do silly things based on a belief of how the future will be instead of based on how things actually are right now. As a person who used to make choices based on beliefs about an after life I really appreciate that. It's one of the biggest ways we humans can fail to act in our own interest because of cherished beliefs about something we can't possibly know about and also isn't our current reality. When other people do that and suffer or look silly it's so obvious to everyone else, but it's hard to see in ourselves.
I've never read GT but I have read his account of a garden visit+ a couple of other essays. I know in part of GT Swift makes fun of Scientists in terms that seem very relevant to now. ie stupid nonsense research projects designed to unlock research grants.
This is my first time reading GT. I remember seeing a movie of it when I was a boy and being thoroughly disgusted by the action of a fly in the Brobdingnagian section. Ever since, i will not eat any food touched by a fly. Thanks Gulliver!
Except for the pistols, I had no idea what those pocket objects were. I never read this because my older sister had to read it in school, and being a puritan Catholic family, complained to my mother about the descriptions of body parts and functions. So glad I stumbled upon this delightful journey.
This is my first time reading Gulliver’s Travels, and I'm not enjoying it as either an adventure story or a satire. As to the latter point, none of the satire is understandable without the footnotes, of which there are far too many.
On an unrelated point, I want to see a picture of you bowing to a whiteboard marker.
Ditto. On all points.
Ha! I'll see if I can get my graduate assistant to take a photo when we get to that day in a couple of weeks.
Well done John. I must confess, I am not a great fan of this story. However, I always enjoy your writing and ability to bring new light to a tale. Thanks.
Thanks, Matthew!
My fancy pocket watch is chrome plated. I read Gulliver's Travels in childhood as an exciting adventure. It was actually one of my favourite books. Then I got older and noticed the nastiness and decided it wasn't a nice book. Now I see the satire.
The opening of Gulliver's Travels reminded me not only of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, but of the autobiographical account of John Newton, the slave captain who turned evangelical preacher, ended up at sea. Newton lived later than Defoe and Swift, so they wouldn't have been inspired by him, although Defoe was influenced by the story of castaway Alexander Selkirk. I wonder rather if the similarities are emblematic of just how this era of British culture was influenced by the seafaring empire they were building.
Yes, there was a huge market going back to the Tudors for travel literature, both real and fictional.
And this seafaring culture may have reached its extreme with the British attempt to find a northwest passage through the Arctic. They were fanatical in their determination to find this passage which btw doesn't exist but even if it had, you didn't need to find it to know that it was useless to maritime travel or shipping anyway because it's too cold to be navigable and too remote to be economical. It was a very expensive ego trip that cost tons of money and a lot of lives.
Somehow I think this connects to GT, maybe the egg cracking business and the stacked heel shoes -- the absurdism of how we become so passionate and militant about things that are either irrelevant or not even real? And that definitely feels familiar to me now in this particular climate.
FYI, everything I know about this is from the movie Terror and a few google searches. 😁
I am Canadian, so the search for the Northwest Passage is part of the history of our country's formation, and the Franklin expedition was the most infamous. The wreck of Franklin's ships, H.M.S. Erebus and Terror, were finally found because the indigenous Inuit of the far north had preserved stories that helped relocate it. There is a Northwest Passage through the islands of Canada's far north, but it is frozen over most of the year. Yet in that short window each year oil barges and container ships delivers vital supplies to the communities on Canada's Arctic Islands. The European whaling industry killed off most of the Inuit's source of fuel and building materials - the whale - so the communities now need fuel and building materials from further south.
Reading GT for first time, only because your posts on Substack intrigued me. Half way through I looked up the publication date, 1726. Based on the disparagement of England and the publication date I wondered why the author wasn’t hanged upon publication. I found that GT was published anonymously. Is that correct? I also feel that the satire is a perfect commentary on the state of affairs of 2024. My brain is struggling with that thought as I find it both amazing and depressing, but I, like JS, find humans to be the most deplorable species on the planet, so maybe it’s an apt response.
It was anonymous, but it was widely known to have been written by Swift, who had already established himself as a satirist. It was actually pretty common in the 18th century to criticize the government, especially since the establishment of the party system after the Glorious Revolution.
Interesting. I didn’t know that. My thinking has been influenced by watching Netflix (Outlander, Turn, etc) rather than reading. There’s a lesson in that.
I’ve finished GT. I’m so glad I’ve read it. It has given me much to think about.
Actually, I’m here for the footnotes…
I'm a couple pages from the end of Ch 6. I have to admit I definitely don't find it interesting as an adventure, and only a little amusing as a satire. The body humor is some of the funniest bits, the image of him putting out a fire by pissing on it was funny. And absurd bits like on p. 48 in the Norton edition where the dead are buried head down because they believe the earth will flip and then they'll be right side up on judgment day is funny and effective at pointing out how we do silly things based on a belief of how the future will be instead of based on how things actually are right now. As a person who used to make choices based on beliefs about an after life I really appreciate that. It's one of the biggest ways we humans can fail to act in our own interest because of cherished beliefs about something we can't possibly know about and also isn't our current reality. When other people do that and suffer or look silly it's so obvious to everyone else, but it's hard to see in ourselves.
Precisely: when we imagine what some of our most deeply held beliefs and custom would look like to an alien, we seem fairly Lilliputian.
Quite a bit of thunder in “A Modest Proposal”.
I've never read GT but I have read his account of a garden visit+ a couple of other essays. I know in part of GT Swift makes fun of Scientists in terms that seem very relevant to now. ie stupid nonsense research projects designed to unlock research grants.
Yes--that's in part 3!
This is my first time reading GT. I remember seeing a movie of it when I was a boy and being thoroughly disgusted by the action of a fly in the Brobdingnagian section. Ever since, i will not eat any food touched by a fly. Thanks Gulliver!
Ha! Don't read this book if you're feeling queasy.
Except for the pistols, I had no idea what those pocket objects were. I never read this because my older sister had to read it in school, and being a puritan Catholic family, complained to my mother about the descriptions of body parts and functions. So glad I stumbled upon this delightful journey.