Customer Reviews:
 Perhaps satire doesn't travel August 22, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's a good read and probably every bit the masterpiece its reputation claims. The problem with satire, however, is that it doesn't stand alone. Parody, on the other hand, ought to make sense in itself, but obviously more sense if the object of the parody is understood and familiar. Satire only seems to make sense if you know the original.
The section in Lilliput describing the bloke with different sized heels on his shoes, for instance, is very funny, but only when the footnote has provided the context. He is described as having to negotiate a political line between the faction that likes high heels and the other that likes low ones. He makes awkward progress with both groups, since he can barely walk or stand up straight in a pair of shoes made up so he can have a foot in each camp. The reference is beautiful. It refers to High Church and Low Church in the Anglican tradition, and therefore to Whig and Tory, the opposing political parties of the time. To stay sweet with both, certain royals kept a foot in both camps, making their progress as ridiculous as the rough-shod Lilliputian.
In the books three sections, Gulliver is too big, then too small, then everyone is a horse except for the noxious Yahoos, of course. It was still a lot of fun and, probably, hard witting. The trouble, again, was knowing the targets. If today's Yahoos are considered... perhaps Swift might have googled his yahoos if he had been writing today.
One last observation is about well-known classics in general. The most famous scene from Gulliver's Travels, at least the one most depicted, is of Gulliver strapped to the ground by Lilliputian string and twine, while the little blighters run all over him. In Don Quixote, an equally quintessential scene is the tilting at windmills, mistaken by the knight for giants. It is interesting that both of these much quoted scenes appear very early in their respective books. I wonder if that might have something to do with certain people never getting very far through them!
a thriller of the age September 1, 2006
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is quite a fun 'novel', but I'm not wowed by it. It can be viewed as a travel book, an adventure story, a spoof travel book, and even a momentous political satire.
Gulliver is an impulsive man who can't resist the calling of the seas and foreign lands. He is quickly lured away from his comfortable homelife by a desire to explore, and that he does, in a big way.
His travels are effectively logged in separate books, each one describing a different kingdom or country, its inhabitants, its manners. Lilliput has tiny people, Brobdingnag has huge people, Laputa is a floating island, Houynhnmland has horses with great virtues. The characters are wonderfully drawn, and Gulliver has a great talent for the languages of each land.
The book works to enlarge humankind to a vulgar degree, belittle it by shrinking, and make vices look absurd. It's not seriously clever, but it is fun.
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