Blog Post #3 - Oh, politics...

As I was reading through Gulliver’s Travels this week, I lost some interest during some parts that just seemed hard to stay engaged with; I don’t know why, exactly, but it was just a little tougher for me. But, when Gulliver was allowed to visit the Academy of Lagado in the Metropolis, I couldn’t put the book down. I just thought it was really interesting all of the different professors working in the academy and all the crazy inventions and ideas they were working on. Some of the ideas they possessed seemed a little too crazy and even a little hard to comprehend, but some were somewhat feasible and comical, such as the idea to abolish all words for health reasons and to replace language with the association of things. Or, the disgusting project to pick apart human feces and recreate the food that the waste was composed of. Another project that is implausible but kind of fun to think about, was the architect that was working on building buildings from the roof down, contrary to what has been done in the past.

A passage I found that was really significant to me is on page 176, the third paragraph and running to the top of page 177. It is when Gulliver is speaking with the ingenious doctor that was well-versed in the system of government. Here’s an excerpt:

“He likewise directed, that every Senator in the great Council of a Nation…should be obliged to give his vote directly contrary; because if that were done, the result would infallibly terminate in the good of the public.”

This passage literally made me laugh out loud. To me, it shows that Swift is just making fun of politicians here. He’s saying that when politicians vote, they always seem to vote for what the public doesn’t want. Here’s insinuating that politicians have no idea what their constituents want and when voting, should go against their judgment, since that is what the public wants.

The next passage, which is the last paragraph on page 176, is another passage poking fun at politicians. Here’s an excerpt:

“…you take leaders of each party, find a couple whose heads are nearest of a size; then let two operators saw off the occiput of each, so the brain is equally divided. Let the occiputs be interchanged, applying the head of his opposite party-man.”

This passage is basically saying that politicians can never agree, and the only solution is to cut their brains in half, so that the two parties can each occupy one part of the brain, in hopes of actually coming to solutions in government. I think that so far, in this book, this is the most satirical passage I’ve come across. Swift is just blatantly making fun of politicians and the government in general, which seems pretty significant.