Pre-Flight for
Gulliver's Travels

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If I were to make a list of six books which were to be preserved when all others were destroyed, I would certainly put Gulliver's Travels among them.
—— George Orwell

Greetings Fellow Yahoos,

You are about to read one of the greatest satires ever written. So what is a satire? Edgar Johnson writes that the first ingredient in satire is criticism, but not just criticism. It must be, he says, “criticism with a difference.” Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. What is the difference that makes criticism satire? There are two things that Johnson asserts.

The first is what he calls “unmasking.” Satire takes the mask off something and exposes it for what it really is—but it does it with style. For instance, soldiers once wrote a little ditty about their love of army coffee:

The coffee in the Army
Is very, very fine:
It’s good for cuts and bruises
And it tastes like iodine.

Or how about Jonathan Swift when he wrote, “Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you would hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse.” Here are two criticisms, both funny. The former directly criticizes bad tasting coffee and the latter indirectly criticizes human cruelty.

The second ingredient is the ability to “overcome the Censor.” The Censor is any number of things. It may be the government in a repressive country or the culture in a free one. It may be political parties or the ideals of the business world. It may be fashions of dress or predominant tastes in movies or television. It is that thing that says you must think this way, you must act this way, you must like this, you must accept this. It’s The Matrix. Satire evaluates the world we live in and criticizes those aspects that need to be changed often without the Censor even knowing that it is being criticized. A lady once complained to Samuel Johnson that she could not explain how her fingernails got dirty to which he replied, “Perhaps, Madam, you scratch yourself.” He was using satire to tell this woman that though her body was physically clean her character was not.

The most important ingredients of satire, says Edgar Johnson, are truth and sanity. “The great satirist,” he writes, “sees straight, he sees far, and he sees deep. That is what makes him great.”

Gulliver's Travels criticizes the time in which Jonathan Swift lived, but more importantly, it criticizes the failings of humanity in every age and country. Johnson calls it, "a reasoned catalogue of all the stupidities, vices, and cruelties of mankind." Like so many books that we call classics Gullliver's Travels is timeless. We see not only the time in which Swift lived, but the ages before and after him; we see, reluctantly, maybe, ourselves and our time.

It is not necessary to know in order to enjoy this satire, but many of the events in Gulliver's Travels correspond to real events during Swift's life. Swift was very involved in politics. As you are reading ask yourself what it is that Swift is criticizing and why he uses the methods he does. Also, watch Gulliver as the story progresses. What kind of man is he in the beginning? What kind of man is he at the end? Why does he change?

Some of the scenes in Gulliver's Travels may shock you or "gross you out." You might even wonder why such scenes are included in a book considered one of the greatest satires ever written. I assure you that Swift is attempting to tell us something important—he has his reasons. He's criticizing certain aspects of the culture of his day and humanity in general. It will be up to you to decide if his criticisms are valid and/or still relevant for us today.

This is a funny book. Swift's satire can be both biting and hilarious at the same time. So enjoy yourself!

Regards,

Mr. Draeger

Sources:

Ehrenpreis, Irvin. The Personality of Jonathan Swift. London: Methuen, 1958. Questia. 9 Oct. 2005 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6200880>.

Freedman, William. "Swift's Struldbruggs, Progress and the Analogy of History." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 35.3 (1995): 457+. Questia. 9 Oct. 2005 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001652643>.

Johnson, Edgar. A Treasury of Satire. Simon and Schuster, New York. 1945.

Todd, Dennis. "The Hairy Maid at the Harpsichord: Some Speculations on the Meaning of Gulliver's Travels." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 34.2 (1992): 239-283. Questia. 9 Oct. 2005 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97365982>.

Turner, Paul, ed. Gulliver's Travels. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Questia. 9 Oct. 2005 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=58321282>.

Williams, Kathleen. Jonathan Swift and the Age of Compromise. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1958. Questia. 9 Oct. 2005 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5964870>.

©2005-2012 Glen Draeger (all rights reserved)
Millstone Education: World Literature / http://www.millstoneeducation.com/worldLit