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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It took me a little bit to adapt to Swift's writing style but once I did, I wad able to truly enjoy the book. A clever critique from his part and I really dived into the second part, the most interesting one.
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I tried reading this about 12 years ago, but I didn't make it much past Lilliput, which is too bad because the best applicable satire to our current government starts showing up in Brobdingnag.
Check out this gem: "But, if what I told him were true, he was still at a loss how a kingdom could run out of its estate, like a private person." He asked me, "who were our creditors; and where we found money to pay them?" He wondered to hear me talk of such changeable and expensive wars; "that certainly we must be a quarrelsome people, or live among very bad neighbors, and that our generals must needs be richer than our kings."
Wow, ouch, or:
You have clearly proved that ignorance, idleness, and vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator. That laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them.
Ice burn, Jonathan Swift.
Unfortunately, Parts III and IV are pretty dated, and by dated, I mean uncomfortably racist and sexist. Also while I get why a book written nearly three hundred years ago might be a little behind on its science, there were several statements made that I found myself just shaking my head at because the author's truths have been proven deeply incorrect. Also, I have to admit that sometimes in Part IV, I imagined some of the sentiments being espoused by Mr. Collins, due to the generally pompous tone and grand obsequiousness to his patron, excuse me, master.
So I guess my overall assessment would be 3.5/5 stars, with the deductions being for the ways in which the book has aged poorly.
----
I didn't really mean to read this. Audible/Amazon offered some 20 classics for free as a test run for Whispersync, and I grabbed most of them (Screw you, Edith Wharton). For what it's worth, Whispersync is in fact pretty cool allowing you to seamlessly swap between the audio and Kindle editions of a book if you happen to have both, which I frequently do. Anyway, I was just listening to a bit of it, and then kept listening...
Check out this gem: "But, if what I told him were true, he was still at a loss how a kingdom could run out of its estate, like a private person." He asked me, "who were our creditors; and where we found money to pay them?" He wondered to hear me talk of such changeable and expensive wars; "that certainly we must be a quarrelsome people, or live among very bad neighbors, and that our generals must needs be richer than our kings."
Wow, ouch, or:
You have clearly proved that ignorance, idleness, and vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator. That laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them.
Ice burn, Jonathan Swift.
Unfortunately, Parts III and IV are pretty dated, and by dated, I mean uncomfortably racist and sexist. Also while I get why a book written nearly three hundred years ago might be a little behind on its science, there were several statements made that I found myself just shaking my head at because the author's truths have been proven deeply incorrect. Also, I have to admit that sometimes in Part IV, I imagined some of the sentiments being espoused by Mr. Collins, due to the generally pompous tone and grand obsequiousness to his patron, excuse me, master.
So I guess my overall assessment would be 3.5/5 stars, with the deductions being for the ways in which the book has aged poorly.
----
I didn't really mean to read this. Audible/Amazon offered some 20 classics for free as a test run for Whispersync, and I grabbed most of them (Screw you, Edith Wharton). For what it's worth, Whispersync is in fact pretty cool allowing you to seamlessly swap between the audio and Kindle editions of a book if you happen to have both, which I frequently do. Anyway, I was just listening to a bit of it, and then kept listening...
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I read the first half in accordance with the reading list in Gateway to the Great Books. I will read it in all later within the reading list.
This book was ridiculous. I'm not sure I understand how it's a classic
It is hard to imagine such a well done social and political critique as this one. It reads like a children's books, but it delivers such good moments of satire, and critique. Swift does it so well that you can think no one really got offended. I found myself laughing in some sections, at just how snarky he was. Definitely recommend!
What I was expecting: Fun, whimsical tellings of an explorer who finds himself tied up by a kingdom of tiny people and the hilarity that ensues.
What I got: Fun, whimsical tellings of an explorer who finds himself tied up by a kingdom of tiny people and the hilarity that ensues - being a satirical, and pointed commentary on the folly of man’s conceits. An exploration of still relevant political misguidings, and an accurate analysis of how preposterous we as humans can be in setting up “us” vs “them” mentalities.
For a book nearing 300 years old, I wouldn’t have expected such relevance. I would have hoped that we, as a species, have made huge advances in thinking and in how we deal with one another in the past quarter of a millennium... but alas...
From the ridiculous political party alignments that are predicated on the height of ones shoe heel, to major rifts in nations being caused by people’s preference for which side of the egg they crack (Big-Enders vs Small-Enders), Swift eloquently shines a light on how petty and irrelevant our hatreds of one another can be.
What I had known of the novel from movies and other media barely scratched the surface of what the novel actually is. Sure, there’s tiny people, and giants, and floating islands, and castle fires being extinguished with urination... But more specifically there is real exploration into politics, child rearing, and people’s absurd hatreds.
In Lilliput “The notions relating to the duties of parents and children differ extremely from ours. Men and women are joined together like other animals by motives of concupiscence; and their tenderness for their young proceed from the like natural principle: For which reason they will never allow that a child is under any obligation to his father for begetting him, or to his mother for bringing him into the world; which, considering the miseries of human life, was neither a benefit in itself, or intended so by his parents - whose thoughts in their love-encounters were otherwise employed.”
There’s a lot we can learn from the tiny people of Lilliput and a lot more we can learn than I imagined could be learned from Gulliver’s Travels.
What I got: Fun, whimsical tellings of an explorer who finds himself tied up by a kingdom of tiny people and the hilarity that ensues - being a satirical, and pointed commentary on the folly of man’s conceits. An exploration of still relevant political misguidings, and an accurate analysis of how preposterous we as humans can be in setting up “us” vs “them” mentalities.
For a book nearing 300 years old, I wouldn’t have expected such relevance. I would have hoped that we, as a species, have made huge advances in thinking and in how we deal with one another in the past quarter of a millennium... but alas...
From the ridiculous political party alignments that are predicated on the height of ones shoe heel, to major rifts in nations being caused by people’s preference for which side of the egg they crack (Big-Enders vs Small-Enders), Swift eloquently shines a light on how petty and irrelevant our hatreds of one another can be.
What I had known of the novel from movies and other media barely scratched the surface of what the novel actually is. Sure, there’s tiny people, and giants, and floating islands, and castle fires being extinguished with urination... But more specifically there is real exploration into politics, child rearing, and people’s absurd hatreds.
In Lilliput “The notions relating to the duties of parents and children differ extremely from ours. Men and women are joined together like other animals by motives of concupiscence; and their tenderness for their young proceed from the like natural principle: For which reason they will never allow that a child is under any obligation to his father for begetting him, or to his mother for bringing him into the world; which, considering the miseries of human life, was neither a benefit in itself, or intended so by his parents - whose thoughts in their love-encounters were otherwise employed.”
There’s a lot we can learn from the tiny people of Lilliput and a lot more we can learn than I imagined could be learned from Gulliver’s Travels.