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joelawrence 's review for:
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
The movie versions are more succinct and overall a less cumbersome and time intensive way to tell the story, though the movies leave out all of the truly absurd parts, like when the Yahoos defecate all over him, or like when he meets the intestine expert who says weird stuff, or when he acquires a horse-language accent.
If Swift were writing today he'd be like David Sedaris or Dr. Seuss. Coy, scrupulous, delicate, precice and opinionated. It's a weird mix. He's making these very obvious thematic critiques of British governance, economic policy, immorality, and the general inneptitude and irrationality of the colonial-minded aristocrats. In that regard, the book is stupendous, though it's of its time and for that reason it's wordy. I think his points are valid and contain snark and creativity. Not honestly overly creative because he merely visits small people, big people, philosophers on a floating island, and talking horses who only use reason. So basically the weirdness is approached with sincerity and that's the source of the humor to some degree so people who've adapted this into a children's book don't really have to do much work. (Just cut out 80% of the words and the weird stuff.)
Jonathan Swift's book is kind of an anti-Lord of the Flies. Both get stranded at sea but in this book Gulliver makes friends every time, learns a lot, and basically seems just fine even though he's been shackled, imprisoned, shot by arrows large and small, and forced to eat micro meals and sleep on hundreds of tiny beds piled together. But basically Lord of the Flies becomes an imminent fight against chaos, starvation, and the murderous nature of humanity, and Gulliver is mostly an extended metaphor for England and how everything will be fine because even in the worst case scenario there will be beings to find and rescue you. Unless... you think Swift is trying to prove how DUMB people are to travel the world in boats all with the idea that survival is assured... which... at times I did wonder what was intentionally dumb and what was not. Because the book is smartly done and it's obvious there's some Roald Dahl-type tomfoolery going on in the narration.
If Swift were writing today he'd be like David Sedaris or Dr. Seuss. Coy, scrupulous, delicate, precice and opinionated. It's a weird mix. He's making these very obvious thematic critiques of British governance, economic policy, immorality, and the general inneptitude and irrationality of the colonial-minded aristocrats. In that regard, the book is stupendous, though it's of its time and for that reason it's wordy. I think his points are valid and contain snark and creativity. Not honestly overly creative because he merely visits small people, big people, philosophers on a floating island, and talking horses who only use reason. So basically the weirdness is approached with sincerity and that's the source of the humor to some degree so people who've adapted this into a children's book don't really have to do much work. (Just cut out 80% of the words and the weird stuff.)
Jonathan Swift's book is kind of an anti-Lord of the Flies. Both get stranded at sea but in this book Gulliver makes friends every time, learns a lot, and basically seems just fine even though he's been shackled, imprisoned, shot by arrows large and small, and forced to eat micro meals and sleep on hundreds of tiny beds piled together. But basically Lord of the Flies becomes an imminent fight against chaos, starvation, and the murderous nature of humanity, and Gulliver is mostly an extended metaphor for England and how everything will be fine because even in the worst case scenario there will be beings to find and rescue you. Unless... you think Swift is trying to prove how DUMB people are to travel the world in boats all with the idea that survival is assured... which... at times I did wonder what was intentionally dumb and what was not. Because the book is smartly done and it's obvious there's some Roald Dahl-type tomfoolery going on in the narration.