Is My Head in the Gutter? Or...

I was really excited to read this book. There was no forewarning that this was in Middle English or written by someone blind, or contained weird, dark magic that would accidentally reveal the devil. But when I sat down to read it, I realized that I'd seen the name Jonathan Swift before. Junior year of high school to be exact. Sandwiched somewhere in between Kafka's Metamorphosis and Camus' The Stranger, we took a "break" with Swift's "A Modest Proposal". If you haven't read it, do it. Takes a few minutes and it's the most bizarre thing ever. I won't spoil it for you. But I remember that it was indeed odd and that it led us into a big project where we had to come up with our own modest proposals in the satirical sense. Soooo...I knew that this read would be interesting.

But what really stood out to me, besides trying to grasp the symbolism of dozens of little people trying to contain one big thing or idea, was the vulgarity and specificity. We'll start with the specifics and then get down...and dirty.

The exactness of numbers and values really threw me. Swift provides us with the exact number of years that Gulliver works and studies and travels. He gives us his salary. We know how many men sailed on a ship and that twelve died and six survived including himself. Latitude, longitude? We've got it. My liberal arts brain knows nothing nautical, but I guess that information was helpful or interesting for at least a handful of readers. But why does Swift find the need to be so precise? "I felt this in my left hand" "I picked this up with my left hand". It actually drove me insane! It seems more like how not to write a book. I can appreciate specificity when it comes to something key, like the language. I love, well, most of the time, when an author creates or includes a different language in the book. It makes the reader feel the same way that the protagonist does. What does this mean? Why do they speak that way? Why are they different from us? So I do appreciate the verbatim phrases like Hekinah Dugal. But exactly where his ship sank in the ocean? Hmm...not so much.

The other thing that stands out is the vulgarity. Ohhh man. I'm not talking about the unnecessary urination. (I know at least two people will blog about that) I mean, the little innuendos and sneaky little bits that Swift slips into the story.

The island is Lilliput. Lilliput sounds harmless and it is for the most part, but when I looked up "lilliputian" it means small and trivial. At first I was thinking that this was for the small sized people, but now after reading I think it means they are small-minded. Whether they are small-minded and sheltered in ideas and knowledge or they're just idiots in Swift's mind, I'm not sure. But I think it's meant to be more mean than we would originally suggest.

His wife is a burden. This might be a stretch, but with the whole happy wyfe, happy lyfe motto in the back of my head from earlier this year, I paid close attention to her last name. Burton. To me, this sounds like "burden". Doe he find marriage to be a burden he must have in order to have money? He does make 400 pounds by marrying her? Perhaps he finds a wife to be a burden attached to having wealth.

And of course, who can forget Mr. James Bates, excuse me, Master Bates. If you caught it, you caught it. Unfortunately, my mind caught it before they even introduced him as Master which shows me how far down in the gutter my mind really is. I don't know what Swift is trying to get at by calling him this, but it's definitely there. There's no denying it.

Swift is a strange bird ahead of his time in satire and wit, and I don't know if I hate him for it or am deeply amused...