Gullivers
Travels Lecture notes—Class 2
I.
(15 minutes) As
in MoreÕs Utopia, Parts and 2 and 4 involve negative judgment of the European
world along with viable models of an alternative. Brobdingnag
is an agriculturally based nation, not perfect, but just and fair as a society
and healthy and sensible in regard to the family and the body. It resembles the
only place like that in Part 3, the estates of Lord Munodi.
A.
Passage to analyze
2.
He was perfectly astonished with the historical account
gave him of our affairs during the last century; protesting Òit was only a heap
of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments, the
very worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty,
rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition, could produce.Ó
a)
Lists;
inventories; Rhetorical device of satire
b)
Our
affairs in the last century: WWI, WWII, Hiroshima, Vietnam, Russian and Chinese
revolutions, etc.
3.
His majesty, in another audience, was at the pains to
recapitulate the sum of all I had spoken; compared the questions he made with
the answers I had given; then taking me into his hands, and stroking me gently,
delivered himself in these words, which I shall never forget, nor the manner he
spoke them in: ÒMy little friend Grildrig, you have
made a most admirable panegyric upon your country;
a)
Treated
like a child by indulgent and understanding and unthreatened parent
b)
Qualified
and careful judgment
4.
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.
a)
Ring
a bell?
5.
I observe among
you some lines of an institution, which, in its original, might have been
tolerable, but these half erased, and the rest wholly
blurred and blotted by corruptions.
6.
It does not appear,
from all you have said, how any one perfection is required toward the
procurement of any one station among you; much less, that men are ennobled on
account of their virtue; that priests are advanced for their piety or learning;
soldiers, for their conduct or valour; judges, for
their integrity; senators, for the love of their country; or counsellors for their wisdom.
a)
SwiftÕs
bitterness partly attributable to his life experience
b)
born 1667 in
Dublin, Ireland, the son of Protestant Anglo-Irish parents: and all his life he
would be a High-Churchman.
c)
went England, where he hoped to gain preferment in the Anglican Church. In England, in 1689, he became
secretary to Sir William Temple, a diplomat and man of letters,
d)
In
1694, returned to Ireland to take holy orders. In 1695 was ordained as a priest
in the Church of Ireland, the Irish branch of the Anglican Church, a bitter
disappointment for a man who had longed to remain in England
e)
in 1714. George I took the throne and Swift's hopes for preferment in
England came to an end: he returned to Ireland "to die," as he says,
"like a poisoned rat in a hole." beginning in 1718, he began to
publish a series of powerful tracts on Irish problems.
f)
In
1720 he began work upon Gulliver's Travels, intended,
as he says in a letter to Pope, "to vex the world, not to divert it."
g)
By
1735, when a collected edition of his Works was published in Dublin, his
Meniere's Disease became more acute, resulting in periods of dizziness and
nausea: at the same time, prematurely, his memory was beginning to deteriorate.
During 1738 he slipped gradually into senility, and finally suffered a
paralytic stroke: in 1742 guardians were officially appointed to care for his
affairs.
B.
As for yourself,Ó continued the king,
Òwho have spent the greatest part of your life in travelling, I am well
disposed to hope you may hitherto have escaped many vices of your
country.
1.
qualified hope
for Gulliver as alienated outsiderÉa satiristÉ but next chapter and general
account shows that heÕs not
a)
GulliverÕs
critique of King of Brobdingnag for not appreciating
the knowledge of warfare he can provide and all other the other traits of
ÒsmallnessÓ—pettiness an pride--observed in Lilliput
C.
But by what I have gathered from your own
relation, and the answers I have with much pains wrung and extorted from you, I
cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of
little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the
earth.Ó
1.
Fallen nature of humanity; not simply a matter of education
to create brave new world
2.
In book 4, when Gulliver
completely renounces his humanity, thatÕs not a solution either
II.
(15 minutes) Part
3
A.
In contrast to Newton and Bacon, Swift, like
Milton, was ambivalent about Knowledge: scientific knowledge as well as
knowledge of Good and Evil
B.
Laputans on the floating island have heads in clouds; need flappers
to get attention to reality
1.
opposite of
the body-mind balance of Brobdingnag;
2.
uninterested and
unaware of those not engaged in theorizing; numbers and music and astronomy
C.
Academy of Lagado—
1.
Mocking BaconÕs New Atlantis and the Royal Society of
London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge, founded in 1660. The prominent
early scientists Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, and Isaac Newton were all members
of the Royal Society.
a)
É
In these colleges the professors contrive new rules and methods of agriculture
and building, and new instruments, and tools for all trades and manufactures;
whereby, as they undertake, one man shall do the work of ten; a palace may be
built in a week, of materials so durable as to last for ever without repairing.
All the fruits of the earth shall come to maturity at whatever season we think
fit to choose, and increase a hundred fold more than they do at present; with
innumerable other happy proposals. The only inconvenience is, that none of
these projects are yet brought to perfection; and in the mean time, the whole
country lies miserably waste, the houses in ruins, and
the people without food or clothes.
b)
Every
room has in it one or more projectors; and I believe I could not be in fewer
than five hundred rooms.
c)
He
has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers,
which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air
in raw inclement summers. He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years
more, he should be able to supply the governorÕs gardens with sunshine, at a
reasonable rate: but he complained that his stock was low, and entreated me Òto
give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had
been a very dear season for cucumbers.Ó I made him a small present, for my lord
had furnished me with money on purpose, because he knew their practice of
begging from all who go to see them.
(1)
Contemporary mockery of an enlightment
project: alternative energy research and development
(a)
The
Academy [of Lagado] is DARPA in
all but name, a brain trust where those with great ideas can work on those
ideas at will, free from the corrupting demands of the marketplace. The first
academic Gulliver meets is working on a new source of energy:
(b)
Yes,
Gulliver met a solar power researcher. How does this speak to us
today? Consider that in Germany, the world leader in solar power,
photovoltaic solar panels supply 0.6 percent of the country's energy, but the
total cost to the country's economy for those modules, which have been
installed in the past decade, is likely to reach almost $75 billion. It is
always a very dear season for solar power.
(c)
Note: of electricity in 2011, about 3% of total
electricity.[3] Some market analysts expect this could reach
25 percent by 2050.[4]
d)
an operation to reduce human excrement to its original food,
e)
He
had a large pair of bellows, with a long slender muzzle of ivory: this he
conveyed eight inches up the anus, and drawing in the wind, he affirmed he
could make the guts as lank as a dried bladder.
2.
Swift was well-informed about the state of Science
a)
Consider
Stephen Hales's Vegetable Staticks;
or, an acount of some Statical
Experiments on the Sap in Vegetables...
b)
On
one hand, medicine was useless against disease and doctors were as likely to
shorten life as prolong it.
c)
On
the other hand, gunpowder was the prime example of Science's accomplishments in
Swift's time.
3.
But science is touched upon positively at many points in
the Travels.
a)
As
a young man, Gulliver uses his allowance to study Mathematics and eventually
becomes a surgeon, studying "Physick" at
the University of Leyden, a prestigious medical school. Gulliver shows a keen
interest in the Sciences throughout his narrative. É
b)
Astronomers
still marvel over Gulliver's report about the discovery of two moons of Mars by
Laputan observers (III:2)
150 years before they were actually discovered in 1877.
D.
The Struldbrugs—disillusion;
surprise; grim vision with some accuracy of extreme old age
1.
nursing
homes; assisted living; the limits of human nature—old age
2.
again the
limitations of human nature
III.
(30 minutes) Part
4,
A.
transition
1.
rational
societies, like Brobdingnag and Houyhnhnmland,
donÕt excel in scientific knowledge or technology but in providing a good life
for their inhabitants
B.
The voyage out
1.
Restless for advancement; leaves home with wife pregnant as
Captain--a promotion. Arrogance about other captainÕs not listening to his
advice; heÕs become an authority. Mutiny--even more criminal than pirates in
Book 3. Marooned.
C.
First impression of yahoos—animals
1.
At last I beheld several animals in a field, and one or two
of the same kind sitting in trees. Their shape was very singular, and deformed,
which a little discomposed me, so that I lay down behind a thicket to observe them
better. Some of them, coming forward near the place where I lay, gave me an
opportunity of distinctly marking their form. Their heads and breasts were
covered with a thick hair, some frizzled and others lank; they had beards like
goats, and a long ridge of hair down their backs and the fore parts of their
legs and feet; but the rest of their bodies was bare, so that I might see their
skins, which were of a brown buff color. They had no tails, nor any hair at all
on their buttocks, except about the anus which I presume nature had placed
there to defend them as they sat on the ground, for this posture they used, as
well as lying down, and often stood on their hind-feet.
a)
Disagreeable,
disgusting animal
b)
Compare
and contrast to first view of Adam and Eve in Book 4 of Paradise Lost through
SatanÕs eyes: naked in the garden, emphasis on hair.
c)
contrasts Renaissance paintings of Adam and Eve like naked pagan
gods—BotticelliÕs Venus or MichaelangeloÕs
David.
d)
Gulliver:
Òexcept those parts that Nature taught us to conceal.Ó--need
to hide nakedness with clothing because of shame and ugliness of the uncovered
body—a product of original sin.
Naked horses are puzzled by this
e)
Theme
of clothing throughout—hiding the true essence of
humanity—Lilliputians are squeamish, Brobidnagians
donÕt care
f)
Extreme
unnaturalness of 18th century costume: wigs
D.
First encounter
1.
The ugly monster, when he saw me, distorted several ways
every feature of his visage, and stared as at an object he had never seen
before; then, approaching nearer, lifted up his fore-paw, whether out of
curiosity or mischief I could not tell. But I drew my hanger, and gave him a
good blow with the flat side of it, for I durst not strike with the edge,
fearing the inhabitants might be provoked against me if they should come to
know that I had killed or maimed any of their cattle.
a)
Friendly
native vs. hostile explorer
2.
When the beast
felt the smart he drew back and roared so loud that a herd of at least forty
came flocking about me from the next field, howling and making odious faces;
but I ran to the body of a tree, and, leaning my back against it, kept them off
by waving my hanger. Several of this cursed brood, getting hold of the branches
behind, leaped up into the tree, whence they began to discharge their excrements
on my head; however, I escaped pretty well by sticking close to the stem of the
tree, but was almost stifled with the filth, which fell about me on every side.
a)
Reader
and Gulliver are repulsed by the YahooÕs non-lethal form of self
defense, but not by GulliverÕs murderous aggression.
b)
Naked
men with no culture, tradition, religion--How English regard the Irish
c)
European
colonial attitudes toward Indians and other races and cultures
E.
Encounter with Houyhnhnms
1.
Topsy turvy animal/human reversal; consideration of the
ÒanimalisticÓ aspects of humans
2.
HorseÕs body language--mildness and composure
3.
English and othersÕ love of horses—nobility, dignity,
physical strength and grace—Aristocracy; chevalier; cavalier
F.
Houyhnhnm=perfection of nature in their language
1.
Not only their bodies, but their minds and their society
are appealing
2.
Enlightenment Utopia:
Pope:Ó
Where reign our sires; there, to thy countryÕs shame,/Reason,
you found, and Virtue were the same.Ó
b)
a world of reason and calm and the good life;
c)
paradaisal, Eden before the Fall; before the
knowledge of Good and Evil
d)
no word or concept of lies or false opinions--Òthe thing which is notÓ;
no opinions
e)
no disputes; no wars lawyers or or doctors or
whores or thieves; the opposite of the world of the BeggarÕs Opera
f)
No
passion or lust or jealousy, only friendship
g)
Mary
WoolstonecraftÕs female equality
h)
No
vanity, no pride, no names
3.
Gulliver falls in love with them and their world
a)
wants to stay there forever and repudiate his own family and human
nature..
G.
Houyhnhnms regard the Yahoo/human as demonic
1.
No word for evil except Yahoo
a)
ugliness and gracelessness of human body;
(1)
all animals have natural antipathy to
them
(2)
Grendel/ the monstrous--satan, the snake—also human mind—demons
are humans
b)
yahoos are most unteachable, but they
have disposition to mischief and cunning
2.
Gulliver agrees when seeing himself mirrored in Yahoos and
elaborates with his own experience
a)
English
are worse than Yahoos because their partial and perverted reason is so
dangerous.
b)
like in Book II, the description of Europe to a non European with
detachment leads to a terrible indictment—with a main emphasis on the
wars and military culture that Gulliver is so proud of, that is the basis of
European prestige and value
c)
natural disposition to filthiness --unnatural appetites in sexual
desires
(1)
Freud
(2)
Adult video section store; internet
porn
H.
Incident and passage: female yahoo goes after him; heÕs
frightened and repulsed--red hair and black hair--irish colleen.
1.
And, upon this occasion, I hope the reader will pardon my
relating an odd adventure.
a)
Enticement;
obsequiousness; squeamishness and leering
2.
Being one day abroad with my protector the sorrel nag, and
the weather exceeding hot, I entreated him to let me bathe in a river that was
near. He consented, and I immediately stripped myself stark naked, and
went down softly into the stream.
a)
Idyllic
setup—ÒsoftlyÓ
3.
It happened that a young female Yahoo, standing behind a bank, saw the whole proceeding, and
inflamed by desire, as the nag and I conjectured,
a)
Distanced
H. point of view vs. pastoral sensuality that draws him; rational vs. the
animal
4.
came
running with all speed, and leaped into the water, within five yards of the place
where I bathed. I was never in my life so terribly frightened. The
nag was grazing at some distance, not suspecting any harm. She embraced
me after a most fulsome manner. I roared as loud as I could, and the nag
came galloping towards me, whereupon she quitted her grasp, with the utmost reluctancy, and leaped upon the opposite bank, where she
stood gazing and howling all the time I was putting on my clothes.
a)
The
yahoo is tamed
5.
This was a matter of diversion to my master and his family,
as well as of mortification to myself.
a)
Retrospect—distance
between H and him
6.
For now I could no longer deny that I was a real Yahoo in every limb and feature,
since the females had a natural propensity to me, as one of their own
species.
a)
Turning
point; realization
7.
Neither was the hair of this brute of a red colour (which might have been some excuse for an appetite a
little irregular),
a)
Funny
qualification and interior dialogue
8.
but
black as a sloe, and her countenance did not make an appearance altogether so
hideous as the rest of her kind; for I think she could not be above eleven
years old.
a)
His
own attraction to her
I.
Gulliver produces instability in this
stable world and is expulsed—like Adam and Eve out of Paradise
1.
HeÕs a category breaker; confuses truth and falsehood;
violates their notion of simple, clear, reason
a)
Her
doesnÕt know if heÕs a Yahoo or not
b)
They
donÕt know if heÕs a Yahoo or not
2.
From PopeÕs Essay on Man
a)
ÒThe glory,
jest and riddle of the world.Ó
3.
dangerous both
cognitively and practically; ; he might
organize the Yahoos to revolt
debate in
council--only debate: whether Yahoos should be exterminated--myth of their
breeding by slime; their domestication for labor. Master suggests castrating
Yahoos instead of exterminating them
J.
GulliverÕs expulsion
1.
heÕs
heartbroken
a)
334.
wants to live alone and in solitude—hermit or
misanthrope; or with barbarians rather than European yahoos.
K.
Pedro de
Mendez—the kind and exemplary sea captain – an opposite picture of
humanity available us, but largely invisible to Gulliver at this point.
1.
Gulliver suicidal. [like Adam and
Eve in book 10]
2.
Captain rescues him and also protects him from the
Inquisition
L.
Back at home
1.
Gulliver is recluse.
2.
repulsed by
his wife and children
3.
goes to
live in the barn with the two horses, including a sorrel mare and the stable
boy
M.
GulliverÕs Utopia and his moral message further
undermined in the epilogue: insistence on literal truth; condemnation of pride,
1.
but also
validated: why he doesnt want to claim the territories he discovered for the
crown
N.
PopeÕs verses—these two contrasting
perspectives—identifying with and distancing from Gulliver http://www.bartleby.com/203/88.html
1.
The Grateful addressÉ
a)
TO
thee, we wretches of the Houyhnhnm band,
b)
CondemnÕd to labour in a barbÕrous land,
c)
Return
our thanks. Accept our humble lays,
d)
And
let each grateful Houyhnhnm neigh thy praise.
e)
O
happy Yahoo, purged from human crimes,
f)
By
thy sweet sojourn in those virtuous climes,
g)
Where
reign our sires; there, to thy countryÕs shame,
h)
Reason,
you found, and Virtue were the same.
i)
Their
precepts razed the prejudice of youth,
j)
And
evÕn a Yahoo learnÕd the
love of Truth.
2.
Mrs. Gulliver
a)
Not
touch me! never neighbour callÕd me slut!
b)
Was FlimnapÕs
dame more sweet in Lilliput?
c)
I
Õve no red hair to breathe an odious fume;
d)
At
least thy ConsortÕs cleaner than thy Groom.
e)
Why
then that dirty stable-boy thy care?
f)
What
mean those visits to the Sorrel Mare?
g)
Say, by what witchcraft, or what demon
led,
h)
PreferrÕst thou litter to the marriage-bed?
