Vintage Satire

Recently I bought a bunch of books from Kinokuniya - Random House's Vintage Classic Twins series. The publisher released a pair of books, one established classic, one modern classic, packaged together and sold for the price of one. This "thought-provoking"/marketing gimmick series has various themes, and I purchased Vintage 'Crime', 'Fantasy', 'Fear' & 'Satire'. The reason behind the impulsive splurge was that they had stylish covers, I wanted to read a Murakami in english, and most importantly, I'm a cheapskate (RM39.90 for TWO books wor!!) I probably won't review all, but the first book I picked up had already blown me away.

Gulliver's Travels (Jonathan Swift, 1735 rev. ed.)
I remembered reading this when I was a kid, complete with illustrations, of giant Gulliver being pinned down on the ground, by the mini-race of Liliput. Little did I know it was only the first part of a world-famous satire. Damn I've been bowdler-ised. The synopsis on the back cover:

In the course of his extraordinary travels, Gulliver is captured by miniature people who wage war on each other because of a religious disagreement over how to crack eggs, is sexually assaulted by giants, visits a floating island, and decides that the society of horses is better than that of his fellow men. Swift's tough, filthy and incisive satire has much to say about the state of the world today and is presented here in its unexpurgated entirety.

The book is divided into 4 parts, whereby the way he ends up in a foreign land gets worse each time - shipwrecked, abandoned, attacked, betrayed. Each country he 'visits' symbolises a certain form of government, be it the 6-inch Liliputians, 72-feet Brobdingnags, over-curious & speculative Laputans, Glubbdubdrib sorcerers, or the much revered, but dreary Houyhnhnms. Swift pokes and parodies various institutions - the Royal Court, the Whig-dominant English Government, the European colonists, the Church, the Royal Society of scientists, and many more. Gulliver's Travels brilliance lies at its keen observations and passionate diatribes aimed at government, republican or totalitarian, and the cynical depiction of the degenerate human.

Gulliver starts out as a typical gung-ho 18th century seafarer, but he eventually evolves into a misanthrope, thanks to his experiences. Believing himself to be from a more cultured society, Gulliver's ideals clash with the local inhabitants, and he bemoans at their lack of change. As he experiences more different governments throughout his travels, it becomes apparent that no ideal government exists, because government is a product of man, and man is inherently corrupt and reactionary. Even in his Utopia, the incorruptible land inhabited by horses, where government is an abundance of reason and a lack of science, one feels it is just but a cycle of life/death. In the end, Gulliver yearns from an escape of mankind, but to where is he running off to? In Orwell's essay, "(Gulliver)'s attitude is in effect the Christian attitude, minus the bribe of a 'next world'."

Gulliver's Travels is a pessimistic novel, and I thought it was a children's adventure. But I really really enjoyed it. Anybody who has the slightest concept or opinion about governments should read it, and you'll see how relevant it is, even in today's world.

An insightful piece of literary criticism can be found here, by George Orwell.

"I remember it was with extreme Difficulty that I could bring my Master to understand the Meaning of the Word Opinion, or how a Point could be disputable; because Reason taught us to affirm or deny only where we are certain, and beyond our Knowledge we cannot do either." (IV: 8)