Chapter 9
Gulliver returns to Maldonada and sets sail for Luggnagg. When he arrives, he is confined and questioned. He tells them he is from Holland, trying to make his way to Japan and eventually back to Holland. He hires an interpreter from the ship. Soon he is called for by the King. It is the custom to lick the floor on the approach to the throne. For him, the floor was cleaned but enemies of the court often had to lick a very dusty floor. In extreme cases, when nobles had to be executed, a poisonous dust was placed on the floor. If the floor is not washed well after executions, unforntunat deaths can occur. So Gulliver meets the king and compliments him as is the custom. by saying, "Outlive the sun." They get along so well Gullliver is given a room in the court, all of his meals and gold. But after three months of this, Gulliver starts thinking of his wife and family.
Chapter 10
Gulliver learns about the struldbruggs or immortals. It is a rare occurrence when a child is born with a red dot over his left eyebrow. This grows is size and changes color from red to green to blue to black. Gulliver thinks it would be great to live forever and talks about what he would do: become very rich , study everything, and record historical events. He would warn and instruct mankind to prevent continual corruption. Long life was discussed as the universal wish of mankind; death as the greatest evil. But eternal life comes with disadvantages because one does not have eternal youth. These struldbruggs acted like mortals until age 30 and then became melancholy. By age 80, they had all the infirmities of other old men but even worse, the dreadful prospect of never dying. They were jealous of people who could die and get some rest. Those who managed the best were those who lost their memories. By age 80, they were dead in the eyes of the law - incapable of working, unable to buy land or vote etc. At 90, they lost their teeth, their hair, their ability to taste. Diseases were prevalent. They couldn't read as their memories failed. They couldn't understand the language of most people since language always changes. They were forabidden to leave their country for fear they would take over the whole nation and with their inability to manage, ruin the world. So.....be careful what you ask for. All I really ever want is another day. I wonder if the day will come for me that this is no longer true.
Chapter 11
Gulliver leaves Luggnagg with a letter from the king and arrives in Japan after a 15 day journey. He pretends to be Dutch and pretends to be non-Christian which satisfies both the Japanese and the Dutch who take him to Holland. From Holland, he sails home to England. He had been gone 5 1/2 years. His wife and family, in good health, welcome him home. END OF PART 3!!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Chapter 2
The Laputans have reclining heads, one inward turning eye, clothing decorated with celestial figures and musical instruments. Some have slaves with flappers (bladders containing small pebbles) that are used to rouse their memories by a light tap on the mouth, ear etc. Gulliver met the King of this floating island. He was fed (all food is cut in the shape of triangles, rhomboids etc.) He was taught their language and had tailor-made clothes (not well done). The King decided to move the island to Lagado, the capital city. Along the way, petitions from subjects of other towns were received by lowering strings down to the people who wrote notes and often sent up food and drink by a series of pulleys. Their major interest was music and mathematics as well as news and politics. Their constant fear was that the sun would be wholly consumed and the earth would be destroyed. The women were not so content to remian on this island and wanted to see the rest of the world. On occasion, a woman was allowed to go down for a visit and didn't want to return. After a months time, Gulliver could converse with the King who asked him questions only about science and math.
Chapter 3
This floating island is circular with a 4 1/2 mile diameter equalling 10,000 acres. The bottom is made of thick iron-rich soil/rock. A chasm in the center top collects rain but it can rise above the clouds if there is too much rain. A magnet is suspended in this chasm and can be turned to attact or repell the island to/from the earth as well as hover in place. The people who man the magnet are great astromoners with powerful telescopes. The King controls the people down below his floating island by hovering over them to deprive them of sun and water, pelting them with stones or even destroying the whole town by squashing them with the floating island. One city, Lindalino, rebelled and built towers, topped with magnets, hoping to attract the floating island and crack the bottom layerof soil/rock, thus destroying it. The astronomers were able to keep the island afloat but the King was forced to give the town their own conditions. The King and two eldest sons are not allowed to leave the island; the queen can leave when she is no longer of child-bearing age.
Chapter 4
After two months, Gulliver asks to leave this floating island of disagreeable companions. He was let down in Lagado on the coninnent of Balnibarbi with a letter recommendation for an ex-governor named Munodi. Munodi had been discharged as governor due to his inability to adapt to the new methods of farming, building etc. The new ideas, started about 40 years ago, promised wondrous improvements but to date, the homes were poorly built, the people were poorly clothed, the fields yielded little food. Munodi still had his old country home where everything ran smoothly, using the old-fashinied methods.
Chapter 5
Gulliver visits their Academy and finds people working on all sorts of projects: extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, changing human excrement back to food, identifying colors of paint by smell and feel, etc. Another part of the Academy was less scientific. Projects included writing books by tossing words in a frame to find groups of words that made at least broken sentences, eliminating all parts of speech except nouns, even eliminating all speech and just carrying around actual nouns (women objected to this), eating papers with math problems written on them to help solve the comptutions. Nothing was really working but they were hopeful and persistent.
Chapter 6
Gulliver discusses more Academy schemes. Ways to reward merit, remedies for diseases, voting for the good of all by being exactly opposite, transplanting 1/2 of another's brain into another to equal moderation, taxing either vices or best qualities. For example, women would be taxed according to their beauty and style of dress as determined by their own judgment. Excrements would be examined to determine a person's thoughts. Gulliver told them of his suggestions: Suspected political meanings would be determined by scrambling the letters to form new sentences.
Chapter 7
Gulliver decides to leave Lagado for Maldonado. As he waits for a ship to take him there, he travels to a small island, Glubbdubdrib. It is an island of magicians where all the servants are ghosts. The governor is always the eldest person on the island. Gulliver was allowed to call up any persons from the dead and ask them questions. He chose people such as Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar and Brutus. Who would you ask for?
Chapter 8
Gulliver describes Homer as handsome and erect as compared to a thin Aristotle needing a cane. He presented them to others philosophers such as Descartes. Gulliver discovered that the ancestors of kings were often only fiddlers and barbers. He became disgusted when learning how the world had been misled by leaders without wisdom or integrity. He learned the truth about many great events - often lucky accidents. Mostly there has been fraud, betrayals, degenerate vices and corruption throughout history.
The Laputans have reclining heads, one inward turning eye, clothing decorated with celestial figures and musical instruments. Some have slaves with flappers (bladders containing small pebbles) that are used to rouse their memories by a light tap on the mouth, ear etc. Gulliver met the King of this floating island. He was fed (all food is cut in the shape of triangles, rhomboids etc.) He was taught their language and had tailor-made clothes (not well done). The King decided to move the island to Lagado, the capital city. Along the way, petitions from subjects of other towns were received by lowering strings down to the people who wrote notes and often sent up food and drink by a series of pulleys. Their major interest was music and mathematics as well as news and politics. Their constant fear was that the sun would be wholly consumed and the earth would be destroyed. The women were not so content to remian on this island and wanted to see the rest of the world. On occasion, a woman was allowed to go down for a visit and didn't want to return. After a months time, Gulliver could converse with the King who asked him questions only about science and math.
Chapter 3
This floating island is circular with a 4 1/2 mile diameter equalling 10,000 acres. The bottom is made of thick iron-rich soil/rock. A chasm in the center top collects rain but it can rise above the clouds if there is too much rain. A magnet is suspended in this chasm and can be turned to attact or repell the island to/from the earth as well as hover in place. The people who man the magnet are great astromoners with powerful telescopes. The King controls the people down below his floating island by hovering over them to deprive them of sun and water, pelting them with stones or even destroying the whole town by squashing them with the floating island. One city, Lindalino, rebelled and built towers, topped with magnets, hoping to attract the floating island and crack the bottom layerof soil/rock, thus destroying it. The astronomers were able to keep the island afloat but the King was forced to give the town their own conditions. The King and two eldest sons are not allowed to leave the island; the queen can leave when she is no longer of child-bearing age.
Chapter 4
After two months, Gulliver asks to leave this floating island of disagreeable companions. He was let down in Lagado on the coninnent of Balnibarbi with a letter recommendation for an ex-governor named Munodi. Munodi had been discharged as governor due to his inability to adapt to the new methods of farming, building etc. The new ideas, started about 40 years ago, promised wondrous improvements but to date, the homes were poorly built, the people were poorly clothed, the fields yielded little food. Munodi still had his old country home where everything ran smoothly, using the old-fashinied methods.
Chapter 5
Gulliver visits their Academy and finds people working on all sorts of projects: extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, changing human excrement back to food, identifying colors of paint by smell and feel, etc. Another part of the Academy was less scientific. Projects included writing books by tossing words in a frame to find groups of words that made at least broken sentences, eliminating all parts of speech except nouns, even eliminating all speech and just carrying around actual nouns (women objected to this), eating papers with math problems written on them to help solve the comptutions. Nothing was really working but they were hopeful and persistent.
Chapter 6
Gulliver discusses more Academy schemes. Ways to reward merit, remedies for diseases, voting for the good of all by being exactly opposite, transplanting 1/2 of another's brain into another to equal moderation, taxing either vices or best qualities. For example, women would be taxed according to their beauty and style of dress as determined by their own judgment. Excrements would be examined to determine a person's thoughts. Gulliver told them of his suggestions: Suspected political meanings would be determined by scrambling the letters to form new sentences.
Chapter 7
Gulliver decides to leave Lagado for Maldonado. As he waits for a ship to take him there, he travels to a small island, Glubbdubdrib. It is an island of magicians where all the servants are ghosts. The governor is always the eldest person on the island. Gulliver was allowed to call up any persons from the dead and ask them questions. He chose people such as Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar and Brutus. Who would you ask for?
Chapter 8
Gulliver describes Homer as handsome and erect as compared to a thin Aristotle needing a cane. He presented them to others philosophers such as Descartes. Gulliver discovered that the ancestors of kings were often only fiddlers and barbers. He became disgusted when learning how the world had been misled by leaders without wisdom or integrity. He learned the truth about many great events - often lucky accidents. Mostly there has been fraud, betrayals, degenerate vices and corruption throughout history.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Part III A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg and Japan
Chapter One:
Gulliver decides to hire on as a surgeon on a ship going to the East Indies. While the captain was waiting for supplies in Tonguin, Gulliver captained a small sloop with a crew of 14. Of course, there was a storm and then two pirate ships captured his sloop, took his crew and put him adrift in a canoe. He sailed to several islands and met up with people who sounded as if they spoke Italian (is this a coincidence?) and lived on a flying island that could be moved and raised.
Gulliver decides to hire on as a surgeon on a ship going to the East Indies. While the captain was waiting for supplies in Tonguin, Gulliver captained a small sloop with a crew of 14. Of course, there was a storm and then two pirate ships captured his sloop, took his crew and put him adrift in a canoe. He sailed to several islands and met up with people who sounded as if they spoke Italian (is this a coincidence?) and lived on a flying island that could be moved and raised.
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