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JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745 # (was born and educated in Dublin, became an…

- - - - Book 1 - Lilliput (a land of tiny creatures)
        
        the Lilliputians are tiny, insignificant creatures and yet they are petty, pompous, fastidious, self-important = Whig politicians / England
        
        seen from another perspective (in this case as if we were very very close) everyday objects become strange, sometimes absurd or sometimes incomprehensible
      - Book 2 - Brobdingnag (a land of giants)
        
        the king of Brobdingnag is horrified by the descrption of gunpowder
        
        Gulliver tells us that the people of Brobdingnag are simple-minded, that the European culture is superior because in this strange land there is no use for abstractions and transcendentals; in actual fact Swift is telling us the opposite
        
        The king does not understand why there should be political intrigue
      - Book 3 - the Flying Island of Laputa (absent-minded scientists)
        
        "projectors" waste time and money on absurd experiments that have no public interest
        
        is a critique of the excessive faith in science, of the gap between science and public interest
        
        "projectors" look scruffy, shabby, dirty
        
        is a parody of the Royal Society #
      - Book 4 - the Houyhnhnms (rational horses) and the Yahoos (vile creatures resembling humans)
        
        when Gulliver returns home he is disgusted by the smell of humans and finds it really hard to readjust to a certain minimal normality
    - - when he incarnates the defects of his society he's the object of satire (e.g. when he explains the use of gun-powder) #
      - when he describes the creatures he meets as having some of the defects of his contemporaries he's the subject or instrument of satire #