by Jonathan Swift
audiobook on CD, Carver County, 11 hours
read by David Case
I was caught by the introduction - Swift would be amazed that this story is considered a "children's book." Though I'm familiar with Swift's satire, my exposure to Gulliver's Travels has mostly been through children's book versions or videos. I was curious to have the full story as Swift wrote it.
I'm a little embarrassed to say that I didn't understand some of the political pokes he was making. I don't know much about politics in Europe in the early 1700s, and could tell that he was critiquing (as always) the injustices that he saw around him.
For the most part, I enjoyed this story. It was an interesting mix of satire, adventure, and observation. When he described the Houyhnhnms (horse people), they sound so ideal. But by the end, when he despises Yahoos (humans) and shuns his own wife, I didn't enjoy it so much.
Just went to wikipedia and read about GT. I understand a bit better now. One thing that really struck me while I was listening to the story was the third voyage to Laputa. As Swift bandied about the ideas of Aristotle, Robespierre, etc. I realized that most intelligent people of his day would have known those great thinkers' ideas. I've heard of them and studied them a little bit twenty years ago, but am basically pretty ignorant about their ideas. Interesting to think about. Am I getting less intellectual as I get older? Just more pragmatic? Too darn busy? I can't picture picking up Aristotle right now . . .
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All I know is that I agree totally with you about Aristotle and the great philosophers. I have had to study them a ton at St. Thomas for both philosophy and political science and it has been extremely interesting, but I feel like I need to read them A LOT more to really get anything really significant out of it.
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