Friday, January 30, 2009
A Modest Proposal
I'm glad I had the chance to read "A Modest Proposal," finally. I read "Gulliver's Travels" for my novel class last semester and never realized how cleverly satirical Swift was and how people reading "Gulliver's Travels," could easily miss his meaning. I wrote a research paper on the book because I really enjoyed analyzing his work. Every little detail seemed to have been so cleverly crafted, for example, even the name Gulliver alludes to the nature of Swift's intentions. "Gull" is considered a dupe or fool and "ver" might signify veracity or truth. Therefore, "Gulliver" is the "dupe of truth." I found these same kind of crafty satirical aspects in "A Modest Proposal." To anyone that has not read "Gulliver's Travels," I would HIGHLY recommend it, especially to those that liked "A Modest Proposal." The whole idea of Swift's proposal, eating the poor children so they are beneficial to society, seems absolutely ridiculous but so keenly funny at the same time. Swift is so clever and I enjoy reading him very much because he appeals to my type of satirical/dry sarcastic humor; a type of humor less blatant like slapstick that requires thinking.
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Your point about humor that requires thinking is interesting to me. I, too, like humor that makes me think (though I'll admit to also enjoying some very surface-level humor from time to time). Satire, obviously, lends itself to this more depth-filled type of humor, but I wonder if that influences its effectiveness. Does it isolate the audience to require the ability to pick up on subtle wordplay (like the "dupe of truth" one you mention above)? Maybe the skill is in making the satire multi-faceted: able to effect an audience that picks up on the subtleties as well as one who only looks at the surface.
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