Modest.
*consults OED*
"disinclined to bring oneself into notice" (3a)
It's safe to say that got nixed with the suggestion of marketed infanticide/cannibalism.
Examples:
when calculating viable couples, Swift notes in parentheses “there cannot be so many [as 30,000 out of 200,000, or 15%], under the present distresses” (222). What's one of the bolder statistics doing there?!
In another computation for “the charge of nursing a beggar’s child (in which list I reckon all cottagers, labourers, and four-fifths of the farmers)” (223) - more parentheses.
No parentheses, but:
"I grant this food will be very dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children” (223). [italics mine] That's a clause branching off a secondary clause, but semantically, primary.
Only one more:
“Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest of the kingdom (where they will probably be sold cheaper) [italics mine] the remaining eighty thousand” (226).I almost missed that. Then I looked again and...
OH, I GET IT!! Unfair trading practices...
But why put all these on the sidelines? Sure he's pretending to be earnest, but...
It's an aside, Sarah.
Like on stage, there's this one idiot/jerk talking, with some wiseacre snarking quietly, but everyone's paying attention to him, in part because it seems illicit.
Well played, Swift.
Does make me curious that he's using what's typically a theatrical device. A lot of contemporary satirists hated the theater. What was his opinion? Did he produce any drama? Are there any other theatrical devices I missed?
You don't have to comment on theater, I just like it. See you Monday!
Very good, Sarah. Many people point to the over all satirical hijinks of this piece, but you've drawn our attention to a SUPER important part of Swift's style: his sentence-level one-two punch. He hits you with that right (first clause) and then OUT OF NOWHERE the subordinate clause on his left knocks you (and his argument) right off your feet. What was it that lead to you think about sentence-level humor in this piece? Have you read other Swift (because Guillver's Travels, which, ALAS!, we don't have time for, is full to the brim with these great constructions.
ReplyDeleteDo you think there's an even nastier satirical level at play here after reading Johnson?
Several teachers have emphasized the importance of physically interacting with the text, and as I underlined quips I especially appreciated, I noticed their unusual placement.
DeleteSadly, I have not yet read Gulliver’s Travels, though my sister, who particularly enjoyed the Houyhnhnms, gave a strong recommendation.
As for Johnson, his address on inertia reminded me of the anthology’s comment about Swift’s audience – that he was not only addressing Anglos, but also the Irish for being so passive in the face of such oppression (221). I believe Swift would concur with Johnson that “To act is far easier than to suffer, yet we every day see the progress of life retarded by…the repugnance to motion, And Find Multitudes Repining At The Want Of Which Nothing But Idleness Hinders Them” (554) [caps mine]. Of course, the situation was more complicated than those words imply, but I could see Swift using the quote regardless.