Satire and Irony. Satire is humorous writing or speech intended to point out errors, falsehoods, foibles, or failings. It is written for the purpose of reforming human behavior or human institutions. Irony is a difference between appearance and reality. Note the heavy use of irony by Swift in his satire.
Fantasy. A fantasy is a literary work that contains highly unrealistic elements.
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While enjoyable as a fantastic travel account, Gulliver’s Travels (1726) is at the same time a wicked satire on politics and political morals. Originally titled “Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World,” by Lemuel Gulliver, the book tells of Gulliver’s experiences in four fantastic lands.
This selection includes excerpts from Part I, “A Voyage to Lilliput,” where the people are one-twelfth the size of Gulliver and are proportionally small-minded and petty; and from Part II, “A Voyage to Brobdingnag,” where the people are twelve times Gulliver’s size and, after hearing his tales of European social and technological achievements, come to view Europeans as “a pernicious race of little odious vermin.”
In Part III Gulliver visits Laputa, a flying island inhabited by “wise” scholars with their heads in the clouds, who are completely inept in practical endeavors; and in Part IV he visits the land of the Houyhnhnms, inhabited by speaking horses whose good sense, gentleness, and gentility contrast sharply with the vigorous stupidity of the human-like Yahoos.
Keep a chart of fantastic elements. Classify them as exaggerations or adaptations of reality or as completely made up.
If aliens landed in your community, what conclusions do you think they would come to about humans?
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