REVIEW #6: GULLIVER’S TRAVELS WILL ALWAYS BE RELEVANT – SADLY!

Audio Book Review
Gulliver’s Travels
By Jonathan Swift
Adapted for Radio by Matthew Broughton
Dramatized by the BBC

A DRAMATIZED VERSION OF SWIFT’S POLITICAL SATIRE

‘We live in an age of cynicism and yet there is so much in this world that can still surprise us.’ With that statement kicking off the radio adaptation of Swift’s ‘children’s story,’ I couldn’t help but be struck by its applicability to us in the twenty-fourth century. It is almost a confirmation of Swift’s extraordinarily astute assessment of human beings as being flawed and beyond redemption both as individuals and collectively. The audio version is delightful, bringing to life Gulliver’s challenging confrontations with foreign societies in an entertaining way. However, much is lost, especially satirically, in the critique of English society which is deeper and sharper in the written texts. Just for fun, I decided to list some of the observations and lessons of the audiobook as I listened to it. Surprisingly, Broughton was still able to make many points in this abridged version. So here is my list of lessons from Jonathan Swift’s allegorical tale.

1. Whenever anyone has to assert ‘This is a true story,’ you can be sure it is not.

2. Travel can change us profoundly.

3. Books can change us profoundly.

4. We need to listen with all of our attention, in order to learn from what we hear and to have any hope of understanding those things outside our own experience.

5. People are always fearful and distrustful of anything, and anyone, unfamiliar.

6. It is best to face challenging circumstances with humour and a spirit of cooperation.

7. Adaptability is an underrated character trait.

8. Being hospitable to strangers should be our default position irrespective of how strange or frightening they may seem at first.

9. Euphemistic phrases for natural body functions and the use of understatement are both polite and humorous, yet they have a stronger impact on the reader’s view of a character and writer than crass language.

10. Making every effort to understand the culture and language when travelling, or meeting those from other places, will aid communication and mutual understanding.

11. Economics is not the only basis upon which to make decisions, especially those that are a matter of life and death, or freedom of expression and actions.

GULLIVER TOWERS OVER THE LILIPUTIANS

12. The following foundational ideas can be the basis of a decision by an individual or society:

-economics
-danger to the community
-fear (real or imagined)
-health consequences
-personal opinion
-pragmatic purpose
-the landscape

13. The reasons for someone achieving political office are often arbitrary and not based on their skills and past experience.

14. Every society needs a framework that enables the law to be administered as fairly and justly as possible.

15. It is hard for people to feel they belong to a new community without their immediate family.

16. People always know when they are not welcome and that prevents them from feeling as though they belong in their new community.

17. People will always divide into opposing groups, traditionalist and progressives, often for the most trivial reasons for which they are even prepared to lay down their lives.

18. It is hard to know who to trust.

19. ‘People are more human in the country.’

20. Life at sea is unpredictable; you never know what you will have to face.

21. Beauty is not perceived in the same way in different groups of people.

22. It is dangerous to make a generalization about a society based on anecdotes and personal opinions.

23. Human beings are only comfortable with what is familiar.

24. Human beings are proudest of their ability to accumulate wealth and status and exert power of others.

25. We will say anything to justify our choices and make them appear honourable and self-sacrificing.

26. An unbalanced emphasis on one element of life destroys a society whichever element is chosen.

27. Truth was destroyed centuries ago, but we prefer to mythologize the great human beings of the past as great and good in order to elevate the human race.

28. We don’t learn from our mistakes.

29. Ambition and greed over-powers good sense and satisfaction with our lives.

30. We perceive things according to our habitual way of thinking, acquired through our culture, its values and attitudes.

31. Human beings have corrupt hearts, multiple vices and selfish motives.

32. Because of this, we mismanage our money and institutions to feed our greed which also causes problems.

33. Books are written for the enlightenment of humankind.

34. For this reason, the way we tell a story is important.

35. Ironically, fiction is a powerful tool for conveying the truth to human beings and about human beings.

36. Unfortunately, many people don’t recognize the truth.

Matthew Broughton leaves us to ponder this with these final lines: ‘This is a true story. This is a story about truth.’ His radio play captures the importance of being able to throw off the veil of appearances and look at our unadorned selves honestly in the hopes that we will recognize our own follies today and seek to correct them. In reality, Swift ends his tale with savage political satire which permeates every voyage and encounter of Lemuel Gulliver in a story that serves a stinging rebuke to his nation which could, just as profitably, be a handbook to ruin and the desperate need for redemption of our own society. I salute Swift for the messages he has been able to embed in his allegory. I wonder whether any writer today could match this density and intensity in their satire. By the way, if this has whet your appetite for more of Swift’s work, you can find another of his famous satires, ‘A Modest Proposal,’ on the internet in which he outlines, to the government of the day, his pragmatic approach to the problem of the poor and destitute in Ireland. It is hard to imagine Swift surviving the outrage of our cancel culture warriors today!

A SELECTION OF DIFFERENT PUBLICATIONS