Monday, August 24, 2009

the perfect society???

As we discussed in class Gulliver's Travels is Swift's satirical take on human nature. Upon first reading it one may wonder if Swift is simply insane but soon enough the reader learns it is simply satirical. In his tale Swift tells of a bizarre world with talking horses that seem to be living life perfectly. Or is it?? The Houyhnhnm's lives center around the idea that their existence is only meant to be rational or logical. They do not lie, do not believe in any sort of entertainment, and do not feel they need any luxuries. Their approach to the ideas of creating a family is to just find a spouse without love being any sort of factor in their decisions. Which brings me to my point of while this is portrayed as the perfect life, is it really perfect at all? Swift used this tale to show how overstructured he felt his society had become. While the Houyhnhnms may appear perfect, what's so great about not being able to have fun, luxuries and fall in love?
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4 comments:

  1. regisbdragon2009August 24, 2009 at 6:06 PM

    I agree, some societies have become way to Socialistic, and the government think that it can help solve everyone problems. We need to have love and intimacy inour lives because we were created with a natural desire for those things. If I lived in a sritct society like that, I would consider it as some kind of a living hell. I care about my friends and family. They aren't just people to me, they're more than that. Everyone needs to be able to freely express thier love in a Christian way. :) Good Job

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  2. KaitlynAugust 24, 2009 at 7:23 PM

    I do not believe that Swift was trying to portray a society that he wanted to live in. I think that he was attempting to show the extremes of the two COMPLETELY different societies. He showed one extreme through the Houyhnhnm's society of no emotion and no community, and another extreme through the Yahoo's society, which he portrayed as overly passionate and almost barbaric. I think Swift was simply trying to show that the "perfect society" would come from a balance between the two.

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  3. Ashlee LassiterAugust 24, 2009 at 7:59 PM

    I agree to an extent. Swift was trying to portray the Houyhnhnms as a perfect society, but it was anything but perfect in reality.

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  4. Daniel WatterAugust 25, 2009 at 7:15 AM

    I agree, and add the idea that where there is no passion or emotion or a bit of irrationality, what is there to live for? Why live a life so structured and dull, when we serve a crazy amazing God whose full of surprises. Faith of any kind can't exist in pure rationality

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