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Gulliver's Travels (1726)

Pizzabeak

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Jonathan Swift did not use Lemuel Gulliver as a caricature of himself, and rather, they are separate characters. It's clear that he's a learned man from his experience on voyages, playing the role of surgeon. After studying physic at Leyden he voyaged to places like the East and West Indies before becoming surgeon on the Swallow to the Levant and elsewhere. After growing weary of the sea he attempts to settle down with family, before accepting another sailing job offer in 1699.

They get shipwrecked, then he arrives at Lilliput, which is inhabited with tiny people. They are in a conflict with neighboring island Blefuscu, over the correct way to break open an egg. After demonstrating improper ways of behaving in public he plans an escape to the rival island Belfuscu, which represents France, and Lilliput England. Lemuel Gulliver was a problem for the Lilliputians by requiring much more food than the little people did, sucking up most the source before needing to be kicked out.

After escaping and staying with his wife and family for two months he set out on another voyage upon the Adventure bound for Surat in the Downs. A shipwreck causes him to land on the island Brobdingnag, which is filled with giants, and he's abandoned there by the crew. He's kept as a pet by a farmer who finds him and is given a Glumdalclitch. He's put off by the Brobdingnagians because of their behaviorisms were magnified and they seemed ignorant to him, lacking any self awareness. He gets washed out to sea after being picked up by a bird, then rescued by a Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, captain of the vessel, and a Shropshire man. He gets dropped off back at England again, where he attempts to settle down in with his wife and family, although ends up accepting another voyage after only ten days.

It's the Cornish Captain William Robinson, commander of the Hopewell, whom Gulliver had voyaged with before, on a ship where he was surgeon and Robinson Master, and fourth part owner. They get attacked by Dutch pirates, who speak Japanese, in 1707 and Gulliver finds himself by the island of Laputa, a floating island wherein he sees inclines and stairs, to make one's way up there, and people fishing with angling rods. The island floats above Balnibarbi, and is populated by academics, which is a parody of the Royal Society and their experiments/attitude towards science. They seem mostly interested in mathematics and music which Lemuel wasn't that good in. While Laputians are considered a rational people, the people of Balnibarbi come off more as simpletons, since their experiments are more "New Age", or experimental. While waiting for a passage to be available from Maldonada to home, he makes a side excursion south-west from Balnibarbi to Glubbdubdrib, the land of magicians or sorcerers, in which the Prince there has a 3000 acre park and Noble Palace with several small enclosures for cattle. Here he meets the ghosts of great figures from the past, such as Homer and Aristotle. The experience meeting all these no longer living souls moves him in such a way that he can't believe virtues are sold for money, and by their grand-children, manage at elections and sell their vote, in a simple comparison of the living and dead. After arriving at Luggnagg the inhabitants are described as nice and welcoming, and inquire whether the author has seen the Strudlbruggs, who are immortal, although they don't get smarter with age. From there he sets off to Japan where he's able to sail home.

In 1710 he tires of being a surgeon and takes up on offer to become captain of the Adventure, and takes on a young surgeon named Robert Purefroy. The crewmates hold a mutiny and stand Gulliver upon an island, known as Houyhnhnm. The Houyhnhms are a race of intelligent horses while the other inhabitants, Yahoos, are human like brutes. The ending is your "typical" display of "intelligence" or "experience", nonetheless a "worldly" sort, in that, Lemuel becomes disenchanted living with his family and humans, in general, and while this may garner criticism, it isn't taken to be literal or Swift's actual comfortability in a situation like this. He comes to see them more as savages, and that he more so can't stand the smell of people anymore, so he doesn't talk, and tries to be alone (after his experience on this adventure).

He tries to fit in, but can't. There's no indication he has a desire to or not, just that it's harder. Of course, this is ripe for misinterpretation. I don't see how people won't use the opportunity to say he's now crazy, or unfit to be in society.
 

Pizzabeak

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Edit: have to add detail on how Lemuel Gulliver was a problem for the Lilliputians by requiring much more food than the little people did, sucking up most the source before needing to be kicked out.
Also the Queen of Brobdingnag fashions him a little box, that he stays in as his room, only for it to get picked up by a bird (Eagle) and dropped in the sea, wherein a ship fishes it up.

On the fourth voyage most of his men died from calentures so he had to stop at Barbadoes for extra crew hands. His mission was to trade with Indians in the South Sea, and as the men he recruited tended to be buccaneers, they mutinied, tied him hand and foot, kept him locked in a room and were commanded to shoot him if attempted escape. They took command of the ship and sent him down victuals and drink. The pirates were to plunder the Spaniards but they needed to go to Madagascar first for recruits, after many weeks traded with Indians before setting him ashore.

During the third voyage (to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg, and Japan), in which they're overtaken by pirates before finishing, his experience is fundamentally different from the previous two. One is the problem solved by philosophy and astronomy, and the other the witnessing of a proto computer printing press contraption, as it isn't just appearing in a land of little people and then a land of giants. The philosophy-astronomy problem is just settling a dispute between people mad at a king, and if that didn't work, they were just going to kill him and all his servants, thus entirely changing the government. The mutiny entirely broke the King's "measures", and so as to not dwell any longer on other circumstances gave the town their own conditions. This was done by placing a magnet on the island so when Laputa would descend, it would get stuck. The King's men tested it out a few times and whenever they would drop the metal, they would notice it violently attracted to the magnets on Balnibarbi (this incident is once again a parody on the "Royal Society" and the ways they conducted their experiments back then).

At the academy in Lagado there was a method a master taught his pupils to memorize anything by writing it down on a wafer then eating it, however, it didn't really work. Interestingly, upon giving an account of Tribnia he says it consists of only Discoverers, Witnesses, Informers, Accusers, Prosecutors, Evidences, and Swearers, together with their several instruments. The plots are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their characters to profound politicians or restore new vigor to a crazy administration, or raise or sink the opinion of public credit, either being best according to their private advantage. That suspected persons are accused of a plot is first agreed and settled upon among them so that their papers can be secured and owners put in chains, then the papers delivered to artists clever in finding out mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters. This was all done in an effort to offer a suggestion as an improvement to the place, as the account given him while containing curious and useful observations for politicians, seemed incomplete.

There was a way they developed to discover plots or conspiracies against the government. All suspected persons by a great statesman would have their diet examined, as well as their times of eating, which side they lay in bed, and, because why not just go ahead and include it, with which hand they wipe. By taking a strict view of their excrements, the color, odor, taste, consistency, crudeness, and maturity of digestion; etc he'd be able to judge their thoughts and designs. Through frequent trial and error he concluded men are never so serious, thoughtful, and intent as when they are at the stool.
 

Pizzabeak

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Pizzabeak

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