The compound eyes of Gulliver
Swift made Gulliver drift ashore in the dwarf's country, the
giant's country, the scholar's country, the country of the immortal,
the country of the horse, and so on in the country which was
not here in the reality(except Japan).
He observed a human being from the various angles, and satirized
it.
He hated the human "arrogance" on account of the social
position and the official ability.
What's the point of view of Gulliver in each country?
1.The dwarf's country（Lilliput)
・Bird's-eye view
---Caricature：
He teases that the cause of the confrontation like political strife and religion is trivial generaly.
---Little person's beauty and loveliness ：
Novelist Souseki Natsume introduced Gulliver`s travels to
Japan as a satire novel.
He made the following haiku.
"If possible,
I want to be born to a little person
like a violet."
Though Swift wrote" Travels" to disgrace a human being,
the "Travels" are being read contrary to the author's
intention as a fable.
It is because he had a longing to the lovely person rather than
the heart disliking a human being ．
2. The giant's country（Brobdingnag)
・The weak's logic
---A point of view toward the strong person ：
The weak feel fear to the existence of the big person (a strong
person) .
Moreover, a strong person can't understand the weak, and doesn't
give careful consideration.
---A point of view toward the middle person ：
He draws a human being as a middle person by making appear a pigmy who flatters a stronger person and who bullies the more weak person .
・Magnifier
---A giant's country is the world watching it with the magnifier
for Gulliver.
He described such as the breast and skin of the woman who was
observed with the magnifier.
The magnifier has the effect which shows a fact realistically,
and the power which always does away with an accepted idea.
---The heart which is suitable for the small person：
When Gulliver would teach the king of the giant's country how
to make gunpowder,the king had a hatred feeling to make the tool
that a little person may ruin their own world.
3.Flying island （Laputa & Balnibarbi)
Floating intellectuals
---Ruler layer：
The scholars who administer mathematics, astronomy and music
live in Laputa (the flying island ), and they control Balnibarbi(the
island of the ground).
They always mind the movement of the heavenly bodies, and discuss
geometrical beauty and the theoretical consistency of mathematics
and concision of the algorithm so on .
They cut down the actual problem which don't fit in theoretical
consistency .
It is said Flying Island means England in those days, and that
the island of the ground means Ireland.
---The present is always a transition period：
Balnibarbi always advances a reform by the new idea under
the influence of Laputa .
They always think of reality as the place of the experiment,
the transition.
They think about the "present" only as a step toward
future.
Therefore, all is always"under constructing" everywhere.
Experiments in the project laboratory are all the absurd things
that reality was ignored.
There is research of the machine which tries to get a new word
and an idea from the random combination of the character as one
of the projects.
It is similar to the artificial intelligence computer.
The character being used here looks like a Japanese kana character.
4.The country that dead persons
revive（Glubbdubdrib)
・ Dead person's eye
--Continuity from the past ：
Gulliver drops in at the country of the magic of calling a
dead person.
The "present" is in the continuity with the "past"
which a tremendous dead person is in.
But, "past"is often distorted by the person who always
keeps living in the present.
Swift discovered the live person's falsehood by calling a dead
person.
5. The country of the immortal(Luggnagg)
・The ugliness of the old age
There is no human being who doesn't hope for the "immortal".
Gulliver visits the country of the "immortal".
There the "immortal" man can't keep youth, and they
put up with the ugliness of the old age.
They envy and jealous a dead person, because they cannot die.
Swift draws the ugliness of the old age without mercy.
6.Japan
・ National isolation
The only real country that Gulliver visited is Japan in Gulliver's
travels.
Why did he add Japan in imagenary countries?
Japan was in the national isolation condition at that time.
Japan must have been the "country of the imagination"
to the European.
A Japanese image in those days was being made by W.Adams and
E.Kaempfer.
For 1600 years, the Englishman W.ADAMS washed over Japan, were
hired as the closest associates of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
In 1690, E.Kaempfer stayed in Japan for 2 years as a doctor of
the Dutch ship.
E.Kaempfer reports Japan in the national isolation condition
with the image which is close to the Utopia.
Their reports about Japans influence "Gulliver's travels".
(Refer to「Gulliver's
Travels and Japan(ガリバー旅行記と日本）」)
7.The country of the horse（Houyhnhnms)
・Reverse
Swift created the person beast called yahoo.
Yahoo is the cattle of the country of the horse.
Swift made relations between the "livestock and the human
being" reversed.
He drew yahoo as ill-natured cattle.
Human being is a deviation person from the nature and he can
no longer return to
the nature.
(Refer to ○Gulliver's travels by J. Swift)