ENG305H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Menippean Satire
Document Summary
Blunt and simple, rambling (vs pope neat, elaborate) Discourse changes rupture, language of empiricism replaced by fantastical language. Gulliver abstraction to real must touch and feel. Descartes best language to describe reality is algebra, compute exact and reliable than human observation mathesis. Laputa and legato satire on royal society scientific group of research and discoveries advocate clear, precise language. Touring academy (of projectors), combine with tour of madhouse insane asylum that swift visited recently extracting sunbeams from cucumber, turning shit to food ridiculous experiments without sense. Scientists trying to shorten discourse abolishing all words advantage in health -> claim word spoken shortens lives. Reductive leaving out social importance and other significance of language, sunshine . Swift believes ridiculous experiments will ruin things. Satire on real character (john welkins, founder of royal society) system to communicate universally in all contexts to replace national languages colonial context graphic code. Idea that since everyone has words for same thing, why different .
