A Modest Proposal

fascinating proposal for the british economy to include the sale and consumption of babies and infants. if for nothing else read it for the lulz

Love

“But, as to my self, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal….” Clever, brilliant and humorous satire and treatise here from Jonathan Swift that takes many a shot at several different aspects of how society handled the problems of poverty and starvation in Ireland as well as the rich among other areas. I find it amazing how Swift could take irony to a new level and for such an extended length of time in his essay, not only poking holes at aspects of society, but carrying it through. He begins his essay by setting up the problems and crisis of poverty in such a deadpan manner that the “solution” is such a shock (and quite funny). He argues so…well…swiftly and effectively, and elaborates quite thoroughly for his “plan” that I think, dear reader, you just might be convinced as well. There are some definite laugh out loud moments from Swift’s essay. Here are a few gems below: “they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing on many thousand…” “I grant this food will be somewhat dear and therefore very proper for landlords, as they have already devoured most of the parents…” “…so much wasted among us by the great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our table; which are in no way comparable in taste of magnificence to a well grown, fat yearly child, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a Lord Mayor’s feast.” And Swift says all this with a straight face. This one is so good you’ll be eating it up.

My favorite short story. The font in this little book makes it challenging to read.

So I have not bought this copy, but I have a few different copies of A Modest Proposal and it is amazing. Jonathan Swift is really the father of english satire in literature and, along with Gullivers Travels, this is his magnum opus. The basic idea is a proposal for economic reform by the export and eating of babies. Now the idea is rather gruesome, but Swift is not meant to be taken literally. The idea was so show how ridiculous people were being, fighting over religion and economics, by showing an idea that, truly could have worked for the time and place if people were okay with child murder. This is nothing short of one of the most hilarious arguments into the problems with governments and economic reform that was ever written. I highly recommend this short piece for both humor, literature, and a look into the human social mind.

classic

Honestly, I do not understand this proposal very much although it is a classical satire, because I do not know to whom this proposal is addressed, to poor people, or to politicians, or to religious people. Therefore, I really do not know what is the authors intention due to the fact that I have little knowledge and background on this topic although I tried to understand this essay by reading Wikipedia.

I have repeatedly tried to log in following the prompts and no matter what I do I cannot log in to Audible to listen to this. I could not tell you how the recording is because I CANNOT listen to it because after following the prompts 3 times to change my password and even though the system tells me it has been successfully updated with Audible, I CANNOT log in. I cant even log in to contact someone because you have to log in to get any help. What a horrible program!

Used for AP Lit class!

i finally translated the title from ancient english using a universal translator... i think you guys should know before you just buy this book