by Jonathan Swiftit's about the land of little men and the land of big men: one of those never-to-be-forgotten stories in everyone's childhood. i did not know for all those years, however, that it was actually an adult book: a satire on human nature.
with kindle, i started to read Swift with "a modest proposal" and "the battle of the books". i was not particularly engaged in either: so yesterday and so far away. but Gulliver's travels was different. i immediately tagged along with Gulliver and was delighted to revisit those good old lands, this time, seen through the eyes of the very original and bitter old Gulliver (or Mr. Swift). it turns out the Lilliputians (little men) are narrow-minded and mean and Brobdingnagians (big men) insensitive; Lupatanians are boring and Houyhnhnmsians too noble to reach. Yahoos? ouch! that's us, the mere human beings: too degenerate to bear. the stories are delicious, cute, funny, ridiculous, realistic, other-worldly. and more. what a book. how one wishes to be able to write like that!
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