Gulliver's Travels (Swift)/Part 3/Chapter 2
from the Collection âGulliver's Travels. Part 3â
The division of this summary into sections is editorial.
An arrival among distracted thinkers
When Gulliver landed on the floating island of Laputa, a crowd gathered around him. He was as astonished by the inhabitants as they were by him: their heads tilted to one side, one eye looked inward and the other upward, and their clothes were decorated with celestial bodies and musical instruments.
Some servants carried sticks with inflated bladders attached. Gulliver later learned that these servants, called flappers, struck their employersâ mouths and ears to bring them out of their thoughts before they could speak or listen. They also warned them of obstacles when walking. Even while escorting Gulliver to the palace, the islanders repeatedly forgot their errand until their flappers reminded them.
At the palace, the King sat at a table covered with globes and mathematical instruments. He was so absorbed in a problem that Gulliver waited at least an hour before two pages roused him with their flaps.
When a flapper struck Gulliverâs ear, he indicated that he did not need such help. He later discovered that this gave the court a poor opinion of his intelligence. Unable to converse with him in any of the languages he knew, the King nevertheless provided him with rooms and servants.
Learning the language and travelling to Lagado
Four courtiers dined with Gulliver on meat and bread cut into geometric shapes and dishes arranged like musical instruments. With their help he learned a few useful words. The King then sent a tutor, who taught him vocabulary through books, pictures and commands given to a servant. Gulliver organised the words into a dictionary and, aided by his memory, soon gained some knowledge of the language.
A tailor measured Gulliver with mathematical instruments, but an error in calculation produced a badly fitting suit. Gulliver found such mistakes common and little noticed. While waiting for clothes and recovering from an illness, he continued to study.
The King ordered Laputa to travel to a position above Lagado, the capital on the land below. The journey took four and a half days, though Gulliver could not feel the island moving. One morning the King and his court played instruments for three hours; the tutor explained that they believed they were joining the music of the celestial spheres.
On the way, the island stopped above towns and villages so that subjects could send petitions up on weighted strings. Food and wine were sometimes raised from the ground by pulley.
Theory, politics and fears of the heavens
Gulliverâs knowledge of mathematics and music helped him learn the Laputiansâ language, which drew heavily on both subjects. They even used geometric and musical terms to praise beauty. Gulliver summed up their habitual way of thinking:
Their ideas are perpetually conversant in lines and figures.
Yet their houses were badly built, with sloping walls and crooked rooms. Gulliver attributed this to their contempt for practical geometry and their instructions being too refined for the workers to apply. He considered them accomplished on paper but clumsy in everyday life, poor reasoners outside mathematics and music, and lacking in imagination.
Many privately believed in astrology, while also showing a passionate interest in news and political disputes. Gulliver thought their confidence in public affairs reflected a common human tendency to pronounce on matters for which one was poorly equipped.
Their studies also filled them with fears about the heavens. Gulliver described the effect on their lives:
These people are under continual disquietudes, never enjoying a minuteâs peace of mind; and their disturbances proceed from causes which very little affect the rest of mortals.
They feared that the sun might engulf the earth, lose its light or burn itself out, and that a future comet might set the world ablaze. These prospects disturbed their sleep and pleasures; acquaintances began the day by asking about the sun and the danger from the comet.
The womenâs confinement and the Kingâs questions
Gulliver found the women of Laputa lively and contemptuous of their husbands. They favoured visitors from the continent, sometimes conducting affairs openly while their husbands were absorbed in calculations. Wives and daughters longed to visit Lagado, but needed the Kingâs permission because so many were reluctant to return.
Gulliver was told of a court lady, the prime ministerâs wife, who had gone down to Lagado on the pretext of her health. She hid there for months until a royal search found her in rags at an eating-house. She had pawned her clothes to support an old footman who beat her.
Her husband received her kindly and without reproach, but she soon escaped again with her jewels to join the same man and had not been heard of since.
After about a month, Gulliver knew enough of the language to answer most of the Kingâs questions. The King asked nothing about the laws, history, religion or customs of the countries Gulliver had visited. He confined himself to mathematics and received Gulliverâs account with contempt and indifference, even when his flappers repeatedly roused him.