Monday, December 8, 2025

Which Reminds Me

 Yes, I am suddenly reminded of my 10th grade oral book report on "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift, for Miss Marken's English honors class. It was interesting to learn that the book contains more than just Lilliput, there were also other imaginary and non-existent countries that do not get as much public attention in the movies. Lilliput gets most of the attention. Some Americans point to various ancient travel accounts to try to place Gulliver in Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast, but anyway that is not so clear. The Mosquio people like to assume the credit for their various points and stingers, even though anyway it was only a satire, not really serious history. And anyway, who can even say where those places are now, four hundred years later, when so much has changed. 
I understand that better now than I did in 10th grade, but anyway, it is not necessary to completely understand Jonathan Swift. Who would even remember Jonathan Swift it he had not written "Gulliver's Travels," because his other stuff is more ephemeral. But Gulliver says something about the 17th century as the Age of Exploration, a time inundated by travel books of discovery. 
But anyway, that was 10th grade. Nobody cares about that now. And how could those Mosquito people from Nicaragua get a foot in the classroom door? They were not even there so what would they know.