I have read the somewhat shocking proposal of Mr Swift as to how to mitigate the dire situation of starvation, and I shudder to think of this "solution" ever being utilized.

To begin with, has he ever actually looked at a child. Most of them are obviously high in saturated fats, and what eating a baby or toddler might do to the arteries is a terrifying thought. At least wait until they get to the emo stage and start shedding the puppy fat I'd have thought.

Secondly, this book was obviously written in an age of large range-style ovens. Trying to get even a small baby into a modern microwave would be, I'd imagine, an exercise in futility. You'd have to chop off all the limbs, and even the head alone might be a squeeze.

And, thirdly, it would be a false economy indeed. Given the large amounts of money thrown at parents, by governments trying to buy their votes, surely the small amount of remuneration they might gain by the initial sale of the child would not compensate for the loss of the steady stream of income that possession of the child might generate in welfare over the child's life.

Sorry, Dean Swift. It's good to see someone at least thinking about the problem, but your solution carries too many flaws for my liking.

(seriously, it's brilliant! Anyone with a sense of satire is going to love this one!)

I knew what this was about, but I didn't realize how savage it would be. Holy shit.

He sounded so serious in his proposal that I almost believed he was a nutjob for a split second. Brilliant satire though, I caught myself feigning a posh british accent in my head with this like I do with many of Austen's novels, I think it's the vocab that does it does it for me (even though I realize he was writing for the citizens of Ireland). How can you not say something like "Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, 'till he hath atleast some glimpse of hope." in a haughty British accent?

It's been a long time since I first read this satirical masterpiece by Swift, which reads like its title and is anything but, "A Modest Proposal". In it, the author is 'proposing' a solution to the serious problems of overpopulation, unemployment, and food shortages, not to mention providing the social and moral benefits of kinder husbands and better parents. Mr. Swift has all the economic angles figured out and presents a very convincing argument, so straightforward and valid my daughter's high school English 3 class, consisting of juniors and seniors, thought he was serious. And wasn't he?

Well since Swift was advocating the 'that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled...' I should hope he was writing his proposal for other reasons than a genuine suggestion. Indeed, Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal” in 1720 to call attention to abuses inflicted on Irish Catholics by well-to-do English Protestants. Although a Protestant himself, he was a native of Ireland, having been born in Dublin of English parents, and believed England was exploiting Ireland. He is also satirizing Catholic-Protestant relations when he reminds the Protestants that if the babies are eaten young, there will be less Catholics growing up to go Catholic churches. Even the Irish are rebuked in his essay, for stoically accepting abuse rather than taking action on their own behalf. And when it seems it can't get any better, the ending is the best of all!

An absolute MUST read!

Re-read 5/1/24:

This little, shall we say, MODEST proposal is quite in line for our own modern problems.

I do say, I think a great deal of the poor would absolutely benefit from many of these quite actionable points.

Indeed, I believe we could incorporate key aspects in most of America's corporate policies -- BUT, I think the best points could be made toward improving the cost-effectiveness of BOTH the medical field AND the overall nutrition of the populace.

Cost savings is hardly anything to sneeze at, either.

But you know what the greatest benefit would be?

We CAN have a 4 day workweek AND welcome AIs in every workplace with this proposal. Indeed, there WILL be a place for those who are laid off to go.


Modest? I say this is a SUPERB Proposal.


Also, I should point out that the AIs are REALLY good at finding great recipes. Bon Appetite, everyone!


Original review:

I continue to think that this supremely logical and inevitably practical work will become a part of American legislation any day now. You know, right after the FEMA camps have a permanent place in the common zeitgeist. Anyone want a potato?

Update 11/19/15:

It occurs to me that someone ought to write a cookbook to expound upon this most excellent suggestion. Any takers? Julia Childs? Hannibal Lector? Rush Limbaugh?

So many excellent suggestions, I know, I know.

Just a Monday morning thought:

If ever in a situation where you should have to resort to cannibalism, eat the babies and toddlers first.

Not only are they easily overpowered (and probably fairly fatty and nourishing?), but are, first and foremost, useless to the group and a burden at that.

30 pagine scarse, anche meno a seconda dell’edizione, del font e dell’interlinea (in rete circolano diversi PDF, naturalmente più che legali). Eppure, Una modesta proposta, celeberrimo pamphlet di Jonathan Swift vergato nel 1729, è più che legittimamente inserito nella lista dei 1001 libri da leggere.

Perché?

Prima di tutto, va sottolineato che era costume dell’epoca proporre progetti di soluzione di problemi sociali attraverso la pubblicazione di libretti detti schemes. Swift ne adotta lo stile e, ricalcandone il rigore quasi scientifico, utilizza uno strumento noto ai suoi contemporanei per satirizzare sulla condizione irlandese del suo tempo. La proposta è talmente macabra da far quasi allontanare dal testo: sconfiggere la miseria e il degrado di Dublino e dintorni utilizzando i bambini come portata principale dei pasti.

Se riuscite a superare l’inevitabile senso di nausea e di orrore, vi attenderà un testo breve ma ricchissimo di ironia, ferocemente divertente, intriso di intelligente polemica in ogni sua cesellatissima parola. La distanza fra l’assurdità della proposta e il rigore, anche scientifico, con cui è avanzata valgono la ricerca del testo, giuro.

E io, prima o poi, scriverò degli schemes di successo.

http://capitolo23.com/2019/08/20/una-...

This Little Black Classic holds four essays and one poem written by Jonathan Swift, an Irish satirist from the 17th century. The most famous is probably A Modest Proposal, in which he writes about how to solve a famine in Ireland. Let me tell you: it's hilarious.



I'm a bit wary about political satire from Early Modern Britain, as I fear that I might not have enough historical knowledge to understand the context, but this was delightful. Swift's sense of humor is dry to the point where you have to remind yourself that he is not serious about it at all and probably has a wonderful time writing these texts himself.

It's a shame Penguin doesn't give any background information on the essays provided, as some of the stories are highly amusing. The short Meditation Upon a Broomstick for example was based upon Robert Boyle's writings, who linked everyday subjects to religious themes. He would relate a house cleaning to the works of God and his relationship to men, which Swift was bored so with that he wrote his own ridiculous Meditation. In the house where he resided it was common to read one of those Meditation a day, so he took the opportunity and read out his own instead of Boyle's writing. Apparently the ladies of the house didn't catch on until the very end!

Roughly a year ago Penguin introduced the Little Black Classics series to celebrate Penguin's 80th birthday. Including little stories from "around the world and across many centuries" as the publisher describes, I have been intrigued to read those for a long time, before finally having started. I hope to sooner or later read and review all of them!

Finally found the quiet time to read this again. Written in response to a very real problem, the poverty and starvation in 1729 Ireland, Jonathan Swift puts forth a shocking proposal for a solution that will make you laugh and also cry. Sometimes to make people listen you have to outrage them, and this piece of satire was Swift's last resort--an attempt to make people look in the mirror and see themselves as part of the problem. I remember this being taught to me in high school as the perfect illustration of satire and irony. I'm pretty sure it still holds first place.

With thanks to my GR friend, Tamar, I have come back again to include a reading of this essay by Sir Alec Guinness, and having listened to it, revise my rating to a solid 5-stars.


Sir Alec reads Swift

Problem:
There are too many mothers who must beg for alms, trailed by a group of their small children. Rather than being productive members of society, they are hangers-on, surviving on sustenance from us. Further, these infants "grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes."

Solution:
Children of the poor should be raised, sold at one year, then served "stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasee, or a ragoust." Swift recommends that one buy "the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs". Such a solution can well feed the population, provide the child's parents with eight shillings, and reduce the number of Papists. Their skins could make "admirable" women's gloves and boots for "fine gentlemen."

Beyond these clear benefits, there are also some indirect ones:

It would encrease the care and tenderness of mothers towards their children, when they were sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some sort by the publick, to their annual profit instead of expence. We should soon see an honest emulation among the married women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market. Men would become as fond of their wives, during the time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, or sows when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.

***

In A Modest Proposal, Swift argued that a significant social problem (Irish poverty) could be resolved in a fairly straightforward way. Satire such as this does not work unless society can look around and clearly see that others at least were behaving in heartless ways, considering their own bellies, for example, rather than those of Irish mothers and their children. Solutions are designed for the comfort of the wealthy, even if loosely framed as for poor parents and their children.

Swift could be describing contemporary discussions of welfare, healthcare, and immigrants in the US – and similar discussions elsewhere. Not as much has changed in the last three hundred years.

I read this book as part of GR's Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) group.

Recently I read Gogol and out of curiosity, in a process of unearthing some important name in that satirical zone from the past greats, I got a recommendation of reading Swift. Actually I was having an eye on the A Tale of a Tub, but this title just jumped in between and I began with this due to its short length.

First time... Jonathan Swift.

This title is again quite deceptive. This proposal was everything but modest. This should have been called 'An inhumane proposal' or 'An inexorable proposal' indeed. I can understand that this piece of work is a satire on a major issue of poverty and atrocity of rich or rulers of that era, yet I feel there was a huge dearth of sensitivity there on the part of the author.

Leaving aside the pathos of that idea that one should sell one's newborn baby to the meat market, after one year of bountiful nourishment so that it's flesh becomes tastier and will be consumed by the rich and will yield a good chunk of money to their poor parents. I feel the way it has been written is quite nutty.

When the author observes in the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes. He gives such a proposal to the authorities. He gives statistical data on how it will benefit the economy, empower the women and overall remove poverty.

The author has made caustic remarks. His tone is very unemotional as if he has no heart at all. He talked cruelly and talked about resolving the issue in a very insensitive way. But He must get high points from the reader for the way he has written it, maintaining the art and skill required in a farce to give a message in a very blunt and intense style.

|| 2.0 stars ||

This did not really do it for me.

The grotesque and unethical nature of this essay's proposal is meant to shock people into altering their perspective or igniting change, but it kind of left me cold. I understand the thought behind the essay and I respect it for trying to accomplish change, especially when putting the text in its original time period, but I don't think it really accomplishes anything. It can too easily be shoved under the rug as ridiculous, weird and unnecessary. It did not set me to think, even though that was obviously its intent.

I was also not the biggest fan of the writing style. The whole thing is obviously meant to be satire content wise, and I think the writing style could have played with that a bit more. It felt a bit stiff and could have been more humorous.
And if it was not going to follow the humour route, it could have at least tried to convey more emotion or spark any type of feelings in me. Now, it did neither.

All in all, I appreciate the thought, but this severely lacks in its execution. It's a no from me.