In this movie, I think Jack Black does a good job at portraying Gulliver's naiveté, but the entire movie is focused on the Lilliputians. Everything I have heard or learned about has been about a washed-up giant on a island filled with little people. But class and actually reading the book made me realize that there is much more to this book that Jonathon Swift wanted to say.
The book is about the MANY travels of Gulliver, not just one. This makes me think about why the Houyhnhnms are not as popular. One reason could be the fact that they are horses and not actual people. The Houyhnhnm part of the novel makes fun of all of human nature whereas the Lilliputian only focuses on select flaws that humans tend to display.
This circles back to the fact that one of the greatest flaws is human pride according to the fourth part of the book, and human pride is what keeps that part of the novel from being popular. People do not like to be told that they are in the wrong and that a different way of doing things may be better than theirs. Humans do not like to be under submission to other animals; that is not how the animal kingdom works. However, humans find it more "normal" to submit to the tiny Lilliputians just because they are technically the same animal as humans.
Overall, I think that both parts are just as humorous, and that Swift does a great job of portraying the Houyhnhnms to see how ridiculous some of human culture is and how pride gets in the way of success and greatness.
*On a side note: I also believe that Swift is trying to portray the cruelty and inhumanity of enslaving human beings, but that is an entirely different blog.
**On a second side note: Spelling Houyhnhnms is extremely difficult.
I agree with how all these depictions of Gulliver's travels tend to focus solely on the lilliputians, when most of the more interesting stuff that happens is out side of lilliput. However, I personally love the satire of Gulliver's Travels and how it points out how absurd humanity can be. I love learning the flaws of human nature, so as to better my own personality. It can be depressing sometimes, Gulliver being an example with how he becomes a recluse and shuns everyone; but I feel as if Gulliver's attitude towards the end of the novel is sort of an over-exaggeration; then again, I think most people would go insane meeting tiny people and talking horses.
ReplyDeleteI too have wondered why the Lilliputians are as popular as they are, especially compared to the (at least in my opinion) more interesting Houyhnhnms. My own theory is that, when considering popular culture, Houyhnhnms tackle a trait of human nature that's more controversial than what the Lilliputians take on. Lilliputians just embody man's insistence on useless or damning methods of culture, while Houyhnhnms represent a stubbornness on their own superiority.
ReplyDeleteI went into this novel thinking it was going to be similar to the movie starring Jack Black and of the children's story I heard growing up. Instead, I found that it was far from both. I found, and was pleasantly surprised, that I enjoyed reading about various travels that Gulliver took rather than just one. Because Swift includes different travels that Gulliver took, I was able to get a better feel of why Gulliver wanted to leave his native England and see what other communities and cultures were out there.
ReplyDeleteI think that we can all pretty much agree that any movie where Jack Black isn't playing Jack Black is probably going to not be the greatest representation of anything.
ReplyDeleteOn Topic: Wasn't the scene of the Liliputians keeping Gulliver tied down used in an advertisement at one point? That count have helped establish a more common idea of the fact that they existed, if not being the most interesting part of the story. My Google-fu is failing me, but I'll cite our Professor as the source of that idea.
I think your question is an interesting one. Why aren't the Houyhnhnms as popular as the Liliputian? I think the Lilliputian's are more popular because they comment on what is already going on in the society that the reader can relate to like the government system. It laughs at systems that are familiar to the readers, but also keeps them at a safe distance putting them the story in a different setting. for this reason, there are easier comparisons to make between the Liliputians and readers than the Houyhnhnms and readers, making the Liliputians more popular.
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