Mad Science

In Gulliver's third voyage we are treated to some strange science and even stranger ways of governing.

In Laputa the government floats over the rest of the kingdom, using technology to gain advantage over its subjects. The nobility and scientific thinkers of the island are similarly far removed from the people and their concerns, so much so that they need to be aroused from their thoughts and daydreams by their servants. This unawareness of what is going on in the lives of the people you govern parallels what Swift sees happening in Ireland.

I found this voyage a little harder to get into. Swift spends considerable time having Gulliver study the strange ways things are measured out in Laputa and he becomes engrossed in their "scientific" language. If this is what science is like, I 'm glad that I am an English student.