Brad’s post, “Narratorial Valuation of Numerical Representations by Dafoe and Swift,” focuses on the numerical precision of the monetary value and mechanical creations of the Lilliputians. In his post, he argues that Swift’s satire, found in these precise passages, ultimately shows that “the European man who is civilized and mathematically-minded will stay collected and reasonable in the face of savagery,” that this picture of Swift “serve[s] to caricature the Enlightenment man.”

To further develop on this “caricature” of the enlightened man, Gulliver’s voyage to Laputa lodges a scathing satire against the Royal Society, the bastion of the mathematically, scientifically enlightened man. Visiting the college responsible for the experimental developments in the town of Lagado, Gulliver comes across a Projector, the name given to the chief experimenters of the university. This Projector decided to identify “an Operation to reduce human Excrement to its original Food, by separating the several Parts, removing the Tincture which it receives from the Gall, making the Odour exhale, and scumming off the Saliva” (Swift 168).

The ludicrous and farcical nature of the Projector’s task speaks directly to the endeavor of the Royal Society: the use of experiment and science to better society. Swift lodges a skeptical critique of mathematical precision and experiment by equating the task of the Royal Society—such as dissecting an flea under a microscope—to picking apart shit for its nutrients.

After seeing more hilarious, futile experiments, Gulliver comes across another projector who desires to “show Land with Chaff, wherein [the Projector] affirmed the true seminal Virtue to be obtained” (170). The footnote to the text describes ‘seminal Virtue’ as “scientific jargon meaning the power of procreation” (287). This means that the scientist desires to use the dry waste of food products to encourage soil fertility, another exercise in experimental futility. Undoubtedly perplexed and confused by the carnivalesque spectacle being made of experimental philosophy, Gulliver remarks that he “was not skillful enough to comprehend” (170).

In these section of the novel, Swift makes a caricature of the Royal Society, scoffing at the scientific method and experimental philosophy. The passages above show a science which is both complex and unhelpful to the common good. Gulliver’s description makes the scientific endeavors of Lagado seem esoteric, pointless, and needlessly confusing: clearly, a satirical reflection of the abstract Royal Society.

Peace

—Nathaniel Schwass