59 pages, Dover Publications,
ISBN-13: 978-0486287591
As with
most people I image, I was familiar with Jonathan Swift’s famous work of satire
A Modest
Proposal in passing, but had never actually
read the whole thing until it was assigned in class. Doing so was easy enough:
it’s short, and a quick Google search will bring up dozens of sites where it is
reproduced, with annotations, context, etc. The first page of Swift’s 1729
essay describes the problem: the ever-increasing number of destitute Irish, the
economic hardships imposed on the nation, and the numerous inadequate and
ineffective schemes that had been attempted to address it. There is no
alteration in Swift’s very serious and thoughtful tone when he delivers his
zinger:
I have been assured by a very knowing American
of my acquaintance in London, 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; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee,
or a ragoust.
The rest
of the essay continues in an absolutely straight-faced manner, laying out
economic and dietary calculations, never once hinting that a proposal to raise
Irish children for their meat might be anything less than serious. It is the
sober, analytical tone that makes this such a brilliant and famous work of
satire. For the exceptionally dense and humor-impaired (of whom there were
apparently quite a few people back when Swift published it), the only clue may
be his bitterly ironic conclusion:
Therefore let no man talk to me of other
expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither
clothes, nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and
manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote
foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and
gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and
temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from
Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of quitting our animosities and
factions, nor acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another
at the very moment their city was taken: Of being a little cautious not to sell
our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least
one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of
honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could
now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and
exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet
be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and
earnestly invited to it.
It
amused me to find essays posted even today by people who didn't seem to be
quite sure whether Swift was seriously advocating cannibalism. Reading a bit
about the publication’s social context does make A Modest Proposal more interesting: Swift wasn’t just condemning
the heartlessness of English landlords and expressing sympathy for the bitter
plight of the poor, but mocking specific remedies and alternate proposals that
were popular at the time. But just reading the essay all the way through is an
educational experience, because the imitators and “modest proposals” that have
been proposed ever since generally fail to be nearly as witty or intelligent.
The whole point of Swift’s satire was that he constructed a very careful
argument that invites earnest debate if you just…consider it a serious
proposal. While a short piece that is now synonymous with satire, A Modest Proposal is still a perfect
example of the form.
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