So, This Book Is in the Canon Because . . .

Good ol' Gulliver.

I sat in the back of my 12th grade English class and would randomly say "good ol' Gulliver" in an exaggerated, hicktown voice just loud enough for the 2 or 3 people nearby to hear me and snicker as we trudged through the rest of our discussion about Lemuel Gulliver's voyage to Lilliput.

Who am I to say that Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is not worthy to be in the canon? It may be a good book, but I must admit that its virtues were lost on me.

Jonathan Swift is one of the most well-known satirists in the English language. I get it. But I much prefer "A Modest Proposal" as his legacy to satire over good ol' Gulliver. In its defense, the plot shines with creativity and whimsy as the main character travels to far off lands with names like Brobdingnag. I appreciate the fact that there is character development as Gulliver starts out good-natured and somewhat naive and ends up a little more wisened and somewhat cynical after his travels. Hey, it became a TV miniseries. No mean feat.

I understand the way that he described the court at Liliput was meant to satirize the court of George I. I get that the Liliputian dispute over how they cracked their eggs was meant to satririze Catholic/Protestant tensions . . . but I guess details like this are part of my issue with it. If you aren't privy to the extra-textual revelations of exactly what it was Swift was making fun of, then the little details serve as little more than little details. Because of the historical disconnect, Gulliver's Travels loses some of the timelessness that I feel is a necessary strength in order for a novel to be considered a part of the canon.

As I recall in my 12th grade Literature class, when we weren't zoning during less than spirited discussion about the novel, we did laugh at the absurd names, characters and situations in which Gulliver found himself. But I'm afraid we didn't grasp Swift's overall purpose. The book may have entertained us somewhat, but it didn't connect with us.

However, to give credit where credit is due, Gulliver's Travels did serve as a spinoff name for a website that I created many years ago as I voyaged out into the Old World: Chantelliver's Travels.