Gulliver's Travels

OK. I'm coming in late on this BUT what exactly was a 'free-thinker' in the 18thC. He sure criticised the 'projectors' of the time (and their ideas led to the South Sea Bubble. Don't we all criticise the writers of the the time (isn't that what happens on this website)? As to disparaging democracy, Walpole puts Blair to shame for spin and corruption - and try telling that to the Irish.

Given that Swift died nearly 250 years ago, of what relevance is his politics, or your opinion of them, in 2002 - an age entirely different from that in which he lived? Intellectually speaking, that is.

John Sessions has been reading this as Book at Bedtime on Radio 4 for the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately I didn't catch all of them but they sounded good. Hopefully it will be repeated some time.

I guess in response to Barnacle's comment, it's a good point and I wouldn't want to judge swift my modern political standards. For instance, it's not that hard to find racism in the works of enligtened writers from a hundred years back. However, many of Swift's views were so mean-spirited that an intelligent person from that age would have known they were vicious. For instance, Swift likes to criticize the free-thinkers and writers of his time. He actively disparages democracy, which was making progress during Swift's life. So I'm criticizing Swift by the standards of his own age. Besides, authoritarianism doesn't change too much from age to age and Swift promoted it. Swift also had some really great ideas. I think Gulliver's Travels is a really good book, despite the contrived politics.