Unit 2 Commonplace Book

Swift, Gulliver's Travels p501
I began last week to permit my Wife to sit at Dinner with me, at the farthest End of a long Table; and to answer (but in the utmost Brevity) the few Questions I asked her.  Yet the Smell of a Yahoo continuing very offensive, I always keep my Nose well stopt with Rue, Lavender, or Tobacco Leaves.  

Bergson, Laughter p87
And were all men always attentive to life, were we constantly keeping in touch with others as well as with ourselves, nothing within us would ever appear as due to the working of strings or springs.

Me:  First, I wanted to use the quote about how Gulliver still walked and moved like a horse, but evidently I didn't mark it and I looked for it for about a half hour before deciding to use another passage.  Anyway, Gulliver is obviously not in touch with his family and other humans.  He's also not keeping in touch with himself, as he is NOT in fact a horse but a human as well.  These strange habits he has picked up from all the lands he has travelled to make him function in a very unnatural way, like he is operating under "strings or springs."  This unnatural, mechanical motion makes him prance like a horse or stop his nose with tobacco leaves because he is out of touch with the human culture, smell, and accepted lifestyle.

Swift, "A Modest Proposal" p298
A VERY worthy Person, a true lover of his Country, and whose Virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased, in discoursing on this Matter, to offer a Refinement upon my Scheme...

Griffin, Satire p73
I am arguing that satirists implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) ask that we observe and appreciate their skill.  It is to be suspected too that satirists judge themselves by such a standard.  Anybody can call names, but it requires skill to make a malefactor die sweetly.

Me:  Swift seems to be talking himself up, "explicitly," as Griffin would say.  The narrator's entire plan is perfectly mapped out, the only problem being the obvious moral backlash which he doesn't seem to see.  The only problem the narrator seems to see is pointed out by this VERY worthy person who goes on to talk about jerky.  Even then, it is not a problem, only a small refinement.  He doesn't need to scrap his plan, just tweek it a bit.  Also his VERY worthy person (who loves his country and has admirable Virtues and probably good credit) legitimizes the plan, another tool Swift's satire uses to point out his skill.

Bergson, Laughter p 85
To cover a good deal of ground only to come back unwittingly to the starting-point, is to make a great effort for a result that is nil.

Sterne, Tristram Shandy p25
It is so long since the reader of this rhapsodical work has been parted from the midwife, that it is high time to mention her again to him, merely to put him in mind that there is such a body still in the world, and whom, upon the best judgment I can form upon my own plan at present,--- I am going to introduce to him for good and all.

Me:  I know that the quote from Bergson isn't his point at all, but it just made me think undeniably of the entire work of Tristram Shandy.  The whole book (or at least what we've read) is nothing but covering ground, going back to starting points, and accomplishing nothing.  At least, that's how I've perceived it thus far.  I chose the Sterne passage just to illustrate this point with how he keeps coming back to the midwife. Even in that small quote, though, he says he just wants to mention her to keep us thinking about her, so we don't forget or something, "merely to put him in mind".  It's so annoying!

Other quotes I enjoyed:

Swift, "Strephon and Chloe" p 613
Twelve cups of tea, (with Grief I speak)
Had now constrain'd the Nymph to leak.
This point must needs be settled first:
The bride must either void or burst.
Then, see the dire Effect of Pease,
Think what can give the Cholick ease.
 p616-617
Rash mortals, e'er you take a wife
Contrive your pile to last for life
Since beauty scarce endures a day,
And youth so swiftly glides away;
Why will you make your self a bubble
To build on sand, with hay and stubble?
On sense and wit your passion found,
By decency cemented round;
Let prudence with good nature strive,
To keep esteem and love alive.
Then, come old age whene'er it will,
Your friendship shall continue still;
And, thus a mutual gentle fire,
Shall never but with life expire.
Swift, GT p350
Care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man's goods from thieves; but honesty hath no fence against superior cunning.
p340
And, to confess the truth, my Breeches were at that Time in so ill a Condition, that they afforded some Opportunities for Laughter and Admiration.