Reading 1001 discussion

4 stars

Hard to stomach but so well written.

A Modest Proposal - Jonathan Swift

Read 11/7/2010, 5 stars
A satire on poverty in Ireland. The author proposes that the poor be assisted to fatten up the children which would then be sold for food to the rich. The pamphlet includes recipes for preparing the new meat. The author states that this will stop voluntary abortions and murder of bastard children.

4 stars
A satirical proposal to butcher a percentage of 1 year old children and then sell them as meat in order to ease the issue of poverty in Ireland. Seriously, don't let that description turn you off. This was a quick and clever read.

Swift 'modest' proposal is that poor Irish should sell their fattened year-old children as food. A new food source would alleviate food shortages, create new recipes, and give the poor (prolific breeders as they were, especially Catholics) a new source of income. His tone is cool and dispassionate and his purpose is clear. His rationale mimics the Westminster politicians of the day expounding their ridiculous answers to 'The Irish Question". His biting satire does not spare absentee landlords either.

Swift's dark humour at its best - he puts forward all the potential benefits to the poor of the breeding of children to be sold as food at the age of one year. These days it would be written as a 400-page dystopian novel.

Pre-2016 review:

*****

This short satirical piece was meant to propose a remedy to the general impoverishment of the Irish nation: selling their young children as food to the richer population of the United Kingdom. The proposal, with its many advantages and avenues for solution to many "ills" of the time, was compared with other (dubious) schemes put forth in order to address some of the social issues of the time. Swift fires many bullets with this text, written with all the seriousness such a proposal would require. This is highly reminiscent of the grotesques tales of Rabelais. It probably made me laugh longer than it took me to read it. Brilliant!