Laputans

The third Gulliver’s trip begins with the meeting with the island of Laputa. The fact is that this island is not simple, but flying. It flies with the help of a giant magnet mounted in a diamond base, and because of this, it is able to repress the lands under its control. Laputans can shield the sun or simply crush their neighbors. Here we can see a clear metaphor for England's domination over Ireland, as indicated by the name of the Laputans’ city — Lindolino. Two ‘lin’ in this word, for sure, remind the name of the Irish capital — Dublin. The inhabitants of Laputa appear to be people completely cut off from life. They are so deep in abstract thoughts that their wives cheated on them all over and over, and servants have to periodically clap ‘thinkers’ over faces with bull's bubbles and bring them back to reality. The economy of the country has been brought to full exhaustion and decay. Swift mocks theoretical science and philosophy too cruelly and often unfairly. Today, everyone understands that the utilitarian attitude to science bounds the scientific thoughts and as a result prevents it from bringing the very practical benefits on which the writer insisted. But in many ways Swift is right. Science and philosophy, too detached from participation in real life, quickly degenerate into scholasticism. And science, devoid of morality and high purpose, is simply dangerous. The fictitious island of Laputa, using that kind of science, presses all disobedient and turns into a real nuclear bomb.