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Dean Jonathan Swift's epitaph refers to his "savage indignation," but you might not have suspected that from his satirical writings.(While We're At It)(Coincidentally)(Book review)

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From: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and PublicLife
Date: 20080301
Author:Neuhaus, Richard John

Dean Jonathan Swift's epitaph refers to his "savage indignation," but you might not have suspected that from his satirical writings. Father George Rutler draws a larger lesson: "Swift's satire was a sincere bit of acting. There is a tendency among Americans to suspect that acting is insincere, which is why they prefer their actors be celebrities rather than be able to act. The more ironic English assume that any form of sincerity is bad acting, and so their celebrities must be actors. It is according to an unwritten constitution, and the monarchy itself, to be sincerely ...

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