Literature Network » Jonathan Swift

Rewriting the past, politicizing the present.(A)(Commentary)(Op-Ed)

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From: The Washington Times
Date: 20020131
Author:Fields, Suzanne

Byline: Suzanne Fields

Alas, political correctness is not satire. And that's not Gulliver, making fun of the Laputians use of language and learning. The educationists are speaking for themselves.

Jonathan Swift, who made sport of all corrupters of learning, cleverly depicted scientists on the island of Laputa trying to draw sunshine from a cucumber. When he wrote "A Modest Proposal," suggesting eating Irish babies as a solution to the poverty of Ireland, his satire, aimed at the absentee English landlords, had a stinging, ringing point.

Political correctness, on ...

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