Talk:Laputa

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Reference ideas for Laputa

The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

Laputa, the Whore of Babylon, and the Idols of Science. Dennis Todd, Studies in Philology, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Winter, 1978), pp. 93-120
Science and Politics in Swift's Voyage to Laputa. Robert P. Fitzgerald, The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 87, No. 2 (Apr., 1988), pp. 213-229
The Unity of Swift's "Voyage to Laputa": Structure as Meaning in Utopian Fiction. Jenny Mezciems, The Modern Language Review, Vol. 72, No. 1 (Jan., 1977), pp. 1-21
The "Motionless" Motion of Swift's Flying Island. Robert C. Merton. Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1966), pp. 275-277
Laputa, the Whore of Babylon, and the Idols of Science. Dennis Todd. Studies in Philology, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Winter, 1978), pp. 93-120
The Scientific Background of Swift's 'Voyage to Laputa'. Marjorie Nicolson and Nora M. Mohler, Annals of Science, II (1937), 291-334
Swift's Flying Island in the 'Voyage to Laputa'. Marjorie Nicolson and Nora M. Mohler, Annals of Science, II (1937), 405-30
Swift's Laputians as a Caricature of the Cartesians. David Renaker PMLA, Vol. 94, No. 5 (Oct., 1979), pp. 936-944
Twentieth Century Interpretations of Gulliver's Travels: A Collection of Critical Essays

Origin of the name

It may or may not be coincidence that a large number of Pacific island nations have their archaeological footings in a group of peoples called the Lapita. If I recall Gulliver correctly, Gulliver encountered Lapita on a voyage in the northern Pacific, though I cannot remember where he touched down again. The Lapita page gives the origin of the name in the mis-hearing of a New Guinea word, but does not cite a source ; however with dozens if not hundreds of languages in New Guinea, I find the claim somewhat suspect in it's imprecision. That the (archaeological) name is from a source which was contemporaneously available to Swift, associated with the "Pacific" is at least credible. I don't have any idea how to pursue whether this was actually the case.

A Karley 12:52, 30 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I assumed the name comes from la puta, which is Spanish for whore. Considering what Laputa represents, I wouldn't put it past Swift to have deliberately used the name on purpose.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.58.77.19 (talk)

Influence on contemporary work:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feel_good_inc <- Feel good inc. This song also included a flying island. This could and may really be an 'influence on contemporary work'. It may be appropriate to include the song under it as music to is a form of contemporary work (if i am not mistaken)

Ren 5:01PM, 29 May 2008 (AUS)

Probably not necessary. The Castle in the Sky page already mentions that Jamie Hewlett was influenced by the anime, hence Gulliver's Travels is only an indirect influence. Leejc (talk) 21:51, 16 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Section header

"Influence on contemporary work"? "Contemporary" implies these examples were created at the same time as Swift's work. Shouldn't the header be instead "Influence in popular culture" -- although some examples aren't popular culture, but high culture. -- llywrch (talk) 17:26, 8 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

or is 'contemporary' intended (here) to refer to the present? This phrase is becoming increasingly ambiguous in this respect. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.163.128.130 (talk) 16:29, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

flappers

I have found Laputa's system of flappers to be one of the most highly referenced ideas from Gulliver's Travels, yet it isn't mentioned here. Expample: Stranger in a Strange Land. I find no mention here, and only passing reference in the main Gulliver's article. Why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.163.128.130 (talk) 16:26, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Legacy

Bioshock Infinite87.249.199.192 (talk) 10:17, 12 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

climenole

* In Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), Robert Heinlein describes Laputa's system for managing communication through the use of the climenole, or flapper.

Laputian society has something called a "flapper" —a man paid to speak for his masters by actually moving his master's mouth.

But what is a climenole? Google returns this article... dictionaries appear to shrug their shoulders. (20040302 (talk) 13:02, 26 November 2018 (UTC))[reply]

"Climenole" is a word made up by Swift in the (fictional) langauge of Laputa; it may (or may not) have some satirical meaning. But a flapper isn’t a man paid to speak for his masters by actually moving his master's mouth; he was a servant whose task it was to attract his masters attention when it was required (which is something the article already explained) Robert Heinlein’s take on it is neither here nor there. Moonraker12 (talk) 10:36, 14 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Description

I’ve noticed there has been a flurry of edits ([1] to [2]) to this section regarding the inaccuracy of the figures for Laputa’s dimensions, and their conversion into metric.
Unfortunately the inaccuracy is in Swift’s text itself; the line states "...its Diameter 7837 Yards or about four Miles and a Half, and consequently contains Ten Thousand Acres". However, while 4 and a half miles is "about" 7837 yards (it is 4.5 x 1760 = 7920 yds), neither figure gives an area of 10,000 acres: The area of a disc is $π r 2$ which is 3.14159 multiplied by 3918.5 [ie.7837-:-2] squared, which is 48,237,990.4 sq yds; while 10,000 acres is 48,400,000 [ie. 4840 x 10,000] sq yds. Working backwards, an area of exactly 10,000 acres would require a diameter of 7,850.14 yds using the same value for Pi. (Pi had already been calculated to 100 decimal places by Swift’s time, but he may well have been more familiar with a simpler value, such as ⁠22/7⁠).
I’m presuming Swift wanted to be exact, but miscalculated, unless it was a deliberate mistake (the editors notes to the Oxford edition have a speculation, regarding some (admittedly more obvious) inaccuracies in the Lilliput account, that they were deliberate, as a satire on travelogues. I’ve added the exact quote as a footnote, to try and head off this kind of thing.
As for the conversions, I’m not clear why they are necessary, particularly for a work of fiction, but it seems sensible to limit their use in this case, to avoid even more confusion. Moonraker12 (talk) 10:29, 14 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

pronunciation

Laputa [luh·poo·tuh] …

Is there anything in Gulliver's Travels to indicate a pronunciation? Is one really necessary here? —Tamfang (talk) 05:06, 13 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Recently improved to /ləˈpuːtə/, but the same questions apply. —Tamfang (talk) 05:00, 13 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]