Dec 08 2008
Swift(ly), Now… (Period 10)
REACT to Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.”
24 responses so far
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EWWWW!!!
that was gross. i am now trying to erase all of that from my mind.
kind of ironic that he mentions abortion as cruel, but then discusses his proposition. did he think that was funny? ha no. just gross.
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Wow. Even though I know(hope) that’s supposed to be satire, that just disturbing. The fact that he thought this all out, even in jest, just turns my stomach. I really hope I can forget this before dinner…
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I was in shock while reading that essay. At the beginning, when he was discussing the poverty and then all of the sudden switched to the different ways to cook children I was in shock. Because I read the essay before class today, I didn’t automatically realize it was satire and I was deeply disturbed. After a little reading I realized that he was not being serious, but I was still very upset that he even joked about the idea.
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Reading that essay made me sick to my stomach. It’s obvious he was joking about the Irish eating their children…but still. Why would you even think of eating children at all? I think Swift had a really sick mind and a twisted sense of humor. And he mentions that spousal abuse, and women murdering their bastard children is wrong, when his idea of killing and eating babies is just as bad, if not worse.
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Pardon my language when I say: WTF?!
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I was really grossed out and shocked while I was reading that essay! Why would you eat innocent babies? They are so cute and don’t deserve to be eaten! I realize that he was just proposing this idea and joking about it, but it was still a very disturbing way to look at things.
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I thought the same thing as Geoff: WTF? Most of Ireland was/is Roman Catholic. How the heck didn’t Swift think the regular people would have a problem with not only killing but EATING their own children… or I guess having other people eat their children. If the Irish people he’s talking about really were Catholic I’ll tell you right now they would not eat their children or sell their children to be eaten because even Catholics back then were PROLIFE. Obviously this guy didn’t really do his research and he needs to rethink this whole Modest Proposal thing because what he’s proposing is anything but modest. It’s MURDER.
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WHAT? That TOTALLY reminded me of Sweeney Todd. Which I found to be VERY disturbing and gross. Cooking children? Yuk… Swift concluded his writing by saying that his youngest child is nine years old so the idea does him no good. I cannot even comprehend why he would joke about such a sick idea when he HIMSELF has a child… Even though it is not completely serious, he comes across as truly thinking about the idea of eating children as beneficial. He supports his points, which to me is just sick.
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YEAH… So Swift is a pretty messed up person. I for one did not find that funny, but really weird and gross. I literally had to reread the sentence when he proposed his idea for cannibalism, because I didn’t believe that he actually said that. I knew that he was not serious, but still, why even think about it? I wanted to stop reading it half way through, but I still kept going for some odd reason. The worst part was when he tried to go through the list of “benefits” this would bring for the society, talk about being sick and twisted. Ewww.
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The little paragraph about Swift before the essay starts let me know the purpose of his essay . After reading his “modern proposal” the satire makes sense, he is putting the English misuse of the Irish up for ridicule to make a point that the Irish problem had to be solved. His ideas were gross but he was just exaggerated how the English treated and thought about the Irish.
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I feel like I need to get a new brain to get that image out of my mind! EWW!! Part of me is REALLY hoping that he is saying all of this for a reason some sort of reverse pyschcology, but uh, i’m thinking not. So EWWW!!! That is a sick joke!!! The worst part for me was when he used the analogy of roasting the pig to roasting the child. I’ve witnessed pig roasting and been traumatized so I hate that image of a child being roasted. GROSS why did we have to read this???
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Ew! That was disgusting! I was worried that I wasn’t reading the right thing or I just wasn’t reading it right. That was a very interesting essay that Swift wrote, very interesting! I’m not sure how to react to it other then ew! It was a very disturbing thing to read, children being eaten. Gross!
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As you know, I was absent from school today therefore I was not forewarned about the essay. However, as I was sitting in a waiting room today, I decided to begin reading. In all honesty, after I read the first two pages, I didn’t have any clue what Swift was talking about. After I read the entire thing, I finally realized that it was a joke, mocking the Britts for being jerky. Nonetheless, I am a firm believer in not eating children, poor or not. This essay was definitley written in anger.
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so i really wanted to stop reading this because i felt like i was going to throw up….all over that guy who thought all of this up. like honestly. eating infants to keep from other problems like husbands beating their wives so the child keeps well? and trying to help landlords so the children who were “mistakes” dont end up as screwups who dont pay rent and such? thats just disgusting. and using their carcus for womans gloves and mens boots? yeah. gross.
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kfdsjaf;lkdjfalsdj QUOIS?! Yeah, so I had quite a spazz attack after reading his “sarcastic” proposal. Alright MAYBE it’s funny to ONCE say “We should eat the over-populating babies!” But to drag it out and explain it all gets disturbing. His essay was like one of those long jokes gone bad. Nobody enjoys those. They’re like that stupid JC Penney commercial that make people like Geoff and Lauren go “WTF”.
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Wait. Swift not only has sick thoughts, but adds numbers into the picture? I could not but notice the many times Swift states, “already computed”. But besides the unpleasant calculations and thoughts, Swift attempts to “prevent those voluntary abortions”, but instead, persuades others to eat babies if not their own? — Supposedly “Beneficial for the Public”. Oh, it was supposed to be satirical. In that case, it’s genius-slash-sinister satire, yet still disturbing, might I add.
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Reaction #1: Ok, so this guy wants to help stop poverty in Ireland, that’s cool.
Reaction #2: Did he just say babies taste good?
Reaction #3: Come again?? Did this dude seriously just suggest eating children?
Reaction #4: Closing book now.
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Is it weird that once I read “Poor People in Ireland” (ehm.. first sentence… no, not even, it’s like a subtitle), I knew he was going to say something about eating babies? (Tell me I’m not insane.) I swear I read about this essay somewhere… maybe in Mr. Kozol’s class last year. It was a funny, sad, angry, and brilliant way to describe poverty in Ireland. Swift is a genius.
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While I agree with him as them not really having a purpose or future, that was just inhumane and disturbing.
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The first word that came to my mind after reading this was “odd”. This is probably one of the strangest readings in our Writers Reader. Swift clearly tried to back up his argument – he provided many reasons why eating babies would help solve the poverty problem in Ireland. The fact is cannibalism is not an accepted practice in modern society, so why Swift bothered to write this essay, I’m not sure.
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Very strange in a dark and [almost] humorous way. I thoroughly believe that he was not being serious in his suggestion of eating babies, and brought it up simply to prove a point; but still… that’s weird.
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Umm… does he seriously think there can be no arguments against his eating babies proposal? What about the fact that its rather disturbing? And the part where he listed how babies could be prepared for a meal. Yeah that was horribly in depth, unneeded, and sickening.
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That was completely gross and I wish I hadn’t read it. Not funny.
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Throughout the reading I kept thinking that this man is seriously disturbed if he would actually eat and baby, and when I told my mom about this story she thought he was probably on some drugs while he wrote it. But as I read on further I found myself begining to considered his proposal. I thought that many points he made were valid in the sense that it would lower the overpopulation of humans, and, not to mention, it would be a new source of much needed income for the struggling country. Fortunately I snapped myself out of my easily convinced ways. As Swifts sarcasm grew clearer he began to seem less and less like a demented cannibal, and I realized how truly sad it was that the cattle and pigs are raised and treated better than our poverty stricken species. (I was also disturbed that I considered Swifts points even though it was for just a brief moment. And for God’s sake! I’m a vegetarian!)
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