Swift Imagery

"The flying or floating Island is exactly circular; its Diameter 7837 Yards, or about four Miles and an Half, and consequently contains ten Thousand Acres.... Besides, as it is in the Power of the Monarch to raise the Island about the Region of Clouds and Vapours" (Part III, Ch 3, p161)

"That this Island cannot move beyond the Extent of the Dominions below; nor can it rise above the Height of four Miles" (163).

One part of Swift's style I find fascinating is his command over the world of images. When I am reading, there are certain chapters in this book where an image jumps out at me. Besides being impressive, these images often seemed packed full of metaphorical or satirical significance, though they often don't hold completely if I look too close. That is, certain images are briefly suggestive in one or more ways when they are coupled with some more of the text's content. What is Swift's intention with such imagery? Sometimes I perceive the imagery is louder than his words of satire.

For example, take the floating island of Laputa. Its a sheer joy to imagine such a huge floating disc, or even, as I sometimes pictured it, a huge floating sphere. Just imagine its moving up and down at will, its detachment from the land, its central loadstone cared for by Astronomers, its adamantine bottom, etc. Perhaps this floating island might suggest a huge, satiric, floating mind. It is detached from the "body" of the land, but his has to deal with rebellions, petitions, violent factions, etc of that "body" (see the last few paragraphs of Part III, Ch 3). The "mind" is often afraid to destory part of the "body," for the "health" of the "mind" depends on the "body" (the ship receives city victuals (ch2, p157) and can be cracked by the landscape (Ch3, 165).

Such an interpretation (if it contains any truth) would add to the satiric depiction of those people, who's meditations often disconnect them from reality, so much so that "in the common Actions and Behaviour of Life, I have not seen a more clumsy, awkward, and unhandy People" (Ch2, 158). One might take it further to be a shot at philosophic scientists such as Descartes, the flying island/land island being a possible mockery of his mind/matter system, or defeat of it. Such an interpretation would be supported by instances such as the encounter with the tailor (156), who makes errs in a complicated calculation about making his clothes. Another possibility is that Swift is chiding ivory tower people who never come down to reality, a theme that was present at other parts of the book (low humour, discussion of the giant kind's education (see part II, Ch 7, p133)).

My point is that grand images such as the flying island have all kinds of potential for reading. I suspect that part of the fun of reading Swift is trying to bridge the distance between the Author and all of the fronts of his satire, especially his choice of imagery. Do you find that the set of possibilities narrows down with reading, that Swift meant for multiple interpretations, that I am overreading or underreading the text, or something else?