Swift's "A Modest Proposal" Not for the light of heart

K

Karky

2
Swift's "A Modest Proposal" Not for the faint of heart

We had a lecture about this today. Needless to say, eating babies, preparing babies, discussing advantages/disadvantages of eating babies, etc, became the central topic of discussion in the hours after the lecture.

(A modest proposal is a proposal about starting to breed babies for their meat to stop the starvation in Ireland in the 17 hundreds. It was of cource not a serious proposal, but a satyrical piece) For those who haven't read it.

this is my second random thread today! :D
 
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Wasn't that written a while back when the Irish potato famine hit and they didn't want to go to England/Scotland for help? If I remembered correctly, wasn't children in general proposed to be eaten?
 
yeah, it was back in the seveteen hundreds. Children in general yes, but the main proposal was to breede babies to be eaten.
And I think it was more because England didn't seem to care too much about what was going on. The outrageous proposal is sort of saying "Well you don't care if our children die of starvation, so you won't be shocked if we start eating babies to stay alive, will you?" Although exactly what Swift is really saying is kind of unclear due to how it is written; you're always left in sort of a doubt.
 
Karky said:
yeah, it was back in the seveteen hundreds. Children in general yes, but the main proposal was to breede babies to be eaten.
And I think it was more because England didn't seem to care too much about what was going on. The outrageous proposal is sort of saying "Well you don't care if our children die of starvation, so you won't be shocked if we start eating babies to stay alive, will you?" Although exactly what Swift is really saying is kind of unclear due to how it is written; you're always left in sort of a doubt.
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Have you ever read Plato's Republic? It's similar in the sense that sometimes it's hard to tell when he's being serious and when he's being facetious. You get into certain parts and think "Oh my God, he was a nut!"
 
haven't read anything of Milton's, no. I think I'm gonna read Sense and Sensibility next, that's one I'm not looking forward too! :p
 
Cant quite remember where i heard this but some people eat the placenta thing after the baby is born. Its like a ritual or something like that?
 
Some african tribes take part in that I think smith, Here in new zealand when a child is born the maori people plant a fruit bearing plant like passionfruit and place the afterbirth in the hole before it is filled in.
 
I saw a documentary of some Asian tribes where they would mix the ash of the dead into a drink, some kind of ritual.
 
I believe Scientologists eat the placenta. I have also seen a documentary on the same subject......can't remember who it was about though.

apparently it is very good for you......full of protein.
 
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