| 1. | (22 posts) | "Laputa": What's In A Name? |
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Zurui Chibi sparked a large debate over the etymology of "Laputa" by extracting this (translated) text from a French magazine, "Originally, the island of *Laputapilis* appears in a text from Plato, and is described as a very technologically advanced country.
If Swift was cultivated, as it was mentioned before, that's probably where he found it (just shorten the name, et voilą)
Well, of course, it's not 100% sure, but I think this should be considered.
The current thinking on the topic of the name is summerized in the "Laputa" FAQ.
Chris Meadows replied, "According to the version of the book with annotations by Isaac Asimov (who was every bit as great a historian as he was a science fiction writer, having written dozens of tomes of history of the ancient world--if the name *did* have actual origin in ancient writings, he would have known it), the name was simply a component of Swift's satirical slur on Buckingham Palace and the scientists whose research it liked to fund."
Clyde Adams tossed in, "This looks like some combination of imagination and mistake. More specifically, it looks like a distortion of the fact that two of Plato's dialogues, the Timaeus and the Critias, describe the advanced civilization of the island continent of Atlantis." Clyde added in another message, "Most early-eighteenth-century literate Englishmen would recognize this Spanish expression? I do not know if that is true, but it strikes me as implausible. Where is the evidence?"
Chris went through "The Annotated Gulliver's Travels" by Isaac Asimov and posted this lengthy report:
I'll start with a bit from page 144, wherein Swift says:
<snip of paragraph about how Laputa makes Gulliver's Travels the "earliest example" of "true science fiction.">
As far as I'm concerned, Asimov should be considered an authoritative source. He was the closest thing to a true Renaissance Man the 20th century had; he was a historian and futurist as well as a science fiction writer, and wrote literally dozens of history books in addition to his science fiction. If he can't be trusted to get his facts straight on one of the first historical science fiction writers, then nobody can. If you want to argue with these, fine...but please be sure and explain the research you did to come up with your arguments.
} But, at the same Time, the Reader can hardly conceive my
} Astonishment, to behold an Island in the Air inhabited by Men, who
} were able (as it should seem) to raise, or sink, or put it into a
} progressive Motion as they pleased.
Asimov annotates:
| From the satirical standpoint, the city in the sky, which we will
| later learn is called Laputa, is usually supposed to symbolize the
| court of Great Britain which, in terms of power and of social
| position, towered high above the rest of the kingdom.
| It also symbolizes the world of science which involves itself in
| abstract thought high above the conventional interests of ordinary
| human beings.
Chris also replied to Clyde's question, "Back in the days when this was written, Europe was the entire civilized world...and since regions where different languages are spoken are a lot more geographically confined there than over here, I think we tend to forget that a lot of Europeans pick up smatterings of other languages--especially back in those days, before technology made doing business with folks of other languages easier.
We must remember that satires are a product of their time, and are intended to point out foibles and foolishness to the people who lived
during the period in which they were written. People tend to forget this when the works of satire survive beyond their original context. . . Swift's original readers would not have _needed_ these annotations for explanation. They lived in the very times about which Swift was
writing; they would have understood every word.
To put it another way, what significance do you think "I didn't inhale" will have for people living two hundred and fifty years from now? _We_ understand the reference (to a certain American ex-President) precisely...but they would need a footnote.
Remember, this is the satirist who once proposed, as a solution to the problem of the rising number of welfare babies, raising them as a food crop (in his famous work, _A Modest Proposal_). If Swift included a thinly-veiled obscenity as a place name, he had a reason. . .
Page 149-150, Swift writes (pardon all the underscorage, it's the only way I could render the italics from the original text):
quasi Lap outed? Sounds like Latin to me.
Asimov annotates:
} The Word, which I interpret the _Flying_ or _Floating Island_, is in
} the Original _Laputa_; whereov I could never learn the true
} Etymology. _Lap_ in the old obsolete Language signifieth _High_,
} and _Untuh_ a _Governor_; from which they say by Corruption was
} derived _Laputa_ from _Lapuntuh_. But I do not approve of this
} Derivation, which seems to be a little strained. I ventured to
} offer to the Learned among them a Conjecture of my own, that Laputa
} was _quasi Lap outed_; _Lap_ signifying properly the dancing of the
} Sun Beams in the Sea; and _outed_ a Wing, which however I shall not
} obtrude, but submit to the judicious Reader.
| Gulliver's excursion here into mock etymology is designed by Swift
| to mock the false learning that so often marked the
| pseudointellectual (into which category Swift may, at his bitterest,
| have lumped scientists generally). It is a plain fact--of which
| many of his readers would be at once aware--that _la puta_ is
| Spanish for "the whore." That may well have been Swift's bitter
| opinion of the court of England with a Hanoverian on the throne and
| Whigs controlling Parliament. Then, too, it may be a reference to
| reason itself, the deity of the scientists. Martin Luther
| (1483-1546), exasperated when his opponents used reason to dispute
| some of the points which he had based on faith, wrathfully cried out
| against "that Great Whore, Reason."
After digesting this hunk of research, David Athay posted, "I think there are some points in Asimov's statements that have been overlooked. Specifically, in many of his statements he uses words like "probably" or "may". To me this indicates what I have felt all along: No one, save Swift himself, will ever know for certain what the exact derivation of Laputa was. We may infere many deferent meanings but that is all conjecture and we do not have proof.
Just as with any piece of art, we the people who indulge ourselves in the artist's works bring our own conjecture and meaning. Some of it
may have been intended by the artist, some of it not. Whether intended or not it is this that make art interesting and engaging and what keeps us furiously typing our responses and thoughts here in a space like this.
Chris replied, "*shrug* There may be no definitive proof, no Swift writings wherein he explains exactly what he was poking fun at...but those would have been redundant to the audience, who would have been perfectly primed to "get" it. But if we can look at it from that audience's point of view--as Asimov did--then we, too, can "get" it. . . Political satirists, such as Swift, base their satires on *actual events that happen*. If they didn't do that, then they wouldn't be writing a satire. Asimov recounts the actual events that happened; Swift's writings hew very similarly _to_ those events. One cannot simply pass off this resemblance as coincidental."
Some disagreement from Michael Wojcik, "I'll say up front that I'm agnostic on whether Swift intended "la puta" for "Laputa", merely dubious about the weight of evidence presented so far. . . Asimov was certainly prolific, but that in itself does not make him an authority. His qualifications as a science-fiction or science writer do not apply here, regardless of whether _GT_ (or the Laputa segment) is "true science fiction" (whatever that means) - the matter at hand is purely an issue of authorial intention. Asimov's historiographer credentials (did he do any actual historical research? I don't know of any offhand) suggest he has useful background knowledge on the topic, but don't automatically let him trump other commentators. . . while this and the other bits of Asimov's commentary Chris quotes are interesting, they don't bear on the question. We may accept that Laputa satirizes the British court, Age of Reason science, and so forth with no logical requirement to accept that the name is derived from a Spanish obscenity. The two are unconnected, except in the rather tenuous matters of style (satire may employ harsh language) and tone (the obscenity in question loosely fits what seems to be Swift's depiction of the target of satire)."
[About Chris' "Swift's original readers" comment] I think you give them too much credit. Few readers today of a given work (of any significant complexity) understand every word - fewer, or more likely none, understand every word precisely as the author intended. . . Ultimately, while Asimov makes interesting reading, his only contribution to this question is to declare that some of Swift's contemporary readers would have recognized "la puta" for "Laputa". (He doesn't even state that such was Swift's intention, though we can reasonable infer that, I think.) He presents no actual evidence on the matter, and makes no actual argument. In literature studies we like a bit more to settle matters of serious dispute.
Asimov, and the "Swift meant 'la puta'" camp with him, may well be correct; it doesn't seem unlikely to me. But it remains no more than conjecture at this point.
German Gomez agreeded with the disagreement, "If you wish to make a connection between Laputas government or their self destruction by misuse of technology and the prostituition implied by the name "Laputa" that is fine, but you'll have to make it more clear is you wish me to validate it.
Miyazaki's use of Swift's Laputa adds depth and meaning to his work. If the wrong meaning is assigned to his use of Laputa then his whole work is misread. My point is simply that the main reasons for using Laputa are being obscured by placing an emphasis on something that is trivial if not untrue.
Noel Vera wrote, "I believe it; Swift was a no-holds-barred writer; using the Spanish word for whore to name his representation of England's court is just the sort of thing he'd do. He's not one to avoid the cheap shot, the low joke, or the below-the-belt blow."
German remained unconvinced, "He is not one to obscure an attack on something or somebody. It is not consistent with the rest of Swift's work or even the naming conventions he used in the rest of the novel. It is not like like him to disguise a point by stating something in an indirect manner (by switching languages).
Also, there is no such thing as negative proof. I cannot prove my point. I can only request more proof from the opposing point of view. It is up to those who wish to prove something to come up with sufficient and irrevocable proof. I have agreed that Asimov raises interesting points, (and thank whoever brought them up), but I hardly think that Asimov (known for his logical and scientific mind) meant his comments and opinions to become a kind of proof. That goes against everything Isaac Asimov stood for.
Zurui Chibi jumped back in with, "Swift (at least in Gulliver) used language switching and puns mainly to make up (funny) alien languages (lilliputian, for instance). But there are exemples where he disguised the name of one of his enemies : e.g., Admiral Skyresh Bolgolam is considered by most of specialists to be a caricature of Marlborough, a influent political leader and personal enemy of Swift. So, this is an exemple of name disguise (okay, unlike Laputa, it's a pun but in the author's mother language).
To sum up the matter :
IMHO, it holds water fairly well, so let's go with it.
* We cannot prove for sure that Laputa is an *intented* pun.
* The pun is still there
* That this pun was wilful *seems*, according to authoritative
sources (not only I. Asimov), the most probable hypothesis.
Marc Hairston (who hosts a "Laputa" naming page) wrote, "In just 30 minutes I found four academic books about Swift or critical analysis of his works that refer to Swift's use of Laputa as meaning "the whore". They range from implying that it's possible to stating it's certain that he intentionally meant this. . . I talked about this several years ago with Dr. Pam Gossin here, my colleague with whom I teach the Nausicaa courses. Part of her graduate research was on Swift and when I asked if Swift meant the word as a pun in Spanish she said, "Oh yes, that's pretty much the accepted understanding among the Swift scholars I was reading."
So now we have several academic authoritative sources saying Swift meant Laputa to mean "the whore". Personally I consider the question
settled, though some may never believe this until someone holds a seance with Swift's ghost and puts the question to him there. ^_^
Lee Johnson added screenshots to his Studio Ghibli DVD page. Ben Rudiak-Gould announced the release of a new DVD subtitler for computer, DVDSynth. Wondering about the difference between "Nausicaa" and "Warriors of the Wind"? Robert Vincenz posted a comparison page (in German). Warren Savage explains aspect ratios.
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