有資源的人為什麼不多做一點事？ -- 天空之城拉普達

Gulliver's Travels  格列佛遊記

過去多年來，大家都誤解「格列佛遊記」了。其實這本書不是一本「遊記」，而是一本諷刺小說，英國版的「老殘遊記」。作者Jonathan Swift透過描述故事裡沈迷空想的「拉普達」居民，諷刺當時英國社會的知識份子，指責他們住在象牙塔裡，輕忽真正重要的社會議題。宮崎駿動畫《天空之城》中的神秘飛行島嶼，就以拉普達(Laputa)命名。

作者：Jonathan Swift
閱讀時間：8 min 

前情提要

格列佛來到了天空之城拉普達，發現這裡的人很沈迷於數學跟音樂，甚至邊走邊想到摔下懸崖。為了避免憾事發生，因此衍生了「拍擊人」這項職業，跟在「主人」身邊時時提醒。

At my alighting, I was surrounded with a crowd of people, but those who stood nearest seemed to be of better quality. They beheld me with all the marks and circumstances of wonder; neither indeed was I much in their debt, having never till then seen a race of mortals so singular in their shapes, habits, and countenances.

Their heads were all reclined, either to the right, or the left; one of their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the zenith. Their outward garments were adorned with the figures of suns, moons, and stars; interwoven with those of fiddles, flutes, harps, trumpets, guitars, harpsichords, and many other instruments of music, unknown to us in Europe.

I observed, here and there, many in the habit of servants, with a blown bladder, fastened like a flail to the end of a stick, which they carried in their hands. In each bladder was a small quantity of dried peas, or little pebbles, as I was afterwards informed.

With these bladders, they now and then flapped the mouths and ears of those who stood near them, of which practice I could not then conceive the meaning. It seems the minds of these people are so taken up with intense speculations, that they neither can speak, nor attend to the discourses of others, without being roused by some external taction upon the organs of speech and hearing; for which reason, those persons who are able to afford it always keep a flapper in their family, as one of their domestics; nor ever walk abroad, or make visits, without him.

And the business of this officer is, when two, three, or more persons are in company, gently to strike with his bladder the mouth of him who is to speak, and the right ear of him or them to whom the speaker addresses himself.

This flapper is likewise employed diligently to attend his master in his walks, and upon occasion to give him a soft flap on his eyes; because he is always so wrapped up in cogitation, that he is in manifest danger of falling down every precipice, and bouncing his head against every post; and in the streets, of justling others, or being justled himself into the kennel.

It was necessary to give the reader this information, without which he would be at the same loss with me to understand the proceedings of these people, as they conducted me up the stairs to the top of the island, and from thence to the royal palace.

While we were ascending, they forgot several times what they were about, and left me to myself, till their memories were again roused by their flappers; for they appeared altogether unmoved by the sight of my foreign habit and countenance, and by the shouts of the vulgar, whose thoughts and minds were more disengaged.

故事後的故事

除了宮崎駿動畫，著名的Yahoo搜尋引擎也是借鏡了《格列佛遊記》，Yahoo創辦人楊致遠曾表示，自己因為很喜歡小說中「智馬國」(Houyhnhnms)章節，所以借用了一種名為yahoo的野馬種類，替自己的公司取名，嘲諷自己當初「不務正業、整天上網」如粗魯野馬一般，感覺很沒水準，卻沒想到開啟了網路蓬勃的時代。

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本文收錄於英語島English Island 2019年10月號
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