Laputa and its Satire: From Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels to Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky

Abstract

This research project aims to shed light on Jonathan Swift's satire present in the third part of Gulliver's Travels (1726). The paper examines current discourse regarding whether Swift sought to satirize absolute sovereignty or the Royal Society and evaluates these claims using textual evidence and two Royal Society pamphlets. In doing so, this project argues that the Royal Society's corruption demonstrates the dangers of absolute sovereignty that can impose faulty innovations upon the populace. The paper also compares the novel to Hayao Miyazaki's film, Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1989), to demonstrate how it effectively embodies and adapts Swift's warnings for the present day.