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Brian's Reviews > A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal
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Last night my daughter asked me to watch what passes for comedy to pre-teens on Nickelodeon; a show low on laughs but high on laugh track. It's Halloween week and of course the thematic drum of cheap scares and slutty costumes (those of you dads that have 11 year old girls know what it is like to take a knee at the end of the show to have a side-bar chat about this topic alone) plays large when midway through the episode a six year old girl dressed like a failing barrister circa 1735 comes firing on stage screaming at her parents because they got her a Jonathan Swift costume instead of the requested Taylor Swift. This is where I wanted to pause live TV to tell my daughter about the original Swift, about A Modest Proposal - how our current American culture screams for someone like him to write about our never-ending race problem, our soul sucking capitalism-at-any-cost, our failed PAC-fueled political system. But my daughter is 11, I am 45, it's late on Saturday night and I don't have it in me. I watch the Jonathan Swift girl rant and rave and I drool thinking about delicious Irish babies in a white wine sauce.
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Finished Reading
May 20, 2012
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Fionnuala
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Oct 26, 2015 01:14AM
Love the parallel!
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Fionnuala wrote: "Love the parallel!"=)
Now I want to be Jonathan Swift for Halloween. I could carry my baby niece around in a roasting pan...
Miriam wrote: "Now I want to be Jonathan Swift for Halloween. I could carry my baby niece around in a roasting pan..."Hah! This would be awesome!
No one I know would get it :(
A friend of mine made her own Slyvia Plath/oven costume out of cardboard and paint and makeup
I'm not that ambitious. Or that crafty. Do you have lofty costume plans this year?
Here's me taking my costume out for a test run a couple of weeks ago:
I've always secretly wanted to go as Hester Prynne but never put any work in discovering my own secrets far enough in advance to pull it off. No plans for this year :(/thread-hijack
I dig the Chewie costume, Brian.
Brian wrote: "Here's me taking my costume out for a test run a couple of weeks ago:"
Nice! Was your dog disturbed?
Rand wrote: "I've always secretly wanted to go as Hester Prynne but never put any work in discovering my own secrets far enough in advance to pull it off."
You don't really need introspection, just guilt.
Miriam wrote: "Nice! Was your dog disturbed?"I had to borrow our neighbor's dog and she was surprisingly easy-going.
I thought of this recently while reading a current satire, T. Geronimo Johnson's, Welcome to Braggsville. This is an equal opportunity send up of so many aspects of American society and I recommend it.
Brian wrote: "Miriam wrote: "Nice! Was your dog disturbed?"I had to borrow our neighbor's dog and she was surprisingly easy-going."
Ha! I thought she looked a trifle uneasy but maybe it was just being walked by a new person.
(with children as hot dogs) was in today's Wall Street Journal. Apparently the same idea is also floating around on Pinterest. No Swiftian references in either one . . .
Rand wrote: "This image of a family as hot dog vendors (with children as hot dogs)."Delicious - I love how they got the dog into the action
My friends were monkeys with their child as a banana.
Great thoughts. It's funny how watching Nickelodeon leads to a internal mini-rant about "our current American culture". I can relate to the rant, not to Nickelodeon, LOL, but it is refreshing to see the connection.
Letti wrote: "Great thoughts. It's funny how watching Nickelodeon leads to a internal mini-rant about "our current American culture". I can relate to the rant, not to Nickelodeon, LOL, but it is refreshing to se..."Thanks Letti
What Lizzy said. Best. Review. Ever.
In Today's world.... It would be A Doggies' Dish.
We are... Merely The Smartest Monkees...oops!
I'd never mead the connection between Taylor Swift and Jonathon's modest proposal. And now I can't get the idea out of my head! Mind you, the essay itself is deservedly memorable.Brian wrote: "Here's me taking my costume out for a test run a couple of weeks ago:
"
Very good!
This book didn't support any Political Party directly. There are some Countries that take their Capitalist ideologies too far, but with a Representative Democracy complimenting Capitalism, you can be assured that Representatives in office can and will prevent Unethical practices, that of which is shown in a satirical way in this book.
Your comment made me chuckle at the end. Lord have mercy.😂
Thanks for telling us about your fascinating home life. Any thoughts on the book?
would love an update regarding if you ever told her!
