![Laputa - Grandville](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Laputa_-_Grandville.jpg)
Laputa
uh·poo·tuhis a
flying island described in the 1726 book ''
Gulliver's Travels
''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...
'' by
Jonathan Swift. It is about in diameter, with an
adamantine base, which its inhabitants can manoeuvre in any direction using
magnetic levitation. The island is the home of the king of
Balnibarbi
Balnibarbi is a fictional land in Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel ''Gulliver's Travels''. it was visited by Lemuel Gulliver after he was rescued by the people of the flying island of Laputa.
Location
The location of Balnibarbi is illustra ...
and his court, and is used by the king to enforce his rule over the lands below.
Location
Laputa was located above the realm of
Balnibarbi
Balnibarbi is a fictional land in Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel ''Gulliver's Travels''. it was visited by Lemuel Gulliver after he was rescued by the people of the flying island of Laputa.
Location
The location of Balnibarbi is illustra ...
, which was ruled by its king from the flying island. Gulliver states the island flew by the “magnetic virtue” of certain minerals in the grounds of Balnibarbi which did not extend to more than above, and beyond the extent of the kingdom, showing the limit of its range. The position of the island, and the realm below, is some five days' journey south-south-east of Gulliver's last known position, 46° N, 183° E (i.e. east of
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, south of the
Aleutian Islands) down a chain of small rocky islands.
Description
The island of Laputa is described as being exactly circular and about in diameter, giving an area of roughly . The island was thick, and comprised a bottom plate of
adamant thick, above which lay "the several minerals in their usual order", topped with "a coat of rich mould deep".
In shape the upper surface sloped down from circumference to centre, causing all rain to form rivulets into the centre where four large basins in circuit lie from the absolute centre. In the centre of the island itself was a chasm 50 yards in diameter continuing down into a dome extending into the adamantine surface. This dome served as an
astronomical observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...
, and also contained the
lodestone which enabled the island to fly and move above the realm.
Inhabitants
![Willmann, Colin, & Outhwaite, the Queen of Laputa, cph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Willmann%2C_Colin%2C_%26_Outhwaite%2C_the_Queen_of_Laputa%2C_cph.3b18906.jpg)
Laputa's population consists mainly of an educated elite, who are fond of mathematics,
astronomy, music and technology, but fail to make practical use of their knowledge. Servants make up the rest of the population.
The Laputans have mastered magnetic levitation. They also are very fond of astronomy, and discovered two moons of Mars. (This is 151 years earlier than the
recognized discovery of the two moons of Mars by
Asaph Hall in 1877.) However, they are unable to construct well-designed clothing or buildings, as they despise practical geometry as "vulgar and mechanick". The houses are ill-built, lacking any right angles, and the clothes of Laputans, which are decorated with astrological symbols and musical figures, do not fit, as they take measurements with instruments such as
quadrants and a
compass rather than with
tape measures. They spend their time listening to the music of the spheres. They believe in astrology and worry constantly that the sun will go out.
Many of them have heads angled to one side, and they often suffer from
strabismus: one eye turns inward and the other looks up "to the zenith", conditions that Swift uses to mock the microscope and the telescope. Laputans are described as becoming so lost in thought that they cannot focus their attention on a conversation or avoid running into a tree or falling into a ditch unless periodically struck by a bladder full of pebbles or dry peas carried by one or two "flappers" or, in their native language, "climenoles", hired for the purpose.
Laputa is a male-dominated society. Wives often request to leave the island to visit the land below; however, these requests are almost never granted because the women who leave Laputa never want to return.
The Laputan women are highly sexed (having "an abundance of vivacity") and adulterous, and, whenever possible, take on lovers out of visitors from the lands below. The Laputan husbands, who are so abstracted in mathematical and musical calculations, might assume their wives are adulterous, but so long as they have no flapper around, they won't notice the adultery even should it occur right before their eyes.
Nearby lands
The land beneath the floating island, within the region the Laputa can travel, is known as Balnibarbi. Balnibarbi is controlled by the king of Laputa; its ground capital is the city of
Lagado
Lagado is a fictional city from the 1726 satirical novel ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift.
Location
Lagado is the capital of the nation Balnibarbi, which is ruled by a tyrannical king from a flying island called Laputa. Lagado is on the g ...
.
Laputa's king is able to control the mainland mostly by threatening to cover rebel regions with the island's shadow, thus blocking sunlight and rain, or by throwing rocks at rebellious surface cities. In extreme cases, the island is lowered onto the cities below to crush them, although this is not successful every time, notably in the case of
Lindalino
Lindalino is a fictional city from the 1726 satirical novel ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift. Lindalino successfully revolted against the flying island of Laputa. The name Lindalino is a play on words of Dublin.
Laputa had several methods ...
.
The Balnibarbian language, spoken on both Laputa and Balnibarbi, is described by Gulliver as sounding similar to
Italian.
Symbolism
Lindalino's rebellion against Laputa is an
allegory
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
of Ireland's revolt against Great Britain, and Great Britain's (meaning the
Whig government's) violent foreign and internal politics (see
Jonathan Swift for his political career). The Laputans' absurd inventions mock the
Royal Society.
As "la puta" means "the whore" in
Spanish, some Spanish editions of "Gulliver's Travels" use "Lapuntu", "Laput", "Lapuda" and "Lupata" as
bowdlerisation
Expurgation, also known as bowdlerization, is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media.
The term ''bowdlerization'' is a pejorative term for the practi ...
s. It is likely, given Swift's education and satirical style, that he was aware of the Spanish meaning. (Gulliver claimed Spanish among the many languages in which he was fluent.)
Legacy
On
Mars's largest
moon,
Phobos, there is a feature named
regio, ''Laputa Regio'', which is named after Swift's Laputa because of his
'prediction' of the two then undiscovered Martian moons, which his Laputan astronomers had discovered.
Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
USGS Astrogeology Research Program, Phobos
The 1986 Japanese animated fantasy film, '' Laputa: Castle in the Sky'', directed by Hayao Miyazaki, derives its name and basic premise from Swift's novel.
Explanatory notes
Citations
General sources
*
* First published 1726.
External links
''Gulliver's Travels'', by Jonathan Swift
at Project Gutenberg
{{Gulliver's Travels
Fictional elements introduced in 1726
Fictional Asian countries
Fictional city-states
Fictional islands
Gulliver's Travels locations
Magnetic levitation
Fictional aircraft
Fictional floating islands