At the Grand Academy of Lagado on the flying island of Laputa, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver encounters strange and fanciful creatures: the scientists. He observes their attempts to extract sunbeams from cucumbers, weave coloured spider webs by feeding the spiders differently coloured flies, and other absurd projects. One ardent researcher is working on “an...
Read MoreGuilty as charged.
Author copies of the Brazilian edition of SW – “Pequenas maravilhas” – arrived this morning at my doorstep. A very nice way of starting one’s day; I recommend it heartily. I had a peek inside, as you do – though what you expect to achieve by that is a mystery. The first and only thing that caught my eye is the...
Read Moreist beste populärwissenschaftliche Lektüre.
The German translation of SW, titled Kleine Wunderwerke, translated by Sebastian Vogel, is out. I received a few copies of it by mail the other day. One goes straight to the “vanity shelf”, of course, but what should I do with the rest of them? It’s a nice little format, with an attractive cover, and they’ve even added an index,...
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