Yet another Lanyon photo

I was in class from 10-5 today discussing the political and economic context of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. I really enjoyed this because it brings together my interests in how the world actually works and what a talented artist can do with that information to pave the way for change.

Anyway, it was dark when I left class and there was a full moon, so I had to take a shot:

For anyone wracking their brain to remember Swift's proposal, it was that Ireland's aristocracy eat the babies of its poor to address the famine (in the 1720s the famines were precursors of the 1800s). What it was REALLY about, I learned, was how the Irish were taxed (both in the rents they paid on land stolen from them and in traditonal taxes) to repay a debt to the Anglo Irish, who contributed to a fund to protect Ireland from invasion by Catholic France or Spain. So cannibalism wasn't so far from the truth.

It was also about the ways in which the Anglo Irish were sick and tired of being subservient to the English parliament, which constantly needed money to feed its imperial ambitions. In the U.S., we tossed tea in the harbor. When you were right next door to England, getting out from under the boot took a lot longer.
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