GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
by JONATHAN SWIFT
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The short answer is that I was looking for an interesting, extended Web project and resurrected an old interest in Gulliver's Travels.
The longer version is that this represents a convergence of several interests of mine.
- I've been designing and creating WWW pages for more than three years, most being lists of sources created by others. I wanted to expand my own skills as a WWW designer and create something substantial.
- As a librarian, I'm interested in what the new technologies can do in terms of delivering information in new ways.
- In the course of my work I've seen some WWW sites that are very impressive from both the creative and substantive standpoint and these inspired me to think about doing something equally ambitious.
- As a one-time literature major I have some experience doing textual research and analysis. My focus was Irish literature and I'd done one major paper on Gulliver's Travels.
- A personal interest in pottery lead to interest in Japan which lead to reading and collecting books by Westerners visiting Japan. I am interested in what travelers see (and don't see) when then visit a new place. Gulliver is a prototypical traveler and he visits Japan.
Somehow, this all came together in this project. Checking around, I discovered that there was no WWW version* of the Travels. There were several text versions of the book online, though of dubious quality and authority, and plenty of other online resources to support this project. And, thus, it began.
p.s. Since starting this project, other Web versions of the text and source guides for Travels have come online. While I don't see the point of duplication (especially in one case where they have simply downloaded an older version of my text), neither do I see any problem in having multiple versions available. So far, I believe this site still provides the best edition (from the scholarly point of view) of Gulliver and the most extensive collection of source material available online.
About the project || Gulliver homepage
Created: 18 April 1998
Comments to Lee Jaffe jaffe@scruznet.com