Laputa is a fictional place from the book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. Laputa can have several meanings: Laputa is a fictional place from the book Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift. ... Map of the Land of Oz, the fictional country in the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Map of the fictional island of Sodor used in the Thomas the Tank Engine stories Fictitious countries used in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four A guidebook produced about the fictional country Molvanîa... First Edition of Gullivers Travels Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Vol. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish cleric, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapiers Letters, The Battle of the Books, and...

Laputa is a flying island or rock with an adamantine base, that can be maneuvered by its inhabitants in any direction using magnetic levitation. The population of the island mainly consists of educated people, who are fond of mathematics, astronomy, music and technology, but fail to make practical use of their knowledge (the rest are their servants). They had mastered magnetic levitation and discovered the two moons of Mars (something which would not be discovered in reality for another 150 years), but couldn't construct well-designed clothing or buildings - reason for this being that measurements are taken with instruments such as quadrants and a compass rather than with tapes. It is a male-dominated society; often, the wives of these men request to leave the island to visit the land below. However, these requests are almost never granted because the women never want to come back voluntarily. The flying island is an (as yet) fictitious landmass that flies above the surface of the earth (or in some cases throught the depths of space. ... Look up Adamant in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Levitating pyrolytic carbon Magnetic levitation, maglev, or magnetic suspension is a method by which an object is suspended above another object with no support other than magnetic fields. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, as imagined by by Raphael in this detail from The School of Athens. ... A giant Hubble mosaic of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant Astronomy is the science of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere (such as auroras and cosmic background radiation). ... For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ... By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the surface of the Earth for the first time and explore space. ... A natural satellite is an object that orbits a planet or other body larger than itself and which is not man-made. ... Adjectives: Martian Atmosphere Surface pressure: 0. ... Compass in a wooden box A compass (or mariners compass) is a navigational instrument for finding directions on the Earth. ...

The ground below the floating island, within the region it can travel, is also controlled by the king of Laputa. The king, being a tyrannic ruler, controls the mainland mostly by threatening to cover rebel regions with the island's shadow, thus preventing sunlight and rain. In extreme cases, the island is lowered on the cities below in order to crush them, although this has not been successful every time, notably in the case of Lindalino. The rebelling of Lindalino against Laputa is an allegory on Ireland's revolt against England, and England's (meaning: the Whig government's) violent foreign and internal politics (see Jonathan Swift for his political career). Lindalino is a fictional city from the book Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift. ... The Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid 19th centuries. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish cleric, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapiers Letters, The Battle of the Books, and...

As "la puta" means "the whore," (see Spanish profanity) some Spanish editions of "Gulliver's Travels" use "Lupata" as a euphemism. It's very likely, given Swift's way of satire, that he was well aware of the Spanish meaning (Gulliver himself claimed Spanish among the many languages in which he was fluent). Some find a parallel with Martin Luther's famous quote "That great whore, Reason", given Laputians' extreme fondness of reason. However, that Swift's intention was to mock the so-called "Age of Reason" is not without doubt, given the story-teller's great admiration of Houyhnhnms for their rational thinking. This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) was a German monk,[1] priest, professor, theologian, and church reformer. ... Houyhnhnms are a race of intelligent horses described in the last part of Jonathan Swifts satiric Gullivers Travels. ...

Influence on contemporary work

Laputa, as some of Swift's other inventions, was the inspiration and basis for several other works; this may be due to the universally appealing nature of the concept of a land floating in sky, or the popular stereotyping of intellectuals as an otherworldly culture.

Works based on Laputa include:

• In the September 16, 1916 issue of Illustrated London News, G. K. Chesterton compared the Zeppelin dirigibles then bombing London with "the flying island of Laputa."
• The fictional internet state Free Republic of Laputa claims to be the legal successor of Swift's Laputa.
• Laputa: Castle in the Sky, an anime by Hayao Miyazaki which features a floating city with the same name.
• The "Laputa Missile Complex", the target of the bomb crew in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
• A model of Mazda sedan car, apparently so-named because of its off-road driving performance.
• Also in the computer game UFO:Aftershock, Laputa is the mothership which is at the size of a small city, in orbit of Earth.
• In the computer game Deus Ex, the phrase "Laputan machine" is a "killphrase" that can be used against cybernetically enhanced agent Gunther Hermann.

The Illustrated London News was a magazine founded by Herbert Ingram and his friend Mark Lemon, the editor of Punch magazine. ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (May 29, 1874–June 14, 1936) was an influential English writer of the early 20th century. ... This is an article about Zeppelin airships. ... Castle in the Sky, known in Japan as Laputa: The Castle in the Sky (天空の城ラピュタ; Tenku no shiro Rapyuta) is a 1986 animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. ... The main cast of the anime Cowboy Bebop (1998) (L to R: Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Ed Tivrusky, Faye Valentine, and Ein the dog) For the oleo-resin, see Animé (oleo-resin). ... Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿 Miyazaki Hayao) (born January 5, 1941) is one of the most famous and respected creators of Anime, or Japanese animated films. ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an influential and acclaimed American film director and producer. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For the hit 1987 single by Depeche Mode, see the album Music for the Masses Film poster for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a 1964 satirical film directed by Stanley Kubrick. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... A Toyota Camry, a recognizable sedan The Ford Five Hundred, a full-sized sedan The 3-box design, indicative of a notchback sedan, as illustrated on a full-size luxury sedan. ... This article is about the video game. ... Deus Ex is a futuristic cyberpunk computer game released in 2000 by Ion Storm. ...

External links

• Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift at Project Gutenberg
• The Free Republic of Laputa