Luimnigh pointed out to me that Atlas as flying island matches part three of Guliver’s Travels

He did a whole Tumblr post on it here. There is a LOT to take away from his essay, especially with how Fanus discrimination lines up with British discrimination against the Irish, but since I don’t want to discourage you from reading it I will just post one excerpt the essay comparing RWBY to Gulliver’s Travels:

You’ve heard of Gulliver’s Travels, right? It’s that kids story with the guy who washes up on the island full of little people.

Yeah, most of what you know about Gulliver’s Travels is wrong. It was written by Jonathan Swift, the pre-eminent satirist of the day, and it’s work of satire. It’s supposed to be a crude parody of Robinson Crusoe, with subject matter not meant for the eyes of children. The version you see as a child is heavily sanitized, and usually has most of the story cut.

See, Gulliver ends up in four different lands. First, Lilliput, where he is big and important. Lilliput obsesses over trivial matters, and when Gulliver is sent on a war mission for Lilliput, he completes it but not to their satisfaction. Ultimately, while doing something he believes is helping (putting out a blaze in the Queen’s Palace), he commits a faux pas (he did it with piss) and ends up having to leave Lilliput.

Yes, I am drawing parallels with the Beacon Arc.

Then, Gulliver ends up in Brobdingnag, the land of giants. This is usually the furthest the adaptations ever go. In Brobdingnag, he’s small and unimportant, but still a curiosity that people want to possess and objectify. Unlike in Lilliput, he lacks agency, despite meeting with the leader of Brobdingnag himself. He’s even kept in a house for the majority of his time there, only taken out when wanted.

Yeah. This is starting to sound a little familiar.

On his third voyage, he ends up in Laputa. Laputa is a flying city full of upper-class scientists. It takes the resources of the land below, Balnibarbi, and if they ever seek to rebel, they use their air superiority to violently crush the rebellion (usually by throwing rocks down, occasionally by landing the city on the offending rebels). The men of Balnibarbi are obsessed with science, but not to any useful pursuits, attempting things like extracting sunlight from cucumbers. They’re so self-absorbed they literally cannot see things going on right in front of them, including the affairs of their neglected wives.

So yeah there’s a LOT to take away from his essay. The biggest? That them being stuck in the House might have been by DESIGN, and not by flaw. :joy:

But all kidding aside, you should check the rest of Luim’s essay out. And even if you don’t, I hope that knowing about these parallels between RWBY, Atlas, and Guliver’s Travels will inspire you to seek out more.

#curatorreview