The Laputans can be effectively characterized as a group of absentminded intellectuals who live on the floating island of Laputa. Gulliver encounters these people in his third voyage. The Laputans are parodies of theoreticians, who have scant regard for any practical results of their own research, they are so absorbed in their own thoughts that they must be shaken out of their meditations by flappers. These servants walk around with Laputans all day, holding special rattle-like equipment in their hands, which they rattle at the person's ear when two Laputans wish to converse. During Gu…
