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How are the inhabitants of Laputa described in Gulliver’s Travels?

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Illustration of Lemuel Gulliver lying on the ground, tied down by tiny Lilliputians, with crowds and small buildings in the background, from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. — Gulliver’s Travels Lemuel Gulliver in Lilliput, illustration from an edition of Jonathan Swift's *Gulliver's Travels*.

In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, the inhabitants of the flying island of Laputa are depicted as being intensely preoccupied with mathematics and music.12

Physically, they are described as having one eye pointed inward and the other directed upward. Because they are constantly lost in deep thought or visionary projects, they are often detached from reality and require "flappers"—attendants who must remind them to pay attention to the world around them and to the people they are speaking with.23

While the Laputans are highly intellectual, their pursuits are characterized by a lack of practical application. Swift uses these inhabitants to satirize pedants and intellectuals who are so consumed by abstract, impractical theories that they neglect common sense, decency, and the basic needs of society.2