FIGURE 2.

Taxonomy of the Gulliver theme. (A) The self keeps its regular size, only the rest of the environment is size-altered (e.g., Micromégas, Gulliver’s Travels); (B) The self keeps its regular size, only selected “characters” alter their size (usually insects or spiders, but also humans, e.g., in The Food of the Gods); (C) Another scale is observed from a distance (e.g., via a super microscope in The Diamond Lens and The Girl in the Golden Atom); (D) Both the body and the environment are suddenly size-altered (e.g., Alice in Wonderland); (E) Another scale (the subatomic world, the human body⁵, an anthill) is visited through sudden or almost immediate self-scaling alteration, either through some device or involuntarily (e.g., The Girl in the Golden Atom, L’Homme-fourmi, Fantastic Voyage); (F) The bodily size-alteration is progressively and insidiously experienced (e.g., The Shrinking Man, L’Arborescence).