We have 
holiday in Bavaria today. For me that’s a good occasion to re-read John Tufail’s “Illuminated Snark” (2004).
http://contrariwise.info/articles/illuminatedsnark.pdf (archive)
2020-06-11
blog
Snark Radio Play
Sadly, it’s not online anymore.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06sbrxh/clips (2020-01-02):
Tony Robinson narrates this fresh adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic masterpiece following a strange assortment of characters on their quest for an elusive beast.
Led by a bell-ringing Captain, this motley crew must brave terrifying danger in their chaotic pursuit of a creature known as Snark. Accompanied by specially composed music and songs, this surreal tale questions whether anything is really what it seems. …
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2015.
Streaming: 2020-01-02 – 2020-01-31
Credits:
– Narrator: Tony Robinson
– Bellman: Eric Potts
– Baker: Paul Barnhill
– Butcher: Everal A Walsh
– Barrister: Jonathan Keeble
– Snark (in the Barrister’s dream): Jonathan Keeble
– Beaver: Stephen Hoyle
– Music and songs (composer): Katie Chatburn
– Music (performers):
– Katie Chatburn
– Dorry Macaulay
– Kathryn Williams
– Stephen Cordiner
– Jasper Wilkinson
– Director: Charlotte Riches
– Author: Lewis Carroll
2020-01-02, update: 2020-05-15
Gags and Serious Stuff
This is worth a follow: a twitter account that offers astonishing insights into Henry Holliday’s illustrations for The Hunting of the Snark. Turns out there are dozens of visual gags in them, detectable only by the enlightened! https://t.co/UIpgTujDvs
— UofG Fantasy (@UofGFantasy) April 13, 2020
Thank you. Gags, yes. But also serious stuff. Henry Holiday thought «L.C. forgot that “the Snark” is a tragedy» (https://t.co/RaClCCPoij). I don't know whether Carroll knew about the hint (https://t.co/kV1kqhERrD) to Thomas Cranmer's burning in Holiday's illustration to fit#8. pic.twitter.com/sHOfL8y3oz
— Snark Sesquicentennial (@Snark150) April 13, 2020
jub jub jub jub jub jub jub jub jub …
Lorenzo and Isabella
Bycatch from my Snark hunt:
The, well, ambiguity of that “shadow”is known. Also there were some Freudian assumptions regarding what the salt could stand for. But so far I didn’t find any remarks on the impossibility of having a shadow being covered by white salt which isn’t covered by that shadow. To someone who learned physics that is a quite obvious question.
2017-12-17, update: 2020-04-11
Seven Coats
021 There was one who was famed for the number of things
022 He forgot when he entered the ship:
023 His umbrella, his watch, all his jewels and rings,
024 And the clothes he had bought for the trip.
025 He had forty-two boxes, all carefully packed,
026 With his name painted clearly on each:
027 But, since he omitted to mention the fact,
028 They were all left behind on the beach.
029 The loss of his clothes hardly mattered, because
030 He had seven coats on when he came,
031 With three pairs of boots–but the worst of it was,
032 He had wholly forgotten his name.
2018-06-13, update: 2020-03-20
Mindprinting the Snark
In the page related to this blog post, I quoted a large part of the article Henry Holiday’s Hunting of the Snark art has subconscious order (2019-10-17) by Edmond Furter, where he applies his Mindprint concept.
I don’t understand the Mindprint concept yet and I don’t know whether I agree to Further’s views, probably because I still didn’t dig into his writings. But I added some hyperlinks into the quoted article. They lead you to entries in my blog snrk.de to which Furter might have referred when he wrote his article. Those links weren’t in the original article.
Details are Important
Untangling the Knot
Untangling the Knot
An Analysis of Lewis Carroll’sThe Hunting of the Snark
by Sandra Mann, 2018
[…] The Hunting of the Snark is an allegory for the journey of life which Carroll crafted very carefully to include “difficulties” which he believed had come about because of human error. Life as a journey by boat had long been a favorite metaphor of Carroll’s. In this case the tale would not be of a sweet row on a placid river, but one of a voyage filled with fear and bewilderment and dread. And the moral, that despite our bewilderment, we would all be saved through God’s love and compassion in the end. […]
(Sandra Mann and Mary Hammond are pen names of Mary Hibbs.)
Failure?
https://bookbarnbbi.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/pick-of-the-darwin-room/:
[…] When [The Hunting of the Snark] was published in 1876 it was illustrated by Henry Holiday who, though a very talented artist, failed to capture the surreal nature of Carroll’s poem. The illustrations for this edition however, provided by Gormenghast author Mervyn Peake, are the perfect accompaniment. Peake’s drawings have an uneasy bubbling quality, blending with the silly and macabre feel of the words […]
Nothing against Mervyn Peake’s illustrations, but already this illustration (even without the yellow lines and dots which I added) might contain more elements of “surreal nature” than what you find in Mervyn Peake’s illustrations. I like those playful weeds (or animals?) in the lower left corner of Holiday’s illustration.
That’s not the only thing which that corner has to offer.
Another popular path (not) to understand The Hunting of the Snark has been stated more than three times: Some call Carroll’s poem “nonsense”. It isn’t.
Anyway, I don’t think that Holiday failed to convey to us graphically what Carroll meant. The price for his achievement perhaps was that Holiday’s illustrations are less eye pleasing than illustrations like Peake’s.
Holiday’s illustrations are as grotesque as Carroll’s poem.
2018-02-16, updated: 2020-02-01
Constructing Carroll
“Edward VI and the Pope” on Twitter
EDWARD VI 1537-1553 was the long-awaited heir of King Henry VIII, the object of his father’s life long policy, to secure the Tudor dynasty.
His religious education was in the hands of Thomas Cranmer.
One result was Edward’s complete & thorough conversion to Protestant Reform. pic.twitter.com/z3NAidGbpq
— SPIRITUAL LIVES (@ken_kalis) December 21, 2019
2019-12-21
Thomas Cranmer, compiler of the first Book of Common Prayer, was burned at the stake #OnThisDay 1556 https://t.co/TnjHqhQEf0
— In Our Time (@BBCInOurTime) March 21, 2019
01
The Revd. C.L. Dodgson under his pen name "Lewis Carroll" wrote "The Hunting of the Snark". It also is about Thomas Cranmer. The illustrator Henry Holiday gave us quite clear hints: https://t.co/nSx3ValV65
cc: @monarchomach
— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) March 23, 2019
02
About references from "The Hunting of the Snark" to Thomas Cranmer:
※ Angus MacIntyre (1994),
※ Goetz Kluge (2015 https://t.co/zMvRzqMjvO, 2018 https://t.co/BFTGACMfFA, @Bonnetmaker)
※ Mary Hammond (2017, @Hg4words)
※ Karen Gardiner (2018, @KarenGardiner19) pic.twitter.com/eAaCXDhmt0— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) March 17, 2019
03 (comment to 02)
"Edward VI and the Pope: An Allegory of the Reformation." (NPG London)
In this 16th century anti-papal propaganda painting Henry VIII is on the left side. Thomas Cranmer is 2nd from left in the upper row on the right side.
More: https://t.co/h24cchf4YTpic.twitter.com/Dsn8MEdj9u
— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) March 23, 2019
04
In one of his illustrations (https://t.co/4vu78zj7Jr) to Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark", Henry Holiday alluded to the painting "Edward VI and the Pope".
More: https://t.co/hcIThF1al1 pic.twitter.com/INhRxoDly9
— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) March 23, 2019
05
I think that also in another illustration (https://t.co/8RYeUCHtTn) to "The Hunting of the Snark" with a depiction of the Baker's 42 boxes (Cranmer's 42 Articles?), Holiday alluded to the depiction of iconoclasm in "Edward and the Pope".
More: https://t.co/eTIRJW9Moa pic.twitter.com/hTJnmslkvC
— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) March 23, 2019
06
Margaret Aston wrote a wonderful book on the painting too. The King and the bedpost
— Justin Champion (@monarchomach) March 23, 2019
07
I read that book. It's a marvel. I tried to contact Margaret Aston, but I was too late. https://t.co/3FJuRjYPlZ pic.twitter.com/pMiuRgXMPv
— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) March 23, 2019
08
— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) March 23, 2019
09
And the Bedpost ended up in "The Hunting of the Snark" as well. I think that Henry Holiday alluded not only to the "Edward VI and the Pope" painting but also to the painting to which "Edward VI and the Pope" alluded.
There perhaps is an chain of allusions. https://t.co/f7SReLHeXJ pic.twitter.com/fz0esGdShS— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) March 23, 2019
10
Correction: … the print to which "Edward VI and the Pope" alluded …
— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) March 24, 2019
11
https://t.co/f7SReLHeXJ pic.twitter.com/nS2SlS86Dc
— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) March 23, 2019
12 (2019-03-23)
The Tax Collector
Hunting Happiness
As to the meaning of the Snark, I’m very much afraid I didn’t mean anything but nonsense. Still, you know, words mean more than we mean to express when we use them; so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer means. So, whatever good meanings are in the book, I’m glad to accept as the meaning of the book. The best that I’ve seen is by a lady (she published it in a letter to a newspaper), that the whole book is an allegory on the search after happiness.
Lewis Carroll (on The Hunting of the Snark)
What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them.
Arthur Schopenhauer
(Günther Flemming made me aware of this quote in a comment to his translation of The Hunting of the Snark, p. 156, ISBN 978-3-8442-6493-7)
Dernière sortie pour wonderland
À propos du Dernière sortie pour wonderland par Ghislain Gilberti :
Paroles d’un mégalomane: « C’est sans concession que Dernière Sortie pour Wonderland referme pour toujours la porte du Pays des Merveilles et met un point final à la pudibonderie hypocrite que même Tim Burton n’a pas pu briser avec ses dernières adaptations cinématographiques. » Hypocrite ? Ne pourrait-il pas être simplement que Burton ne considère pas les preuves existantes suffisantes pour des jugements moraux ?
Le roman est présenté comme une analyse révélant le « vrai visage » de Carroll. Le sujet nécessite une recherche minutieuse, vérifiable et discutable (sur la base de preuves) et une présentation scientifiquement propre. Mais ce livre a reçu la forme du roman « ré-écrit ». Il s’agit d’une tentative d’échapper aux critiques.
Blog Tea Time in Bloomsbury (2017-10-20) :
[…] Bon, maintenant que vous et moi avons une vision plus honnête de ce pavé de 500 pages, est-ce que ça vaut le coup de le lire ?
Oui, parce que c’est une adaptation fascinante et bien écrite. Vous ne vous rendrez pas compte que vous lisez un pavé (sauf au poids). Vous rentrerez dans un monde plein de couleurs (même si parfois, il y a un peu trop d’hémoglobine, un peu comme dans une série B ou un Tarantino), un univers connu qui continue à alimenter votre curiosité. Néanmoins, plus vous avancerez dans le livre et moins vous aurez envie de lire les passages dits parasites. Ces passages sont des traversées dans le temps pour une Alice adulte du futur qui voit des scènes de vie glauques/puantes de Lewis Carroll imaginée par l’auteur. Plus vous avancerez et plus ces passages deviennent puants, borderline de la fiction érotique pour pédophile.
[…]
Non […]
Dernière Sortie pour Wonderland fait croire aux lecteurs qui ne comprennent pas les exigences d’une analyse qu’ils comprennent Carroll après avoir lu le livre. Que Gilberti, de l’avis de ses admirateurs, est un excellent écrivain ne fait qu’empirer les choses. Cependant, ce que le roman réalise, c’est qu’il rend les fantasmes de l’auteur plus clairs que les fantasmes de Carroll. Gilberti est un maître de l’écriture de fiction : Il pourrait également réécrire les instructions d’utilisation d’une machine à laver comme un roman adapté fascinant sur les appareils électroménagers pervers.
(1) Pages 463~485 : Une sélection (par Séverine Clément, auteur de matériel) de plus de 80 photos en noir et blanc sans spécification suffisamment précise des sources. Au moins pour une photo (en haut à gauche à la page 485) ne fait pas partie de la collection de Carroll. Les commentaires de Clément en disent plus sur sa propre imagination que sur les intentions de Dodgson/Carroll.
(2) Qui est Norah Spencer (ou Nora Spencer, CBS) ? J’ai posé cette question à Gilbert sur Facebook. Mais après cela, il a supprimé cet article Facebook.
(4) Babelio
There seems to be more “imaginative” fiction: the “novel” O fotógrafo e a rapariga by Mario Cláudio, 2015
2019-12-09, update: 2019-12-29
The Snark, Fermat’s last Theorem, the Sphinx or the Bermuda Triangle
There is one giant fact we continue to to to chase down, there is one illus like the the Hunting of the the Snark or or or or or the quest the answer to Fermat’s last theorem or the riddle of the Sphinx or the Bermuda Triangle er er er er the one the feel we feel the er the er the one fact that we wish to discover the one hard crouton fact that we search for in the minestrone of the Labour Party.
Trump meets the Boojum
2019-10-16
The Hunting of the Snark, illustrated by George Walker, ISBN13 978-0889844308, publisher: The Porcupine’s Quill, available: probably 2019-11-01
2018-08-04
The Snark & the Trump, this had to happen: Scott Ponemone’s interview with George Walker.
See also “What I tell you three times is true!” and https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1007605937836838913.
Retweeted Again
@Snark150
@Snark150 is just the place for a Snark! And it stays in the European Union, together with https://t.co/q0aekyCltx. pic.twitter.com/OUKTFwZJHd
— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) June 30, 2019
I started @Bonnetmaker in July 2010 on Twitter. In May 2019 I set up a second Twitter account @Snark150 which focuses on Snark only.
About Henry Holiday's and Lewis Carroll's tragicomedy "The Hunting of the Snark".https://t.co/sP4PrmU03H pic.twitter.com/A1EEUavPkA
— Snark Sesquicentennial (@Snark150) June 16, 2019
Rare art, rare books etc. are currency if there are (and will be) enough people who trust in that currency. In 1876 Macmillan produced some special Snark editions. Presently