Category: video

Mike Batt’s Snark

※ 1987: The Hunting Of The Snark – Royal Albert Hall (1h)

«In 1987 Mike Batt recorded this concert of the early stage album of his “Snark” project. This is not a film of the eventual 1991 West End show, which was much more fully produced and had many more songs and more story. This early concert starred John Hurt, Roger Daltrey, Justin Hayward, Deniece Williams, Captain Sensible, Julian Lennon, Midge Ure, and Billy Connolly, with Batt conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. Music/lyrics/orchestrations by Mike Batt. Based on the poem (as recited in the narration) written by Lewis Carroll.»

 
※ 2010: The Hunting Of The Snark – Live at Cadogan Hall (9m40s)

 
※ Mike Batt’s Snark project

 

※ 2020-07-22, Interview: John Murray Lunchtime Show with Mike Batt. The whole show on k107FM is worth listening to, but if you are very impatient and want to learn more about Mike Batt’s Snark musical right away, start at 01:18:45 in the podcast.

※ Mike Batt – Director Showreel (YouTube, 2020)

 

※ Mike Batt – A Songwriters Tale (YouTube, 2012)

 

※ A “Mike Batt Fans” theme for the Firefox browser:

※ With dark search text on white background:

Wikipedia | Mike Batt page (in German) | more Snark music

2018-10-15, update: 2021-03-14

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.

Sir Nicholas Soames’ Speech

But the principal failing occurred in the sailing,
　And the Bellman, perplexed and distressed,
Said he had hoped, at least, when the wind blew due East,
　That the ship would not travel due West!

※ www.nicholassoames.org.uk (2018-12-06): Full speech
※ Youtube: The Snark reference starts at 00:09:03.
※ Twitter 2 (thread) | Twitter 1 | Reddit | Facebook

Original Manuscript Found Among Brexit Impact Study Tables

Here is the manuscript (it’s so-so). Also I publish the secret road map used by the British government to navigate through the Brexit.

 
What I tell you three times is true:

349       “The thing can be done,” said the Butcher, “I think.
350        The thing must be done, I am sure.
351        The thing shall be done! …”


https://youtu.be/2N2kp1r-WkI

 

Links:

 
2017-11-14, update 2018-12-30

Snark Explanations

by Mary Hammond, published on Nov 7, 2017. There also is an essay: Mary Hammond, Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark Explained.

Mary Hammond’s interpretation of course is not the first Snark interpretation. First hints on what the Snark could be about had been given to us by Henry Holiday and Philo M. Buck. And there is an excellent chapter on Carroll’s tragicomedy in Louise Schweitzer’s One Wild Flower. Oliver Sturm’s Die Jagd nach dem Schnatz is a German translation, which also contains an attempt to explain the Snark. And there is a Snark chapter in Klaus Reichert’s Lewis Carroll: Studien zum literarischen Unsinn. Reichert is another German Snark translator.

Among the interpretations known to me, Mary Hammond’s interpretation is the first one where Eternal Damnation is seen as one of the more important issues to which Lewis Carroll might have taken reference in The Hunting of the Snark. In Carroll’s poem, the Baker‘s Forty-Two Boxes led me to the same conclusion earlier.

In my correspondence with Mary Hammond (a pen ame of Mary Hibbs) she also told me about what in her view “…jum” in Boojum could stand for: Search for jumble in the chapter Of Reason in John Locke‘s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

I too associate Boojum with the vanishing of reason – which too often is the beginning of violence. Yet, I’ll probably never know, whether my association is similar to what the Boojum meant to Carroll.

549    “It’s a Snark!” was the sound that first came to their ears,
550        And seemed almost too good to be true.
551    Then followed a torrent of laughter and cheers:
552        Then the ominous words “It’s a Boo-”

553    Then, silence. Some fancied they heard in the air
554        A weary and wandering sigh
555    That sounded like “-jum!” but the others declare
556        It was only a breeze that went by.

 

My publications:
※ Knight Letter № 99: Nose is a Nose is a Nose
※ Knight Letter № 100: Burning the Baker

 

There now is a new paperback edition of Untangling the Knot: An Analysis of Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark, 2019-10-06, by Sandra Mann (besides Mary Hammond another pen name of Mary Hibbs). She also sent me an additional article about a possible reference to Bishop Reginal Heber (1783-1826). See also: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lewiscarrollresources/permalink/2241199999492366/

2020-02-12: Untangling the Knot in PDF, 2018

 

2017-11-17, updated: 2018-12-02.