Glorious Nonsense

I was reading away, with quiet enjoyment, when I came across Jabberwocky. I read it, paused, and read it again. Pondered for a while, then read it again. Jabberwocky beautifully skates the thin edge of being understood and being nonsense. But such glorious nonsense! As Alice put it,

"It seems very pretty," she said when she had finished it, "but it's rather hard to understand!" (You see she didn't like to confess even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas--only I don't exactly know what they are! However, somebody killed something: that's clear, at any rate---"

Jabberwockies seem to pop up all over the place...

• In 1943, there was a fun science fiction story called "Mimsy Were the Borogoves", written by a Lewis Padgett (pen name for Henry Kuttner and his wife C.L. Moore) in which a group of children begin to actually understand the poem, which leads them shortly thereafter into a new world... The story has been reprinted in The Golden Years of Science Fiction: Third Series, among other places, and I highly recommend it.

• Judith informs me via email that there is an excellent detective / fantastic novel called "Night of The Jabberwock". I haven't been able to find a copy though - it's out of print. (But, as usual, it can be ordered from Amazon.com).

• Mandi wrote in to tell me about "The Mansion in the Mist" by John Bellairs, where the word "wabe" (for the grass around a sundial) was used as an important clue to solve the mystery.

• According to the Internet Movie Database there have been two movies based on the poem.
  • A surrealist Czechoslovakian dimensionally animated film. This is a really nice site, with photographs and a synopsis (in English) of the film, along with interviews with the director and links to related works.
  • A comedy version made by Terry Gilliam (of Brazil and Monty Python Fame).

• In Disney's Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat sung Jabberwocky. I guess they couldn't really have swords and killing and such in a movie indended for kids, but really now - kids have been reading Through the Looking Glass for generations. What's the problem? Anyway, here's the clip on Disney's site. The video is available from Amazon.com.

• The famous British actor Nicol Williamson said once:

  "The mome rath isn't born that could outgrabe me!"

• The 5th and last season (1980) of the late, lamented, and very sorely missed Muppet Show had an episode starring Brooke Shields which covered bits and pieces of both Alice books. The high point (to me, anyway) was their take on Jabberwocky, with Rowlf (the dog) fighting a giant puppet Jabberwock which looked exactly like the Tenniel illustration!

  Narrator: ...and with its head, he went galumphing back.
  Rowlf: galumph! galumph! galumph! galumph!

• When I was a kid I never missed the Doctor Who rebroadcasts on PBS. Imagine my surprise all these years later to tune into "The Silurians" (a classic about ancient reptile-men trying to take over the Earth) to find the good Doctor, repairing Bessie while singing "Twas brillig..." !

• In the Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren", Kirk and Spock sing:

  I'm Tweedledee, he's Tweedledum.
        We're spacemen marching to and from.
  We slythe among the mimsy troves,
        And tire among the borogroves.

• The Brigham Young University Children and Teen Creative Dance group performed a Jabberwocky dance in 1995. Say, folks, planning on going on tour to Johns Hopkins anytime?

• David Godfrey wrote in to tell me about his high school:

  Scarsdale High School, in New York, has many a Jabberwocky reference within its walls. Our school mascot is a large maroon dragon named Bandy. Our yearbook is called Bandersnatch. We have 2 nights of student bands performing, one in the spring and one in the fall, named Jabberfest. Our Literary magazine is named Jabberwocky.

  Bravo Scarsdale! I wish I could have gone to a place like that. Dear 'ol Scotch Plains-Fanwood High wasn't much fun.

• One of the heights of geek humor ever since Digital put their Altavista Babelfish translation service online, is to feed text to the computer translator, translate it into a foreign language, and then translate it back. Here is a stanza of Jabberwocky, translated into German, and then translated back to English:

  `Beware Jabberwock, my son! The Kiefer, which beien, the grip arms, which intercept! Watch out the bird Jubjub, and avoid you frumious the Bandersnatch! ', he took its vorpal to blade into the hand: Long time manxomefeind, which it looked up -- in such a way stood still it by the tree Tumtum, and confessed one while in the thought.

• Keith Lim's "the jabberwocky variations" is a really neat collection of Jabberwocky translations. Have you ever wondered what Jabberwocky would look like in Latin (Hora aderat briligi. Nunc et Slythia Tova....)? Look no further.

• Keith doesn't have it yet, but my cousin Dani, my friend Yah-el, and I, got together to do Jabberwocky in Hebrew.

• Here's a version in Yiddish from Raphael Finkel at the University of Kentucky.

• When I was a kid I used to just love the ritual yearly book fair at my elementary school. I'd walk among the tables, a glazed look in my eye, debating the merits of "Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine", to "I, Robot". Oh, yes! It's nice to see the tradition continues with Jabberwocky Books for Kids.

• There is a Jabberwocky Antiques in festive San Dimas, California. No mention of Bill and/or Ted though.

• Shayna, a young (13!) Jabberwocky and book fan wrote in to say there is a really cool store in Hudson, Ohio, called "Jabberwocky Toys and Games" owned by Richard Harrison.

• Scott wrote in to tell me that Ral Partha miniatures (they make minature models of dragons and wizards and such for gaming fans) has a Jabberwocky miniature. It's quite more ferocious looking than the fairly whimsical Tenniel version (it's not wearing the vest, for instance).

• Nick Bantock, the artist behind the wonderful "Griffin and Sabine", did an illustrated version of both Jabberwocky and The Walrus and The Carpenter. Alas, both books are now out of print, but can be ordered from Amazon.com

• The Holoshop has a Jabberwocky hologram for sale. I bought one of these - very, very, cool.

• Graeme Base drew "Jabberwocky", a book of fun illustrations for the poem. Even better is his " Jabberwocky: A Book of Brillig Dioramas". (I have this on my desk in the lab here) This is a delightful book that unfolds into a series of three-dimensional dioramas - one for each stanza of the poem.

• Adam Jenkins runs Bandersnatch Bears, an "Artist Designed, Hand Made Teddy Bears" company in Australia. Check out the Indiana Jones bear and the Dimetrodon teddy bear-a-saurus.

• There is a guy named Brad Foster who runs a "Jabberwocky Graphix", which seems to be fairly well known in the graphic novel world. (does anyone have any links for this?)

• Dave (or is it Andrew?) Thompson wrote in to tell me that:

  There's a video game called Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2 in Japan) by Squaresoft, and there's an enemy called Jabberwock. It has two heads and doesn't look much like the illustration, but Squaresoft is known for having all sorts of mythological referances and stuff (one of the games named 4 main bad guys after demons from Dante's Inferno :)

• The Colgate Ultimate Frisbee team (known as "Jabberwock Ultimate") uses a very interesting frisbee design.

• A gentleman in San Francisco, California constructed an ultralight airplane of his own design known as the Frumious Bandersnatch.

• In Monterey, California, there is a bed & breakfast inn called The Jabberwock. This place has rooms named "The Wimsey", and "The Tulgey Wood". Even their phone number is "(888) I BURBLE"! If I ever visit California in my post-graduation "real life", I know where I'm staying..

• Tempe, Arizona has a "Brewery & Restaurant" known as the Bandersnatch.

• In 1970, for the movie-documentary "You Are What You Eat", Peter Yarrow (more commonly seen along with Paul and Mary) wrote and performed a song called "The Wabe". I don't want to violate anyone's copyright too badly, so here are just the opening lyrics as a 159k AU or a 318k WAV.

  I believe the album (Columbia OS 3240, I was told, but mine says Columbia CK 3240) is out of print now, alas. All in all, though, it's a good album - where else can you hear Tiny Tim singing "I Got You Babe"? :)

• Tales & Scales, a "musictelling group" (no, I don't know what that is either, but it sounds pretty neat), has a 45 minute musical version of the poem where "a budding young trombonist finds himself transported through his computer screen onto the Internet. Here he must rid cyber-space of the Jabberwock, who is trying to take control." The concert also "deals with themes of freedom, courage and Net navigation." I've often thought the three go together.

• Johns Hopkins is big on a cappella music, so this one struck me as particularly nice: Brown University's oldest a cappella group is known as (not much suspense here, folks, after all this is a Jabberwocky page) The Jabberwocks.

• Marianne Faithfull did a musical Jabberwocky on her 1965 album "Come My Way" (Decca LK4866). I'm going to try and hunt this one down.

• Hailing from Sacramento, California comes a blues/folk/rock guitar/vocal duo known as Acoustic Bandersnatch. They write, perform, record, and even brew their own beer!

• The band Blues Traveler have an unreleased song which is Jabberwocky set to music. Scott Nichols wrote in to tell me that "....this is a song that Blues Traveler only plays live. John is big on all sorts of literature and many stories find their way into the music of Blues Traveler." Back in my Steadicam days, I worked briefly on a Blues Traveler video. (For the curious, I think the song was "But Anyway"). As it turned out, the director changed the concept of the video, and I didn't get to do a single shot. Fooey.

• There was a music club named Jabberwocky in Syracuse, N.Y., which has seen such performers as Bonnie Raitt, Hot Tuna, and Roger McGuinn. The club, alas, closed in 1985.

• A 60's band from Haight-Ashbury was known as "Frumious Bandersnatch". They have a CD out there entitled "A Young Man's Song".

• More Jabberwocky and Carroll inspired music.

• Brian Lee keeps pet rats - his names for them can get a trifle interesting though. Meet Bandersnatch and Jabberwock. (Some pictures of Jabberwock).

• Some rather naughty person seems to have created a Jabberwocky virus.

• Another naughty person came up with a Bandersnatch virus.

• The poem itself! I'm sure that after all those references above this, you had thought I'd forgotten about it. :)

• The California State University, Chico College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (whew, that's a mouthful!) has some very interestingly named xterms

• Josh and Joel Birenbaum's outstanding The Lewis Carroll Home Page. What can I say? This is a serious piece of research. Kudos to them for making it.

• The alt.adjective.noun.verb.verb.verb folks came up with alt.frabjous.'Jabberwocky'.aanvvv-ise.update.admire :)

• Jwocky's page. Stretch your browser window to full screen size, and enjoy. It's gorgeous.

• Clare has some fun versions, including a spell-checked jabberwocky, and one that was handwritten on an Apple Newton.

• The Jabberwocky chat server. I found out about this one when a mailer error sent all their mail to me :)

This Wonderland Site is owned by David Shaw Join the Ring
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dshaw@jabberwocky.com

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