So I was feeling a little stressed the other day, so I figured I'd go ahead and spend a bunch of money I don't really have on books. (I figure it's good karma--hopefully this will inspire many millions of others to spend money they do or do not have on my books). One of the things I got was a beautiful new edition of the Annotated Hunting of the Snark.
I love the poem, I love the illustrations, and I love having a beautiful edition of what is probably my favorite poem. (Others: Keats' "Eve of St. Agnes," Frost's "Out, Out" Shelley's "Ozymandias." And also Christina Rosetti's "The Goblin Market," because it's the most unintentionally pervy thing I've ever read. Go ahead--read all about repressed sexuality here. Make sure you read, or at least skip to the end where the one virginal girl is licking fruit juice off the other one. Whew! Is it hot in here?)
For me, Hunting of the Snark is a sacred text because it contains so much of life: It's hilarious, nonsensical, and terrifying. It's about friendship, fear, insanity and death. What else do you want? Well, okay, sex, but you've got Eve of St. Agnes and Goblin Market for that.
My only problem with this edition is that I'm not so sure about the annotations. I mean, they are well done and everything, and it is interesting to read all the things that have been named after Boojums, but I don't really need a note telling me that it's impossible to sail a ship to port and starboard at the same time. And, for some of the weirdest things, I don't want anybody else making sense of it for me. Like this, for example:
Down he sank in a chair--ran his hands through his hair--
And chanted in mimsiest tones
Words whose utter inanity proved his insantiy,
While he rattled a couple of bones.
Now, to me, this is one of the most horrifying stanzas of the entire poem. And here comes Note Boy to tell me that the bones thing is, according to him, some kind of reference to a minstrel show character. Even if that's true, I don't wanna know it!
