A Blog of Bosh

PO’BMC: Th’impervious horrors of a Lear shore
“T’is a truth universally acknowledged that a sea captain in possession of three noisy children is in want of a ship,” said Stephen as he sat in Sir Joseph’s office one morning happily pinning butterflies to a piece of card. “Mmmm,” said Sir Joseph noncommitally, thinking his friend had [...]

The Straight Dope: What’s a runcible spoon?
Dear Cecil: What’s a runcible spoon? –Theogr, via AOL Dear Theo: I can’t believe you have to ask this. A runcible spoon is a utensil suitable for runciation. This of course is in contrast to an irruncible spoon, which one runciates at one’s peril.…But skeptics pointed out that Lear’s [...]

The Lady of Shalotte by Alfred Lord Tennisanyone (with a bob of the head to Edward Lear and “The Akond of Swat.”)
Winner of the Poetry Parody Contest at the Julia A. Moore Poetry Festival - Peoples’ Choice Award 2000.

David McKie: A little light versifying
Lear celebrates, even venerates, absurdity, especially absurdity practised in the face of public scorn…The reversionary limerick, as practised by Lear, failed to catch on because it needed a Lear to fashion it.[A review of Routledge's recent facsimile reprint of the 1861 Book of Nonsense.Thanks to Julie Rybicki.]Guardian Unlimited

Ken Nordine
Nordine’s topics range far and wide. The opening track, “As of Now,” is based on the writings of the second century Roman philosopher and emperor Marcus Aurelius. In “The Akond of Swat,” he blasts away at the world of a Middle Eastern despot by utilizing the text of the pioneering 19th-century nonsense writer Edward [...]

“The Limerick is Furtive and Mean…”
From the Maigue poets to Ogden Nash, witty wordsmiths have delighted in composing the oft-risqu� five-line verses.[Nice article, though it repeats the myth of the Irish origin of the limerick and does not mention Lear's direct antecedents. Thanks to Arthur Deex for sending me the link: ah, don't forget to [...]

Lear, il nonsense fatto re
Lear non solo reinventò il “nonsense verse”, seppe anche illustrarlo con i suoi disegni tanto apparentemente primitivi quanto espressivi. Vero e proprio fotogramma a matita dei grotteschi e patetici personaggi che popolano un universo terribilmente vittoriano di follia e falsa innocenza.KataLibri

Carroll’s Artistry and Our Obsessions
THE man who wrote “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass” was an equally brilliant photographer. But in modern times Lewis Carroll’s achievements have been overshadowed by the widely held conviction that his primary inspiration, literary and artistic, was an unsavory obsession with little girls.New York Times, August 11, 2002

In the eye of the beholder / Lewis Carroll photography show raises difficult aesthetic questions
The exhibition asks us to set aside cultural reference points such as the paintings of Balthus (1908-2001), Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” the photographs of Sally Mann and the profit system’s address to children as a mass market precociously attuned to sexual innuendo. [...]