In search of the snark

“ ‘You may seek it with thimbles — and seek it with care; / You may hunt it with forks and hope; / You may threaten its life with a railway-share; / You may charm it with smiles and soap —’ ” *

I am a huge fan of Lewis Carroll.  Thus I lifted a line from “The Jabberwocky” as my blog domain and fragments from “The Hunting of the Snark” as my title.  I’ll explain more as this blog progresses, but I truly believe that education and literacy need to come hand in hand, and just because I no longer officially study literature in academia, does not mean I can’t continue to do so.

What I love about Lewis Carroll’s works is that he works within the confines of rhetorical, grammatical, and literary rules yet subverts them as well.  Ironically, the poems he wrote to be whimsical or to poke fun at the rigidity of Victorian schooling actually entered both the literary canon and the dictionary!

Thus, I hope to constantly be “in uffish thought.”  I hope to press and to prod and to come up with novelty.  And as I search for this elusive snark (my symbol for effective education), I desperately hope it won’t be a Boojum!

“ ‘But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day, / If your Snark be a Boojum! For then / You will softly and suddenly vanish away, / And never be met with again!’ ” *

*excerpts from “The Hunting of the Snark”