Jabberwocky (was: Re: RE: The Quest for the Purpose of Life)

From: animated silicon love doll (cheshire@velvet.net)
Date: Wed Jan 23 2002 - 21:34:37 MST


2002.01.23 19:43:47, Damien Broderick <d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:

>No, they might have done it anyway; the obvious explanation is `Because it
>was brillig', but I distrust causality of that post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc
>kind. Rathsome outgribing might have *contributed* to the brilligness.

doubtful. lewis carroll did translate that first (and last) stanza, and brillig is the "time of
broiling dinner".
it translates roughly to:
it was late afternoon, when dinner is broiled, and the smooth, active horned-badgerlike
creatures
scratched and screwed holes in the side of the hill that the sundial was upon.
the wingless, now extinct, parrots were unhappy.
and the grave turtles squeaked out.

(definitions taken from http://www.glasswings.com.au/giggle/stanza.html, i added some
interpretations of my own. it says that the borogroves made their nests on top of sundials,
so one could presume that they are unhappy due to the base of their homes being drilled
out. i also described the animals a bit more, instead of just saying "parrots" and
"badgers", although i left raths as "turtles".)
so unless these land turtles vocal cords are somehow connected to the rotation of the
earth, i rather doubt that they have anything to do with it being brillig. perhaps they
outgrabe because it was brillig? maybe they were hungry?

cheshire morgan. we all create life, some of us with wombs,
                        some with smiles, some with patient hands.
                        we are all gods, if we choose to be.
                                -kitten.



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