Wednesday, October 27, 2010

“It’s a Bo-o-o-o-o-o-o-tcher!”

  The assumption which states that “It’s a Boo-…” applies to Boots* seems to be plausible, but is based on written word “Boots”, still vocally “oo” means a long “u” and therefore in this case “Boots” has no priority over “Butcher”. It probably was indeed: “It’s a Bo-o-o-o-o-o-o-tcher!” I would rather believe in this interpretation, because in the poem, Butcher was described in great detail, and acted as one of the front characters, unlike Boots, who was just a “chorus member”. Actually, we even don’t know who Boots is at all.

*Larry Shaw The Baker Murder case, cit. by The Annotated Snark by Martin Gardner.  


The portrait of Butcher from the Oleg Lipchenko illustrations to the Hunting Of The Snark 

6 comments:

Unknown said...

But the Beaver has brought out the gentler side of the Butcher! Surely you don't truly suspect the reformed Butcher of offing the Baker? Well, I guess we'll never know.... ;-)

Oleg Lipchenko said...

I suspect Butcher may have a dualistic nature, same as Snark (and, actually the most of us). And he is - a butcher. In case of Boots Baker probably was kicked or hit with a shoe - which is not too pleasant indeed, but hardly could be considered as "dramatic". Don't forget that my research is very serious :) and is based on Larry Shaw's "The Baker Murder case".

Mahendra Singh said...

The Prussian Butcher is a great discovery, Oleg, it explains his behaviour in Fit the Fifth, where he explains Natural History from a Wilhelminian point of view …

Of course, if the Butcher was the Snark, then who was the Beaver?

Questions, questions, and such perfect drawings to answer them Oleg.

Oleg Lipchenko said...

It's still far from an answer, at least from a final answer, just one of a possible transcriptions. I've read a lot of "Snarkiana" materials, and I am following the yahoogroup forum and this is my decent penny of the "research" :) to the big mess around Snark. Actually, it is more like a parody of a parody, because Larry Shaw's version is already an example of "very serious" analysis.
And, Mahendra, I'm looking forward to meet you in NYC and get my copy of your brilliant book signed.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm - I always thought "It's a Boo..." was the Boojum since there was no reply .. the moral being .. be careful what you wish for, it may not really be what you want! I'd love to know if others agree.

Anonymous said...

Oops .. I meant to say that the Snark is a Boojum.