A Blog of Bosh

An Edward Lear Society?, An e-mail from Vivien Noakes
Dear Learites,
Kenneth Oultram, who lives in Cheshire, is hoping to organise an Edward Lear Society, since none exists. He has called an inaugural meeting this Saturday, September 7th, at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, but has had a very disappointing response, largely I think because almost no one knows about it.
The Walker currently has a wonderful exhibition about Lord Derby�s menagerie and Lear�s involvement with it � �The Earl and the Pussy-cat� � which closes this weekend (it has an excellent catalogue), and I understand that the plan is that anyone interested should meet at the Gallery at noon. There will then be a tour of the exhibition conducted by the organiser � Dr Clem Fisher � followed by lunch. In the afternoon it is scheduled that Robert Peck � who is writing about Lear�s birds � will give a lecture, but I am not sure what the situation is about this if the turnout is very low.
I have spoken to Mr Oultram this evening and said that I would post news of this on the website. If anyone is interested in speaking to him, either about Saturday�s programme or about founding a Society at some point, his home number is 01606 781 731 and his work number is 01606 891 303.
Best wishes,
Vivien

icLiverpool – The Earl and the Pussycat
FANS of limerick-creator Edward Lear have a final chance to view a fascinating exhibition charting his links with a Victorian earl.
icLiverpool (30 August 2002)

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 been reading too much.
“A beautiful pea-green one,” Stephen added after a moment.

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 drawings of runcible spoons gave no indication of tines or cutting edges. Also the use of a runcible spoon for the pedestrian purpose of eating pickles seemed at odds with the refined original menu of mince and quince. And why should one require a spoon with a cutting edge for quince that, Lear tells us, has already been sliced?
Modern students of runciosity believe that while it may have been inspired by the word “rouncival” (apparently meaning gigantic), runcibilization as we know it today was the invention of Edward Lear.
But the runcible-spoon-as-pickle-fork idea has taken firm root. One sighs, but what can you do? I expect the discovery of the Bong-tree any day.
[Thanks to John Verity.]

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 Lear.
[Nothing else on Lear, but his arrangement of “The Akond of Swat” is so good, actually the best of a Lear poem I have ever heard, that he deserves mention here. Thanks to Julie Rybicki for the link.]
Salon (July 11, 2001)

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