Remark on The Hunting of the Snark:

The poem is funny, but it is not only funny. I think that the Snark is a tragicomedy about truth seeking and its failing.

I made the experience that when I mention Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, people expext fun or nonsense or ridicule. Regrettably, of Carroll's poem, seemingly only the title is well known (sometimes also the Bellman's rule). That is a pity, because I think that the tragicomedy deserves a more serious reading.

The Hunting of the Snark has been published by the Reverend C. L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in 1876. When asked what meaning the poem has, he answered: "I'm very much afraid I didn't mean anything but nonsense!". However, it has been categorized as a "Tragedy" by Henry Holiday. The painter and illustrator was the first reader of Carroll's ballad. He made the nine illustrations to The Hunting of the Snark, plus the front cover and the back cover illustrations. He and Dodgson/Carroll became friends. In a handwritten memo by Holiday at the bottom of a page from a letter of Lewis Carroll, Holiday categorized Carroll's Snark as a "Tragedy" (image source: PBA Galleries).

I think that the author of The Hunting of the Snark was an thoughtful Anglican with a scientific mind who struggeled with his faith as well as with the findings of his time, among them Charles Darwins findings. That truth "hunting" perhaps was Snark. And if I understand Dodgsin/Carroll well, he rejected dogmatism and fanatism. If I am right, he despised their cruel and violent consequences, which may be Boojum.

I think that the Dodgson's/Carroll's and Holiday's tragicomedy should be [read]((http://www.snrk.de/snarkhunt/) with a new serious approach. However, it seems to be difficult for me to find Christians (I am not) who do not understand my recommendation to read The Hunting of the Snark as a joke. If you take the poem only as a joke, you may be missing something.