The Origin of SnarkDreams  

What is the meaning of SnarkDreams?

SnarkDreams originally came into being in the summer of 1998 as a unique Hotmail email address and grew from there.

Snark comes mainly from Lewis Carroll's poem, "The Hunting of the Snark," but also from other vague, esoteric sources such as Daniel Pinkwater's book The SnarkOut Boys and the Avocado of Death, which I read almost a decade ago and is now out of print. In both cases, snark entails something fun, imaginative, and original, but also with some sense of danger or excitement involved: your Snark may well turn out to be Boojum, you see.

Dreams comes mainly from my favorite hobby: sleeping. I find that the best inspirations come in those blank, fuzzy moments on the border between sleep and consciousness when the mind is in an almost primordial state of awareness.

Thus, together, SnarkDreams embodies a sense of continual possibilities, openness of mind, original experiences, and the courage to pursue these despite the involved risks of sacrificing static norms.

And what's the connection with the sundial?

First of all, the sundial comes from a scene filled with odd and wonderful creatures from the great poem "Jabberwocky" (better, actually, than "The Hunting of the Snark"). The variety between these creatures vaguely represents the variety in the divisions of the SnarkDreams Consortium.

Secondly, the sundial symbolizes time--fleetingness and change. All the creatures, especially the strange, live under its shadow. (And as we grow older and longer with that shadow, more and more of those wonderful beasts go into to hiding, which is a great loss.) Time is something of which we get only a finite amount, the currency to trade for memories. Remember to use it wisely.

Thirdly, it is a reminder to keep an open mind and sense of enjoyment: maybe it is not a sundial at all and all of the above is completely irrelevant. Some days it looks much more like a toy sailboat in a birdbath.

Finally, sundial could be written as SunDial, in which case it and SnarkDreams would share the same SD initials. Pretty lame connection, I know.

Why such a connection with Lewis Carroll?

Though I have read far from all of his published work and enjoy many other authors as well, I identify with a lot of Lewis Carroll's writings and his breadth of interests and imagination. He toyed with philosophy, mathematics, chess, photography, language, and more--many of the same disciplines that interest me (I hold a BA in Philosophy). And of course he has a cool pen name. (His real name was Samuel Ludwidge Dodgeson.)

Also, since his work has been published some time ago, the famous Sir Tenniel illustrations that accompanied his work are no longer copyrighted, which makes for a nice source of quality graphics that people may easily recognize and relate to. It's always good to have a theme.

If you're looking for more of Lewis Carroll's work, try the following sites:

• The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits. A decent version with pictures.
• Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter on the SnarkDreams Page O' Poems.
• Nicely illustrated versions of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. (Sadly, there is an irritating midi on the contents page.)
• The Complete Stories of Lewis Carroll from Biblomania for just about everything else.

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