Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or

logical reasoning Two kinds of logical reasoning are often distinguished in addition to formal deduction: induction and abduction. Given a precondition or ''premise'', a conclusion or ''logical consequence'' and a rule or ''material conditional'' that implies the ...

. Even though the most well-known form of literary nonsense is

nonsense verse Nonsense verse is a form of nonsense literature usually employing strong prosodic elements like rhythm and rhyme. It is often whimsical and humorous in tone and employs some of the techniques of nonsense literature. Limericks are probably th ...

, the

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

is present in many forms of literature. The effect of nonsense is often caused by an excess of meaning, rather than a lack of it. Its humor is derived from its nonsensical nature, rather than wit or the "joke" of a

punchline A punch line (a. k. a. punch-line or punchline) concludes a joke; it is intended to make people laugh. It is the third and final part of the typical joke structure. It follows the introductory framing of the joke and the narrative which sets up ...

History

Literary nonsense, as recognized since the nineteenth century, comes from a combination of two broad artistic sources. The first and older source is the oral folk tradition, including games, songs, dramas, and rhymes, such as the

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

Hey Diddle Diddle "Hey Diddle Diddle" (also "Hi Diddle Diddle", "The Cat and the Fiddle", or "The Cow Jumped Over the Moon") is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19478. Lyrics and music A version of the rhyme is Hey diddle diddl ...

''. The literary figure

Mother Goose The figure of Mother Goose is the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. As a character, she appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. This, howeve ...

represents common incarnations of this style of writing. The second, newer source of literary nonsense is in the intellectual absurdities of

court poet A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

s, scholars, and intellectuals of various kinds. These writers often created sophisticated nonsense forms of Latin parodies, religious

travesties ''Travesties'' is a 1974 play by Tom Stoppard. The play centres on the figure of Henry Carr, an elderly man who reminisces about Zürich in 1917 during the First World War, and his interactions with James Joyce when he was writing '' Ulysses'' ...

, and political satire, though these texts are distinguished from more pure satire and parody by their exaggerated nonsensical effects. Today's literary nonsense comes from a combination of both sources. Though not the first to write this hybrid kind of nonsense,

Edward Lear Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...

developed and popularized it in his many

limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

s (starting with '' A Book of Nonsense'', 1846) and other famous texts such as ''

The Owl and the Pussycat "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1870 in the American magazine '' Our Young Folks: an Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls'' and again the following year in Lear's own book ''Nonsense Songs, S ...

'', ''The Dong with a Luminous Nose,'' '' The Jumblies'' and ''The Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Around the World''.

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

continued this trend, making literary nonsense a worldwide phenomenon with ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a ...

'' (1865) and ''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...

'' (1871). Carroll's poem "

Jabberwocky "Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the sequel to '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865). The ...

", which appears in the latter book, is often considered quintessential nonsense literature.

Theory

In literary nonsense, certain formal elements of language and logic that facilitate meaning are balanced by elements that negate meaning. These formal elements include semantics, syntax, phonetics, context, representation, and formal diction. The genre is most easily recognizable by the various techniques or devices it uses to create this balance of meaning and lack of meaning, such as faulty cause and effect,

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsneologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

, reversals and inversions, imprecision (including gibberish), simultaneity, picture/text incongruity, arbitrariness, infinite repetition, negativity or mirroring, and misappropriation. Nonsense tautology, reduplication, and absurd precision have also been used in the nonsense genre. For a text to be within the genre of literary nonsense, it must have an abundance of nonsense techniques woven into the fabric of the piece. If the text employs only occasional nonsense devices, then it may not be classified as literary nonsense, though there may be a nonsensical effect to certain portions of the work.

Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768), was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric who wrote the novels ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'' and ''A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy'', published ...

's ''

Tristram Shandy Tristram may refer to: Literature * the title character of ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'', a novel by Laurence Sterne * the title character of ''Tristram of Lyonesse'', an epic poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne *"Tristra ...

'', for instance, employs the nonsense device of imprecision by including a blank page, but this is only one nonsense device in a novel that otherwise makes sense. In Flann O'Brien's ''The Third Policeman'', on the other hand, many of the devices of nonsense are present throughout, and thus it could be considered a nonsense novel.

Distinction

Gibberish, light verse, fantasy, and jokes and riddles are sometimes mistaken for literary nonsense, and the confusion is greater because nonsense can sometimes inhabit these (and many other) forms and genres. Pure gibberish, as in the "hey diddle diddle" of nursery rhyme, is a device of nonsense, but it does not make a text, overall, literary nonsense. If there is not significant sense to balance out such devices, then the text dissolves into literal (as opposed to literary) nonsense. Light verse, which is generally speaking humorous verse meant to entertain, may share humor, inconsequentiality, and playfulness, with nonsense, but it usually has a clear point or joke, and does not have the requisite tension between meaning and lack of meaning. Nonsense is distinct from

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

, though there are sometimes resemblances between them. While nonsense may employ the strange creatures, other worldly situations, magic, and talking animals of fantasy, these supernatural phenomena are not nonsensical if they have a discernible logic supporting their existence. The distinction lies in the coherent and unified nature of fantasy. Everything follows logic within the rules of the fantasy world; the nonsense world, on the other hand, has no comprehensive system of logic, although it may imply the existence of an inscrutable one, just beyond our grasp. The nature of magic within an imaginary world is an example of this distinction. Fantasy worlds employ the presence of magic to logically explain the impossible. In nonsense literature, magic is rare but when it does occur, its nonsensical nature only adds to the mystery rather than logically explaining anything. An example of nonsensical magic occurs in Carl Sandburg's ''

Rootabaga Stories ''Rootabaga Stories'' (1922) is a children's book of interrelated short stories by Carl Sandburg. The whimsical, sometimes melancholy stories, which often use nonsense language, were originally created for his own daughters. Sandburg had three d ...

'', when Jason Squiff, in possession of a magical "gold buckskin whincher", has his hat, mittens, and shoes turn into popcorn because, according to the "rules" of the magic, "You have a letter Q in your name and because you have the pleasure and happiness of having a Q in your name you must have a popcorn hat, popcorn mittens and popcorn shoes".

Riddles A riddle is a statement, question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that requ ...

only appear to be nonsense until the answer is found. The most famous nonsense riddle is only so because it originally had no answer. In Carroll's ''Alice in Wonderland'', the Mad Hatter asks Alice "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?" When Alice gives up, the Hatter replies that he does not know either, creating a nonsensical riddle. Some seemingly nonsense texts are actually riddles, such as the popular 1940s song ''

Mairzy Doats “Mairzy Doats” is a novelty song written and composed in 1943 by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston. It contains lyrics that make no sense as written, but are near homophones of meaningful phrases. The song's title, for example, i ...

'', which at first appears to have little discernible meaning but has a discoverable message. Jokes are not nonsense because their humor comes from their making sense, from our "getting" it, while nonsense is funny because it does ''not'' make sense, we do not "get" it.

Audience

While most contemporary nonsense has been written for children, the form has an extensive history in adult configurations before the nineteenth century. Figures such as John Hoskyns, Henry Peacham, John Sandford, and John Taylor lived in the early seventeenth century and were noted nonsense authors in their time. Nonsense was also an important element in the works of Flann O'Brien and Eugène Ionesco. Literary nonsense, as opposed to the folk forms of nonsense that have always existed in written history, was only first written for children in the early nineteenth century. It was popularized by

and then later by

. Today literary nonsense enjoys a shared audience of adults and children.

Nonsense writers

Note: None of these writers is considered a "nonsense writer". Some of them wrote texts considered to be in the genre (as in Lear, Carroll, Gorey, Lennon, Sandburg), while others only use nonsense as an occasional device (as in Joyce, Juster). All of these writers wrote outside of the nonsense genre also. *

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), BBC radio comedy, ''The H ...

John Prentiss Benson John Prentiss Benson (also John P. Benson) (1865–1947) was an American architect and artist noted for his maritime paintings. Early life Benson was born into a prosperous family in Salem, Massachusetts. He was trained as an architect at the ...

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...

Clark Coolidge Clark Coolidge (born February 26, 1939) is an American poet. Background As a teenager, Coolidge attended Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. Coolidge attended Brown University, where his father taught in the music department. After ...

Ivor Cutler Ivor Cutler (born Isadore Cutler, 15 January 1923 – 3 March 2006) was a Scottish poet, singer, musician, songwriter, artist and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions record ...

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has be ...

Dave Eggers Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the 2000 best-selling memoir ''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius''. Eggers is also the founder of ''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', a lite ...

John Flansburgh John Conant Flansburgh (born May 6, 1960) is an American musician. He is half of the long-standing Brooklyn, New York-based alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants with John Linnell, for which he writes, sings, and plays rhythm guitar. Commo ...

Mike Gordon Michael Eliot Gordon (born June 3, 1965) is an American bass guitarist and vocalist most recognized as a founding member of the band Phish. In addition to bass, Gordon is an accomplished banjo player, and is proficient at piano and guitar. He ...

Edward Gorey Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other writers. Hi ...

* Eric Idle *

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

* Norton Juster * X.J. Kennedy * Frank Key *

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

JonArno Lawson JonArno Lawson is a Canadian writer who has published many books for children and adults, was born in Hamilton, Ontario and raised in nearby Dundas. He now lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his wife and three children. Career and education Lawson h ...

* Dennis Lee *

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

John Linnell John Sidney Linnell ( ; born June 12, 1959) is an American musician, known primarily as one half of the Brooklyn-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants with John Flansburgh, which was formed in 1982. In addition to singing and songwri ...

Margaret Mahy Margaret Mahy (21 March 1936 – 23 July 2012) was a New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. Many of her story plots have strong supernatural elements but her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growi ...

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British Colonial India, where h ...

Kenn Nesbitt Kenn Nesbitt (born February 20, 1962) is an American children's poet. On June 11, 2013, he was named Children's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and l ...

* Flann O'Brien *

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...

Daniel Pinkwater Daniel Manus Pinkwater (born November 15, 1941) is an American author of children's books and young adult fiction. His books include ''Lizard Music'', ''The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death'', ''Fat Men from Space'', ''Borgel'', and the pi ...

Jack Prelutsky Jack Prelutsky (born September 8, 1940) is an American writer of children's poetry who has published over 50 poetry collections. He served as the first U.S. Children's Poet Laureate (now called the Young People's Poet Laureate) from 2006–08 ...

* Anushka Ravishankar *

Alastair Reid Alastair Reid (22 March 1926, in Whithorn – 21 September 2014, in Manhattan) was a Scottish poet and a scholar of South American literature. He was known for his lighthearted style of poems and for his translations of South American poets Jo ...

Laura E. Richards Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (February 27, 1850 – January 14, 1943) was an American writer. She wrote more than 90 books including biographies, poetry, and several for children. One well-known children's poem is her literary nonsense verse " ...

Theodore Roethke Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book ''The Wa ...

Michael Rosen Michael Wayne Rosen (born 7 May 1946) is a British children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster and activist who has written 140 books. He served as Children's Laureate from 2007 to 2009. Early life Michael Wayne Ro ...

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

Dr. Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' Jean Shepherd Jean Parker 'Shep' Shepherd Jr. (~July 21, 1921 – October 16, 1999) was an American storyteller, humorist, radio and TV personality, writer, and actor. With a career that spanned decades, Shepherd is known for the film ''A Christmas Story'' ...

Shel Silverstein Sheldon Allan Silverstein (; September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer, poet, cartoonist, singer / songwriter, musician, and playwright. Born and raised in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended universit ...

Vivian Stanshall Vivian Stanshall (born Victor Anthony Stanshall; 21 March 1943 – 5 March 1995) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his exploration of the British upper ...

Alan Watts Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English writer, speaker and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Japanese, Chinese and Indian traditions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu ...

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...

Writers of nonsense from other languages include: *

Alphonse Allais Alphonse Allais (20 October 1854 – 28 October 1905) was a French writer, journalist and humorist. Life Allais was born in Honfleur, Calvados (department), Calvados. He died in Paris. Work He is the author of many collections of whimsical writ ...

(French) * Cesar Aira (Argentinian) *

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

(French) *

Miron Białoszewski Miron Białoszewski (; born 30 June 1922, Warsaw; died 17 June 1983, Warsaw) was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright and actor. Biography Białoszewski studied linguistics at the clandestine courses of the University of Warsaw during the Germ ...

(Polish) *

Pierre Dac André Isaac (15 August 1893 Châlons-sur-Marne, France – 9 February 1975 Paris, France), better known as Pierre Dac, was a French humorist. During World War II, Pierre Dac was one of the speakers of the BBC's '' Radio Londres'' service to oc ...

(French) * Campos de Carvalho (Brazilian) *

Lennart Hellsing Paul Lennart Hellsing (5 June 1919 – 25 November 2015) was a Swedish writer and translator. For his lasting contribution as a children's writer, Hellsing was a finalist in 2010 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award. Biog ...

(Swedish) * Zinken Hopp (Norwegian) *

Eugene Ionesco Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

(French) *

Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics. Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...

(French) *

Frigyes Karinthy Frigyes Karinthy (; 25 June 1887 – 29 August 1938) was a Hungarian author, playwright, poet, journalist, and translator. He was the first proponent of the six degrees of separation concept, in his 1929 short story, ''Chains'' (''Láncszemek'') ...

(Hungarian) *

Daniil Kharms Daniil Ivanovich Kharms (russian: Дании́л Ива́нович Хармс; – 2 February 1942) was an early Soviet-era Russian avant-gardist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist. Early years Kharms was born as Daniil Yuvach ...

(Russian) *

Velimir Khlebnikov Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov, better known by the pen name Velimir Khlebnikov ( rus, Велими́р Хле́бников, p=vʲɪlʲɪˈmʲir ˈxlʲɛbnʲɪkəf; – 28 June 1922) was a Russian poet and playwright, a central part of th ...

(Russian) *

Fosco Maraini Fosco Maraini (; 15 November 1912 – 8 June 2004) was an Italian photographer, anthropologist, ethnologist, writer, mountaineer and academic. Biography He was born in Florence from the Italian sculptor Antonio Maraini (1886–1963) and Cornelia ...

(Italian) *

Christian Morgenstern Christian Otto Josef Wolfgang Morgenstern (6 May 1871 – 31 March 1914) was a German author and poet from Munich. Morgenstern married Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern on 7 March 1910. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin ...

(German) *

Jagannath Prasad Das Jagannath Prasad Das (born 26 April 1936) is an Indian writer, poet,painter, playwright and novelist who writes in Odia. Life Starting his career with a brief teaching assignment as assistant professor in the University of Allahabad, he joi ...

(Indian)

Odia literature Odia literature is literature written in the Odia language, mostly from the Indian state of Odisha. The modern Odia language is mostly formed from Tadbhava words with significant Sanskrit (Tatsama) influences, along with loanwoards from Desaj ...

Halfdan Rasmussen Halfdan Wedel Rasmussen (29 January 1915 in Copenhagen – 2 March 2002) was a Danish poet. He was known for his literary nonsense verse for children and his serious adult writings about social issues and human rights. He was awarded with the ...

(Danish) *

Sukumar Ray Sukumar Ray (; 30 October 1887 – 10 September 1923) was a Bengali writer and poet from the Indian subcontinent. He is remembered mainly for his writings for children. He was the son of children's story writer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury and ...

(Indian) Bengali literature *

Gianni Rodari Giovanni Francesco "Gianni" Rodari (; 23 October 1920 – 14 April 1980) was an Italian writer and journalist, most famous for his works of children's literature, notably '' Il romanzo di Cipollino''. For his lasting contribution as a children's ...

(Italian) * Erik Satie (French) * Amos Tutuola (Nigerian) *

Boris Vian Boris Vian (; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sulliva ...

(French)

Popular culture

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

wrote some lyrics that contain nonsense techniques, especially around the mid-1960s, in songs like "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" and "

Tombstone Blues "Tombstone Blues" is the second song on Bob Dylan's 1965 album ''Highway 61 Revisited''. Musically it is influenced by the blues, while the lyrics are typical of Dylan's surreal style of the period, with such lines as "the sun's not yellow, it's ...

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

, of the art rock/ new wave group

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...

, employed nonsensical techniques in songwriting. Byrne often combined coherent yet unrelated phrases to make up nonsensical lyrics in songs such as: "

Burning Down the House "Burning Down the House" is a song by new wave band Talking Heads, released in July 1983 as the first single from their fifth studio album ''Speaking in Tongues''. Inspiration and composition "Burning Down the House" is a new wave and funk s ...

", "Making Flippy Floppy" and "Girlfriend Is Better". This tendency formed the basis of the title for the Talking Heads concert movie, ''

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''. More recently, Byrne published ''Arboretum'' (2006), a volume of tree-like diagrams that are, "mental maps of imaginary territory". He continues, explaining the aspect of nonsense: "Irrational logic – .. The application of logical scientific rigor and form to basically irrational premises. To proceed, carefully and deliberately, from nonsense, with a straight face, often arriving at a new kind of sense."

Syd Barrett Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, and musician who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was their original frontman and primary songwriter, becoming known for his ...

, founder of

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

, was known for his often nonsensical songwriting influenced by Lear and Carroll that featured heavily on Pink Floyd's first album, ''

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'' is the debut studio album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 5 August 1967 by EMI Columbia. It is the only Pink Floyd album made under the leadership of founding member Syd Barrett (lead vocals, g ...

''.

Glen Baxter Glen Baxter is the name of: * Glen Baxter (artist) (born 1944), British cartoonist * Glen Baxter (journalist) Glen Baxter is a Canadian television journalist. He hosted CTV's ''In Fashion'' and reported for FashionTelevisionChannel. Early l ...

's comic work is often nonsense, relying on the baffling interplay between word and image. ''

The Tomfoolery Show ''The Tomfoolery Show'' is a 1970-1971 American animated comedy television series, based on the works of Edward Lear which aired on NBC. The animation was done at the Halas and Batchelor Studios in London and Stroud. Though the works of other writ ...

'' was an American cartoon comedy television series based on the nonsense works of Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, and others. ''

Zippy the Pinhead Zippy the Pinhead is a fictional character who is the protagonist of ''Zippy'', an American comic strip created by Bill Griffith. Zippy's most famous quotation, "Are we having fun yet?", appears in ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' and became a ...

'', by

Bill Griffith William Henry Jackson Griffith (born January 20, 1944) is an American cartoonist who signs his work Bill Griffith and Griffy. He is best known for his surreal comedy, surreal daily comic strip ''Zippy the Pinhead, Zippy''. The catchphrase "Are w ...

, is an American strip that mixes philosophy, including what has been called "Heideggerian disruptions" and pop culture in its nonsensical processes.Lecercle, pp. 108–109

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

*Allen, Woody, ''Without Feathers''. New York, Random House, 1972. *Benson, John P. ''The Woozlebeasts''. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co., 1905. *Burgess, Anthony. ''A Long Trip to Teatime''. London: Dempsey and Squires, 1976. *Carroll, Lewis (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1865). ed. Donald J. Gray, 2nd edition. London: Norton, 1992. _________. ''The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll''. London: Nonesuch Press, 1940. *Daly, Nicholas. ''A Wanderer in Og''. Cape Town: Double Storey Books, 2005. * ggers, Dave and his brother Christopheraka Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey'. ''Giraffes? Giraffes!'', The Haggis-On-Whey World of Unbelievable Brilliance, Volume 1., Earth: McSweeney's, 2003. _________. ''Your Disgusting Head: The Darkest, Most Offensive—and Moist—Secrets of Your Ears, Mouth and Nose, Volume 2., 2004.
_________. ''Animals of the Ocean, In particular the giant squid'', Volume 3, 2006
_________. ''Cold Fusion'', Volume 4, 2008 * Gordon, Mike. ''Mike's Corner: Daunting Literary Snippets from Phish's Bassist''. Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1997. * Gorey, Edward. ''Amphigorey''. New York: Perigee, 1972. _________. ''Amphigorey too''. New York: Perigee, 1975.
_________. ''Amphigorey Also''. Harvest, 1983.
_________. ''Amphigorey Again''. Barnes & Noble, 2002. *Kipling, Rudyard, ''Just So Stories''.New York: Signet, 1912. *Lawson, JonArno. ''Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of the Box''. Erin: The Porcupine's Quill, 2012. *Lear, Edward, ''The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense''. Ed. Vivian Noakes. London: Penguin, 2001. *Lee, Dennis, ''Alligator Pie''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975. *Lennon, John, ''Skywriting by Word of Mouth and other writings, including The Ballad of John and Yoko''. New York: Perennial, 1986. _________. ''The Writings of John Lennon: In His Own Write, A Spaniard in the Works'' New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964, 1965. *Milligan, Spike, Silly Verse for Kids. London: Puffin, 1968. *Morgenstern, Christian, The Gallows Songs: Christian Morgenstern's "Galgenlieder", trans. Max Knight. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963. *Peake, Mervyn, ''A Book of Nonsense''. London: Picador, 1972. _________. ''Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor''. London: Country Life Book, 1939.
_________. ''Rhymes Without Reason''. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1944.
_________. ''Titus Groan''. London:, London: Methuen, 1946. *Rasmussen, Halfdan. ''Hocus Pocus: Nonsense Rhymes'', adapted from Danish by Peter Wesley-Smith, Illus. IB Spang Olsen. London: Angus & Robertson, 1973. *Ravishankar, Anushka, ''Excuse Me Is This India?'' illus. by Anita Leutwiler, Chennai: Tara Publishing, 2001. _________. ''Wish You Were Here'', Chennai: Tara Publishing, 2003.
_________. ''Today is My Day'', illus. Piet Grobler, Chennai: Tara Publishing, 2003. *Richards, Laura E., ''I Have a Song to Sing You: Still More Rhymes'', illus. Reginald Birch. New York, London: D. Appleton—Century Company, 1938. _________. ''Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New'', illus. Marguerite Davis. London: George G. Harrap, 1933. *Roethke, Theodore, I Am! Says the Lamb: a joyous book of sense and nonsense verse, illus. Robert Leydenfrost. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1961. *Rosen, Michael, ''Michael Rosen's Book of Nonsense'', illus. Claire Mackie. Hove: Macdonald Young Books, 1997. *Sandburg, Carl, ''Rootabaga Stories''. London: George G. Harrap, 1924. _________. ''More Rootabaga Stories''. *Schweitzer, Louise, ''One Wild Flower'' (PhD thesis), London: Austin Macauley, 2012 *Seuss, Dr. '' On Beyond Zebra!''New York: Random House, 1955. *Thurber, James, ''The 13 Clocks'', 1950. New York: Dell, 1990. *Watts, Alan, ''Nonsense''. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1975; originally Stolen Paper Review Editions, 1967.

Anthologies

*''A Book of Nonsense Verse'', collected by Langford Reed, Illus. H.M. Bateman. New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1926. *''The Book of Nonsense'', edited by Paul Jennings. London: Raven Books, 1977. *''The Chatto Book of Nonsense Poetry'', ed.

Hugh Haughton Hugh Haughton is an academic, author, editor and specialist in Irish literature and the literature of nonsense. Born in Cork, Ireland and educated at Leighton Park School and then Cambridge and Oxford, Haughton is a professor at the Universi ...

. London: Chatto & Windus, 1988. *''The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse'', ed. Louise Guinness. New York: Everyman, 2004. *''The Faber Book of Nonsense Verse'', ed.

Geoffrey Grigson Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson (2 March 1905 – 25 November 1985) was a British poet, writer, editor, critic, exhibition curator, anthologist and naturalist. In the 1930s he was editor of the influential magazine ''New Verse'', and went on to p ...

. London: Faber, 1979. *''A Nonsense Anthology'', collected by Carolyn Wells. New York: Charles Schribner's Sons, 1902. *''The Nonsensibus'', Compiled by D.B.Wyndham Lewis. London: Methuen, 1936 *''O, What Nonsense!'', selected by William Cole, illus. Tomi Ungerer. London: Methuen & Co., 1966. *''The Puffin Book of Nonsense Verse'', selected and illus. Quentin Blake. London: Puffin, 1994. *''Pumpkin Grumpkin: Nonsense Poems from Around the World'', Collected by John Agard and Grace Nichols. London: Walker Books, 2011. *''The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense'', ed. Michael Heyman, with Sumanyu Satpathy and Anushka Ravishankar. New Delhi: Penguin, 2007. The blog for this book and Indian nonsense

*''This Book Makes No Sense'', ed. Michael Heyman. New Delhi: Scholastic, 2012. A slim volume for all ages that includes a piece on how to write nonsense.

Secondary sources

*Andersen, Jorgen, "Edward Lear and the Origin of Nonsense" English Studies, 31 (1950): 161–166. *Baker, William, "T.S. Eliot on Edward Lear: An Unnoted Attribution," English Studies, 64 (1983): 564–566. *Bouissac, Paul, "Decoding Limericks: A Structuralist Approach," Semiotica, 19 (1977): 1–12. *Byrom, Thomas, ''Nonsense and Wonder: The Poems and Cartoons of Edward Lear''. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1977. *Cammaerts, Emile, ''The Poetry of Nonsense''. London: Routledge, 1925. *Chesterton, G.K., "A Defence of Nonsense," in The Defendant (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1914), pp. 42–50. *Chitty, Susan, ''That Singular Person Called Lear''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988. *Colley, Ann C., Edward Lear and the Critics. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1993. _________. "Edward Lear's Limericks and the Reversals of Nonsense," Victorian Poetry, 29 (1988): 285–299.
_________. "The Limerick and the Space of Metaphor," Genre, 21 (Spring 1988): 65–91. *Cuddon, J.A., ed., revised by C.E. Preston, "Nonsense," in A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 4th edition (Oxford: Blackwell, 1976, 1998), pp. 551–58. *Davidson, Angus, Edward Lear: Landscape Painter and Nonsense Poet. London: John Murray, 1938. *Deleuze, Gilles, The Logic of Sense, trans. Mark Lester with Charles Stivale, ed. Constantin V. Boundas. London: The Athlone Press, (French version 1969), 1990. *Dilworth, Thomas, "Edward Lear's Suicide Limerick," The Review of English Studies, 184 (1995): 535–38. _________. "Society and the Self in the Limericks of Lear," The Review of English Studies, 177 (1994): 42–62. *Dolitsky, Marlene, Under the Tumtum Tree: From Nonsense to Sense. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1984. *Ede, Lisa S., "The Nonsense Literature of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll". unpublished PhD dissertation, Ohio State University, 1975. _________. "Edward Lear's Limericks and Their Illustrations" in Explorations in the Field of Nonsense, ed. Wim Tigges (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1987), pp. 101–116.
_________. "An Introduction to the Nonsense Literature of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll" in Explorations in the Field of Nonsense, ed. Wim Tigges (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1987), pp. 47–60. *Flescher, Jacqueline, "The language of nonsense in Alice," Yale French Studies, 43 (1969–70): 128–44 *Graziosi, Marco, "The Limerick" on Edward Lear Home Page *Guiliano, Edward, "A Time for Humor: Lewis Carroll, Laughter and Despair, and The Hunting of the Snark" in Lewis Carroll: A Celebration, ed. Edward Guiliano (New York, 1982), pp. 123–131. *Haight, M.R., "Nonsense," British Journal of Aesthetics, 11 (1971): 247–56. *Hark, Ina Rae, ''Edward Lear''. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982. _________. "Edward Lear: Eccentricity and Victorian Angst," Victorian Poetry, 16 (1978): 112–122. *Heyman, Michael, ''Isles of Boshen: Edward Lear in Context''. PhD dissertation, University of Glasgow, 1999. _________. "A New Defense of Nonsense; or, 'Where is his phallus?' and other questions not to ask" in Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Winter 1999–2000. Volume 24, Number 4 (186–194)
_________. "An Indian Nonsense Naissance" in ''The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense'', edited by Michael Heyman, with Sumanyu Satpathy and Anushka Ravishankar. New Delhi: Penguin, 2007.
_________. "Nonsense", with Kevin Shortsleeve, in ''Keywords for Children's Literature''. eds.

Philip Nel Philip W. Nel (born March 29, 1969) is an American scholar of children's literature and University Distinguished Professor of English at Kansas State University. He is best known for his work on Dr. Seuss and ''Harry Potter'', which has led to hi ...

and Lissa Paul. New York: NYU Press, 2011.
_________.
The Perils and Nonpereils of Literary Nonsense Translation.
Words Without Borders. 2 June 2014. *Hilbert, Richard A., "Approaching Reason's Edge: 'Nonsense' as the Final Solution to the Problem of Meaning," Sociological Inquiry, 47.1 (1977): 25–31 *Huxley, Aldous, "Edward Lear," in ''On the Margin'' (London: Chatto & Windus, 1923), pp. 167–172 *Lecercle, Jean-Jacques, ''Philosophy of Nonsense: The Intuitions of Victorian Nonsense Literature''. London, New York: Routledge, 1994. *Lehmann, John, ''Edward Lear and his World''. Norwich: Thames and Hudson, 1977. *Malcolm, Noel, ''The Origins of English Nonsense''. London: Fontana/HarperCollins, 1997. *McGillis, Roderick, "Nonsense," ''A Companion to Victorian poetry'', ed. by Richard Cronin, Alison Chapman, and Anthony Harrison. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002. 155–170. *Noakes, Vivien, ''Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer'', 1968. Glasgow: Fontana/Collins, revised edition 1979. _________. ''Edward Lear, 1812–1888''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985. *Nock, S. A., "Lacrimae Nugarum: Edward Lear of the Nonsense Verses," Sewanee Review, 49 (1941): 68–81. *Orwell, George, "Nonsense Poetry" in ''Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays''. London: Secker and Warburg, 1950. pp. 179–184 *Osgood Field, William B., ''Edward Lear on my Shelves''. New York: Privately Printed, 1933. *Partridge, E., "The Nonsense Words of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll," in ''Here, There and Everywhere: Essays Upon Language'', 2nd revised edition. London: Hamilton, 1978. *Prickett, Stephen, ''Victorian Fantasy''. Hassocks: The Harvester Press, 1979. *Reike, Alison, ''The Senses of Nonsense''. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1992. *Robinson, Fred Miller, "Nonsense and Sadness in Donald Barthelme and Edward Lear," ''South Atlantic Quarterly'', 80 (1981): 164–76. *Sewell, Elizabeth, ''The Field of Nonsense''. London: Chatto and Windus, 1952. *Stewart, Susan, ''Nonsense: Aspects of Intertextuality in Folklore and Literature''. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1979. *Swifty, Tom, ''Perplexicon: Your Pea-Green Guide to Nonsense Literature''. Rotterdam: Brave New Books, 2016. An earlier edition was published in 2015 as ''A Course in Nonsense''. *Tigges, Wim, ''An Anatomy of Literary Nonsense''. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1988. _________. "The Limerick: The Sonnet of Nonsense?" ''Dutch Quarterly Review'', 16 (1986): 220–236.
_________. ed., ''Explorations in the Field of Nonsense''. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1987. *van Leeuwen, Hendrik, "The Liaison of Visual and Written Nonsense," in ''Explorations in the Field of Nonsense'', ed. Wim Tigges (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1987), pp. 61–95. *Wells, Carolyn, "The Sense of Nonsense," Scribner's Magazine, 29 (1901): 239–48. *Willis, Gary, "Two Different Kettles of Talking Fish: The Nonsense of Lear and Carroll," ''Jabberwocky'', 9 (1980): 87–94. *Wullschläger, Jackie, ''Inventing Wonderland, The Lives and Fantasies of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, J.M. Barrie, Kenneth Grahame, and A.A. Milne''. London: Methuen, 1995.

External links

Gromboolia: The Nonsense Literature site. A general site, with growing resources

A Blog of Bosh: dedicated to nonsense literature and Edward Lear

{{DEFAULTSORT:Literary Nonsense Humanities

Nonsense Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous. Many poets, novelists and songwriters have u ...

Nonsense

History

Theory

Distinction

Audience

Nonsense writers

Popular culture

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

Primary sources

Anthologies

Secondary sources

External links