These were issued in the 8 parts of the Gerva an Scrynkyer ('GanS') series. The editor of GanS, our own Geryadorer Dyslettrys, has agreed to undertake the arduous task of converting the original PDF files of GansS into HTML, so they can be read on this blog by a wider audience. We've had to promise An Mutyor Mur (as we're very privately calling El Sulko Grande!) that we'd let you know that all the versification in GansS is actually by him, under divers "self-deprecatingly humble pseudonyms, to allow him to explore a range of inner bardic avatars" [his words, not ours!].
It might be worth saying a little about the background to GanS, and the reasons we chose that vehicle for some of our writings. The initial inspiration for GanS was the Cynic's Dictionary (later renamed The Devil's Dictionary) by Ambrose Bierce (1842–ca.1914), an American writer and journalist. He used the form of a dictionary issued serially in a newspaper column to satirise hypocrisy and fakery in contemporary society. His Dictionary has been reprinted many times since, but a free public-domain version may be downloaded, along with most of his other writings, from The Gutenberg Project at:
Another satirist who influenced us was the English satirist Alexander Pope (1688–1744), who was noted for his waspish writings. Although it requires some explanation to today's readers, his Dunciad remains well worth reading. Many of his works are also available free from the same place:
Finally, the 17th-century Gaelic poet Iain 'Lom' MacDhòmhnaill was another source of encouragement; he was a fiercely anti-Hanoverian Jacobite with a savage turn of phrase, and one of the most acid pens ever wielded (metaphorically, anyway; ma's math mo chuimhne, as I recall, he's thought to have been illiterate!). His nickname, Lom, has a range of possible meanings: bare or bald on the one hand, and sharp or cutting on the other. Some reckon the nickname refers to his alleged baldness, but the concensus is generally behind the sharp/cutting/satirical meaning of the word. Gaelic Lom is possibly cognate both with the Cornish word lym (Welsh llym) in its sharp sense, and C. lom in its bald sense. One of the poems in GanS even has a wee tribute to 'Jowan Lym' as we might dub him; in Issue 5 under the headword 'obscurantist vocabulary' we have a nice little satire attributed to An Cragh-varthyk Lym. Some of Iain Lom's works may be read in translation on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Lom
A typographical note: there are various points of view expressed in GanS; those of the Kemmynites are given in Sans Serif, while everybody elses' are in a Traditional Serif font. If your Web browser is set to override this, you'll see the whole thing in just your chosen font.
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