ABSTRACT
Lewis Carroll’s poem ‘The Barrister’s Fit’, contained in The Hunting of the Snark (1876), consists of nonsense and absurdity applied to the lens of the law. Yet, examining the real law, both in Carroll’s time and after, reveals that absurdity and nonsense are essential components of the Anglo-American legal system. Thus, this Article shows, through the lens of Carroll’s dreamworld, that the most effective and accurate literary satire of the legal system may be through nonsense literature, which alone captures how little sense the law makes even to those of us who practice it. This draft (the last before proofs) completed in July 2025. Please excuse any minor errors, many of which were caught in the subsequent galley proof process.
Granet, Elijah Zachary, Snark Staring Mad (July 1, 2025). Forthcoming in Law and Literature.
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