"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated May 11, 1909:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (DECEMBER 15, 2020):
Yet again, we find our friends lost at sea, unsure of what will come next… the Professor is upset about having left home (yet again) and Nemo and Flip are trying to make heads or tails of the situation. - 1/15
Wonderful shout out for "Niagara Falls" (the town from which I'm currently writing this thread… well, on the Canadian side)! - 2/15
Any excuse for a water strip is a good thing to me! But this one is particularly expert; lots of cool things going on from small waves to massive cresting ones, from a rushing waterfall to tranquil and peaceful water in the moonlight. - 3/15
Panel 7 is particularly interesting beyond the absolutely gorgeous scene it depicts, because it signals a change in Nemo; he's now agreeing with Flip that maybe the Princess doesn't want him around/doesn't think highly of him… - 4/15
I don't totally blame him in his thinking; ever since the Dancing Missionary pulled us from that series of realistic strips we've been smack in the middle of some strange happenings. - 5/15
In Nemo's mind, perhaps he's no longer seeing the Princess' efforts as genuine? Or, even worse, maybe he sees her as pushing him away? - 6/15
Thought the boys get tossed to and fro here in this strip, we eventually end up with them on dry land… that literally came out of nowhere. - 7/15
The penultimate panel is reminiscent of where we began just a few strips back with the palace being built/appearing to the boys. - 8/15
My first instinct is to suggest that they are stranded somewhere and lost, but remembering the previous panels from previous strips that looked like this, it's hard to feel worried in earnest. - 9/15
Of course, if McCay does intend to play on our expectations that is exactly what he'd *want* his readers to think… - 10/15
The final panel is the one that really has me revved up today. In it, Nemo says that he can't figure out what's going on… before quickly changing his mind and attributing it to nothing more than his dreaming mind. - 11/15
This seems like McCay specifically poking fun at attempts to logically explain the situation being perceived by saying that no explanation is needed beyond the dream. - 12/15
We've talked about this previously, and occasionally have settled on "dream logic" as the only possible answer during our attempts to make meaning here in these strips. - 13/15
This one reads to me like McCay making his intention clear: These are dreams; there is no logic. Whether we want to accept that or not is, I truly believe, up to us. - 14/15
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #196. What's yours? - 15/15