top of page

Day #278: Little Nemo Shees into Ottawa

"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated February 05, 1911:


Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (MARCH 17, 2021):


So, I'm gunna start out by saying that I've got no idea what "sheeing" is… I've never heard skiing called that in my entire 31 years of existence in this country. - 1/21

We Canadians might have an accent, but that one is pushing it… - 2/21

This strip, our group arrives in Ottawa… which kind of gets short shrift in this series as it's pretty much just a snowball fight, skiing and leaving… - 3/21

As has been the case with the last couple, we do get mention of some of Ottawa's sights. These include places like… - 4/21

Chaudière Falls: - 5/21

Rideau Hall: - 6/21

And the statue of Queen Victoria on Parliament Hill: - 7/21 [insert image]

We also hear mention of "war canoes" which is a reference to an obscure Canadian water sport: - 8/21

Now, in panel 1, the group passes by the Ottawa City Hall. Now, this is *not* the city hall that I know, but the second one that functioned from 1877-1931 when a fire burned it down: - 9/21

Again, Impie is left on the airship for the duration of the strip and is only seen a handful of times, wrapped up in his now common red shawl. - 10/21

So, while I don't have a ton to say about today's strip… I want to toss out a theory based on a pattern that I've noticed over the last couple strips in this series. - 11/21

For starters… where are the adults? The strips in the Sightseeing Series have been exclusively focused on kids. Post cards to kids… kid guides… kid crowds… - 12/21

Certainly, this can be explained away by remembering that this is, in fact, a children's comic strip, right? - 13/21

OR… what if this series is just one large-scale collective dream? All the young people, nestled in their beds, dreaming about snowball fights, and skiing, and tobogganing, and snowshoeing, etc. - 14/21

I really have to thank @gnuconsulting for causing me to think more about this. Yesterday, he commented on the realism of these strips and it got me thinking… - 15/21

Now, undeniably these strips are grounded in realism; we are visiting waking-world locations in dreams. - 16/21

But, I started wondering about how that worked within the dreamscape and why things weren't a little *less* realistic. Nemo has (presumably) never been to these places and yet they're largely true to life. - 17/21

I couldn't quite figure it out. - 18/21

This thought was floating in my mind while reading the strip today, which made me notice the "children without adults" situation… - 19/21

This reading not only answers that question, but also the one about the realism of these strips, which could be explained away by the subconscious memory of the children co-dreaming with Nemo; it's realistic because they live there and he is visiting their dreams. - 20/21

Just a theory, maybe a far-fetched one, but one worth chatting about, I thought. What do you all think? - 21/21

Commentaires


bottom of page