Where can I find the version of "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll where, when listened to backwards, you can hear certain phrases by way of a self-fulfilling prophecy?

October 21, 2008 9:53 PM

Where can I find the version of "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll where, when listened to backwards, you can hear certain phrases by way of a self-fulfilling prophecy?

A few years back, my high school psych teacher played a reading of Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" backwards. The first time it was played it sounded like nonsense, but then she told us a couple phrases to listen to. After that, she played it again, and you could hear the phrases clear as day.

Does anyone happen to know where I could find a copy of that recording, along with what phrases can be heard?

posted by deansfurniture5 to media & arts (4 comments total)

FWIW, she might have been giving you a first-hand experience with suggestive psychology.
posted by self at 10:30 PM on October 21, 2008

Here's a copy I reversed of Ted Hughes reading it. Nonsense all the way down!

[link NSFSleeping, way too spooky.]
posted by soma lkzx at 10:49 PM on October 21, 2008 [2 favorites]

Awesome :)

If anyone can find the original Vokey/Read cassette tape, please post! Here's a pdf link to their original paper showing the effects of expectation on your perception of a message: they'd suggest a specific phrase for an ambiguous backwards excerpt from Jabberwocky or the 23rd psalm. It doesn't list all the phrases being suggested, but it does state that one of the backwards phrases from Jabberwocky was "Saw a girl with a weasel in her mouth". Yay!
posted by grippycat at 11:31 PM on October 21, 2008

Slightly OT, but you might want to check out Mimsy Were the Borogoves by the great Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner) just for fun.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 9:40 AM on October 23, 2008