h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...someone came to the door...

H.

Oh, and it should be "Rime", by the way.

H.

Sorted the Rime bit - but the comment about the door I thought was an aside in the forum - did you want it re-instating?

shazz

"the comment about the door I thought was an aside in the forum"

I thought I was quite specific in the email that the "door" comment was a necessary part of the poem... but in the end I think it's better in this thread, because it gives me an excuse to explain myself. The person who posted immediately after me in the original thread obviously got the gag (he posted "the man from the porn shop?" ), but here's the explanation for everyone else.

"Kubla Khan" is the poem, or rather fragment, of which the first part of this entry is a pastiche (the second part is obviously based quite closely on the first few and last few verses of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" - and if you must title it, I think "Editor", with three syllables, fits better than the disyllabic "Moxon")...

The text of "Kubla Khan" came to Coleridge in a dream, fully-formed. He awoke, and began to transcribe the poem from memory. However, before he was finished, a man from Porlock came to the door and interrupted him. When he returned to his desk, he found he had forgotten the rest of the poem, and it remained forever unfinished. The identity of "the man from Porlock" is unknown, and we'll never know how "Kubla Khan" would have ended.

Readers of Douglas Adams's "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" will know that according to that book, the man from Porlock is in fact Dirk himself.

H.

Rats! You are correct - I thought you were referring to the '(I think you know what I'm saying)' bit.

Many apologies for ruining your masterpiece - I plead consumption - see spimcoot's cartoon for details.

shazz

I wouldn't say you've ruined it, and I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece... but if you really want to make me smile, you could take out that line "(I think you know what I'm saying )" and make it a footnote appended to the line about incense burning trees, and reinstate the smiley at the end of it... It's what I would have done had I posted this as an entry originally, rather than a posting.

Pleez?

Oh, and if you want my idea for a title, it would have been "Kubla Moxie and The Rime of the Ancient Editor"

H.

http://www.sesk.org/Aesthetics/Literature/English/Romantics/Coleridge/KublaKhan.htm

A humourous discussion of KK, which mentions our man from Porlock.

www.porlock.co.uk/about.htm

All about Porlock, which also mentions, Coleridge...

H.

I'll leave the title as it is if you don't mind now - 'tis a little late in the day to change it yet again - have footnoted as requested.

shazz