The Further Adventures of Doctor Dolittle

The day dawned   bright and breezy,

so Doctor Dolittle  hopped onto his adventure-ship

and sailed  the seven   seas …

He sailed them up, he sailed them down,

borne on   by the breeze …

He looked at things through his spyglass;

by night, he took his ease.

While A-L-L-l-l-l    /the animals --

Gubgub  and  /Dabdab  /and all his friends,

frolicked on the deck,

in seventh heaven.

Eventually, they grew sleepy;

they thought of their nice warm beds.

And so they sailed back, tired and happy,

to Puddleby,  in time for their bedtime snack.

“What a swell adventure,”

they said.

Night / night;  sleep /  tight;

Don’t  / let   //  the bedbugs bite!!

What is it like to be a bat??

That classic query by the philosopher Thomas Nagel  has for many decades  stood as an uncrackable conundrum.  Yet, surprisingly, until right now, no-one has thought of simply asking a bat what it is like.

And so, speaking through an interpreter (none other than our good friend and colleague  Dr John Dolittle, of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh), we put the question to an amiable fruitbat of our acquaintance, and he replied as follows:

efInfn2090sdpqoieavnq¥ÉÀ$)Benv8Y$%&JœÃKJGF$##!@!FFGIU^$FDF+(Kk+=ÕefInfn2090sdpqoi‰ÂÊnq¥ÉÀ$)B4rtwgsnY$%&JK?>GKJGF$##!@!FŸU^$FD®+(KÍ+=ÕefInfn2090sdpqoieavnq¥ÉÀ$)BU5¢Y$%&J∆™¿JGF$##!@!F»ñIU^$FDF+(Kk+=Õ …

According to the good Doctor, that all makes perfect sense in bat-language, and presents a fascinating portrait of the cave-dwelling, upside-down-hanging, echo-locating, fruit- and bug-eating, night-flying life (ah what delight, to mate  in mid-flight!) of these nocturnal vespertilians:  but unfortunately the account is not translatable into English.

For more on the excellent Professor Nagel, try here:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/search/label/Thomas%20Nagel

[Update]   The bulk of Lofting’s late novel Doctor Dolittle’s Garden (1927)  concerns just such an exercise:  learning the language of insects.   The book is alas not so engaging as its predecessors, simply because such creatures must be forever inscrutable to our psychic understanding.  (Granted, one entomologist could write a fine book titled For Love of Insects.)

The illustrations, however, continue to be outstanding.   He was his own E.H. Shepherd, so to speak, and one increasingly appreciates his qualities as a draughtsman.

[Bibliographic post-note]  In the course of seeking a .jpg to download, I came across a handful of purported “Dolittle” titles  of which I had not previously heard:  for the very good reason that they are latter-day fakes.   I shall not cite any of the titles  even to denounce them -- Nicht gedacht  soll seiner werden.  There is nothing wrong with coming up with new stories about characters broached by deceased authors -- most of European literature has been exactly that, since ancient times, and sometimes as a very explicit continuation as in the two halves Le roman de la rose, respectively by Guillaume de Lorris et Jean de Meung;  indeed, I have essayed such myself, in the matter of the good doctor, here:  Doctor Dolittle voyages to visit the Penguin King.   But these commercial ventures seek lucre by passing some hasty new Machwerk off  as from Lofting’s own hand (for legal reasons, the covers merely say “based on stories by HUGH LOFTING”, hoping you’ll skip over the fine print, and do not name the ghostwriter;  but catalogues, with only an “Author: “ field and no “Fake author: “ field, make no such distinction.)   And the illustrations are of an unspeakably humdrum nature; everything that made the Dolittle pictures special  has been lost.

Doctor Dolittle, Detective

Last year, after a gap of many decades, a new Winnie the Pooh book came out, from an English author so authorized by the Milne estate.  And now a well-known English actress is coming out with an authorized new Peter Rabbit.   So Doctor Dolittle is back in play, and up for grabs.

The world's best  wonderfulmost  Linguist-man

Here's my idea:

Doctor Dolittle, Detective

That prospective book-title  just now occurred to me.
I have no idea of a plot for it, apart from its being exciting, and having lots of animals.
(Oh!  Already I want to read that book!!  Only, I have to write it first.)
But I thought I'd share it with you in the meantime.
Maybe one of you can send me a neat plot-idea.
Or, even better, you could write the book yourself.

Meanwhile ...

For something nice about nice Doctor Dolittle, click here: 
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/03/exciting-story.html

For neat detective stuff, here:
http://murphybros.blogspot.com



[Update 7 Jan 2013]  O Nooes!!  Turns out Hugh Lofting already thought of that!  At this evening's story-time, we read, in Doctor Dolittle's Caravan (1924), of the amazing Case of the Burgled Blackbirds.

[Note:  For anyone raised on the Dr Dolittle books,  what follows may be somewhat upsetting.
No-one over the age of 60 should read the following  unless accompanied by a minor.]

So:  In order to free some birds from an ill-run pet-shop, Dr D does a B & E, followed by either larceny or at least Taking (legal experts differ), then flight to avoid arrest, culminating in [We warned you!  Oldsters stop reading now!]  physical assault upon a duly appointed officer of the law, to escape capture.

Subsequently, the evil pet-store-owner tracks him down (unclear how) and confronts him;  but Herr Doktor Dolittle counter-confronts him, in a variation of P.G.Wodehouse's line for Bertie Wooster, "I know all about Eulalie."  The intel being of course supplied by his animal-friends ...

~

Okay okay, got to think of something that never occurred to Mr Lofting. -- Got it!

Doctor Dolittle, Astronaut

[Update]  O Noooooezzz !!!   He already thought of that angle as well:  Doctor Dolittle in the Moon (1928).
I stare at the volume in disbelief (I have a whole shelfful of Dolittle books.)  In the moo-oon?!?  What's Doctor Dolittle doing in the moon??!?   And how'm I going to write a book that will sell a billion copies and make me richer than rich so's I can buy my nice yacht ??

Oh well.   Here are some books of mine.  Please buy billions.
 

http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justice.html

Heaven for Horses

Beppo the old wheelhorse  confides his vision of Paradise:

“The place I’ve always dreamed of,” said Beppo, gazing across the landscape with a wistful look in his old eyes, “is like this -- part of it is sloping and part of it is flat.  Slopes are such a nice change:  the grass is nearer to your nose, and the flats are restful to get back to  after the slopes.  Then it has trees, big spreading trees with fat trunks -- the kind horses love to stand under and think, after a hearty meal.  It has a copse where herbs and wild roots grow, the sorts we love to nibble for a change -- especially wild mint, which is soothing to the stomach when you’ve eaten too much.  It has good water -- not a muddy little pond, but a decent brook where the water is always sparkling and clear.  In a hollow  it has a nice old shelter with a dry floor  and a mossy, tiled roof that doesn’t let the rain in.  The pasture varies:  some places are firm, croppy turf;  others are deep, luscious, long hay-grass with buttercups and fragrant wildflowers mixed in it.  At the top of the hilly part  you can get a view of the sunsets to the westward and the south.  And on the summit there is a good firm post to scratch your neck on.  I love to watch the sun go down as I scratch my neck of an evening.  The whole place is protected with good fences from snappy dogs and worrisome people.  It is quiet.  It is peaceful.  And that, John Dolittle, is the place where I would spend my old age.”

-- Hugh Lofting, Doctor Dolittle’s Circus (1924)

Blessings, blessings;  amen.

For further fun adventures of nice Doctor Dolittle, simply click right here!

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/03/exciting-story.html

An Exciting Story

… in a great big clipper ship,

going from this land into that,

in a sailor’s  suit and cap …

-- Lou Reed  ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=nz6nq4AhFZE )

Doctor Dolittle had a good idea.  He decided to have an adventure.

He decided to get together his trusty ship  and sail to Antarctica,

to seek out the Penguin King.

He took along his friends for crew and company:

Tommy, Polynesia, Gub-Gub, and all the rest.

They packed special things in their duffel bags,

good things to eat, and things to keep warm.

This was an important scientific expedition.

Doctor Dolittle knew the penguin language very well,

but he needed to clear up some fine points about relative clauses and intransitive verbs.

They sailed, and they sailed, and they sailed.

Finally they reached Antarctica.  Lots of ice!

They looked all around as if they were lost.

Then Doctor Dolittle pulled out a map.

“It says here the Penguin King lives at the South Pole.”

So they all pulled on their mittens  and walked to the South Pole.

“Look!” said Gub-Gub. “Up ahead -- the Penguin King!”

And there he was.

He perched on a throne, and wore a golden crown.

That way everybody knew that he was King.

They said things like “Your Highness” and “Your Majesty” a lot.

It was fun.

Doctor Dolittle and the Penguin King said things in penguin talk.

The Penguin King asked how things were back at Oxford, where he’d read Greats.

Doctor Dolittle said that things back at Oxford were just swell.

Meanwhile Gub-Gub  played with the chicks.

“Well, it’s time for my nap,” said the Penguin King.

“Yes,” said the Doctor, “and we must be back at Puddleby in time for tea.”

So they shook hands (or flipper, as the case may be),

and Doctor Dolittle sailed back to England,

brushed his teeth, and went to bed.

Night night, sleep tight --

Don’t let the bedbugs bite !