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| From Snarks |
They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
They charmed it with smiles and soap.
(Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits, 1874)
"In crook stories it is almost always the necklace,
and in spy stories it is most always the papers."
and in spy stories it is most always the papers."
(Alfred Hitchcock on the McGuffin, interviewed by Francois Truffaut, 1966)
Often throughout this journey we have wondered why. Why are we riding all day into headwinds on sandy roads? Why are we camping on a bare hillside surrounded by goats? Why did we craft such an elaborate and outlandish way to occupy ourselves during our grand year off? The romantic in me would like to think that we were on a quest of some sort, for an elusive object that always remained strangely out of reach.
