The "um"s in Little Nemo in Slumberland

Cafe Society
1

I’m reading a book of reprints of the Little Nemo in Slumberland comics by Winsor McCay, first published 1905-1911. It’s often been noted how crude McCay’s lettering is, especially compared to his spectacular artwork. But what also strikes me is the odd and awkward wording in a lot of the text. The most common oddity is the use of the word “um”, not as an indication of uncertainty or hesitancy in speech, but as some kind of forceful interjection. For example:

  1. In a scene where a man is scolding his giant servant called The Boob, Nemo says “This old missionary is a cross man. I wish he’d let The Boob alone! Um!”
  2. On an excursion to Mars, Flip discovers that he can float around in a fog bank and exclaims “Um! This is the swellest place I was ever in.”
  3. When Nemo is alamed by the approach of a mysterious horseman, he says “Um! What is that coming on horse back?”
  4. In a Planet of the Apes type of scenario, Nemo is lassoed by intelligent apes, and Flip runs away saying “Huh! Um! They’ll not rope me!!!”
  5. In a scene where Nemo’s toys start coming to life, Nemo says “They are coming to life! Oh! What do you think of that? Huh! Um!”
  6. In a scene where Flip disrupts a parade, Nemo says “Wait 'till the princess hears of this. Um!”

There are very many examples like this; practically on every page. Does this usage make sense to you? It feels very jarring to me when I come across these weird "um"s.

(BTW in one scene there is an interesting precursor to the theme of Asimov’s story Nightfall. On Mars, an inhabitant explains that they capture sunlight, store it and use it for illumination. After an accident at a sunlight storage facility, he says “We never have night or darkness on Mars! Those people will all die of fright in this darkness…!”)

2

Paging @Little_Nemo ?

3

If you replaced each “Um!” with “Hm!”, it would make more sense.

4

Interesting idea. Maybe it’s an idiosyncratic spelling of “hm”, although the usage still seems odd. In several scenes, a character shushes someone by saying “sheee!” rather than “shhh”, so it wouldn’t be the weirdest spelling in the book.

5

All I know is that Winsor McCay said it and that’s good enough for me.

6

I’m trying to think of what noises/inflections/gutterals could be transliterated as “Um”…

…Reminds me of when I started reading older British light fiction. Characters like Lord Peter Whimsey and Bertie Wooster would append “What?” to many of their comments. Questions, but also pronouncements. Jarring and confusing to a young yank (“Is it a separate sentence? Are they asking what someone said?”)

Then we were trying to decide where to go for lunch when a friend said, in a “vintage posh git” accent:

I saaay, chums, why don’t we all just pop down to McGinty’s Pub for a munch of pie and a pint, what?

And I said (out loud, I’m afraid) “Oh, THAT’S how you say ‘What’, what?”

.

Um!

7

We need an expert on English from the early 1900’s. My guess it’s just a variation of Huh! Possibly a forgotten artifact of speech from that time?

8

I would say more likely something only McCay did, as I can’t recall ever reading a book or anything else from the early 20th century with “um” used that way. Might even have baffled readers back then.
I appreciate Little Nemo but have to agree that the dialogue was stilted. Another thing McCay did was have Nemo say Oh! way too often.

9

I recall a couple of “Oh!”s (and a “Hum!”) in Maurice Sendak’s very McKay-esque In the Night Kitchen.