Friday, July 24, 2015

The More I Read 'Alice,' The More I Feel A Need To Understand It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


                                     To think it was originally called "Alice's Adventures Underground."   "Wonderland" certainly has a nicer ring.  to it, and sounds a much more desirable location.  To think this book is now 150 years old, having been published in 1865.  Then, six years later, in 1871, Lewis Carroll wrote, "Through The Looking Glass (And What Alice Found There)."  Now it is officially titled "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland And Through The Looking Glass," with the two works incorporated into one volume, just as they are in adaptations, most notably Disney's animated cartoon (my favorite!) in 1951.

                                       It is a most deceptive book.  Children, or one with a child's perspective, can read it for the simple enjoyment of reading about a little girl, and her strange experiences in a unique place.  Wonderland is not threatening, like Oz, or the world of Harry Potter; it is just deceptive.

                                         The use of language is brilliant, and those of us who appreciate literature regard it as one of the greatest novels in the English language. And I concur. But to understand Lewis Carroll's work fully, you have to be also mathematically oriented, for Carroll himself was also a mathematician, and his books are made up also of mathematical constructs.  I recognize the set up, each time I read it, but, like a puzzle impossible to put together, I never quite get it.

                                         I wonder what a math major's take on the book would be.  I surely was not one.  And it is just that knowledge that I lack which makes this book elusive to me--the only work of fiction read thus far in my life that does so, in this manner.

                                           So, if there are any math geniuses out there, let me hear from you.

                                            Still, on a Summer afternoon, there is no place better to visit than Wonderland!

                                             Here is the "Jabberwocky Sequence" from the Disney film!  Enjoy!

                                              And how about "The Unbirthday Song?"

                                               Don't forget "The Walrus And The Carpenter!!!!!!!"

                                 And, finally, a Thomas Kinkade painting, celebrating Alice and her 
adventures!  Wouldn't we all like to be where she is, darlings????????????

                                   You know I would!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


No comments:

Post a Comment