Child of the pure unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
Though time be fleet, and I and thou
Are half a life asunder,
Thy loving smile will surely hail
The love-gift of a fairy-tale.
There's also the live action special effects blockbuster by those
same people . . .
As well as more recent works like certain grown-up dramas
also made by the Mouse-Ears people . . .
(Granted, I actually like that show a bit more than their
other “Once Upon a Time” show. I’m sorry
to see it go now that it's cancelled). Now, I know that most
people don’t see this as a big deal.
However, I think that, because of this, Through the Looking Glass could use a little TLC (that’s “tender
love and care”). It deserves a little
extra special attention and boosting because it hasn’t had it in a while.
First, some background on the author. Lewis Carroll was the penname of Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson. Dodgson was a
mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. Let’s let the irony of that sink in for a
second. The amazingly nonsensical worlds
of Wonderland and the Looking-Glass Country were created by a mathematician and logician. He was one of eleven children and suffered
from a stammer as well as a number of other physical ailments. He did a fair bit of writing but it wasn’t
until one day when he invented the story that would become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to the children of a friend that
his fairy tale destiny was written. One
child, Alice Liddell, liked the story so much that she insisted he write it
down. He did and gave it to her as a
gift. He then showed the book to another
friend, George MacDonald (author of literary fairy tale The Princess and the Goblin among others). After an enthusiastic review from MacDonald’s
children, Dodgson decided to get it published (some accounts say that he was
urged on by novelist Henry Kingsley).
The book hit the stands in 1863 and was an immediate success. The sequel Through the Looking Glass was published in 1871. Other things have been said about Lewis
Carroll, but I’m going to leave it at that, because I’m a nice guy.
Inside the looking-glass house, she finds that things are
just a little bit different. Some items
on the mantel that she can only see the back of through the mirror are
different in the front. She also comes
across a collection of chess pieces that are all alive. She takes a look at a book and realizes that
she can only read it by putting it up to a mirror. In the book, she finds the one poem that
every children’s literature fan, fairy tale geek and Lewis Carroll scholar
seems to take great joy in stumbling over.
That’s right, it’s “Jabberwocky”!
The Red Queen from the chess set has grown to the size of a
human being and shows Alice
that the Looking-Glass Country is laid out like a giant chessboard. After Alice muses that she would like to be a
queen, the Red Queen tells her that it is possible if Alice becomes a White
Pawn and manages to get to the eighth square on the chessboard (note: this is
in keeping with the rules of chess. A
pawn that gets to the other side of the board can be exchanged for a Queen that
has been captured). This sets the stage
for the rest of Alice ’s
adventure in the Looking-Glass Country as she moves from squares to
square. I think this is an interesting
set-up, basing the adventure around a chess game. Also, Alice ’s
goal of becoming a queen is interesting in comparison to her more directionless
wandering in her trip to Wonderland. Along
the way, she meets a number of different unusual characters. These include Tweedledee and Tweedledum who
recite poetry for her, introduce her to an existential quandary regarding the
Red King and then act out their nursery rhyme.
She also meets the ever-famous Humpty Dumpty, who tells her
what an un-birthday is, recites some more poetry and butchers the English
language as he sees fit.
Other notables include the Lion and the Unicorn
and the White Knight.
It isn’t long after that Alice makes her way to the eighth square and
becomes a queen. I don’t want to give
too much away because it’s better to read it than hear about it. After all, you miss some terrific,
nonsensical wordplay if you just hear about it.
Now, you
may just be thinking “Well, that’s all well and good, but why’s it a big deal
to focus on this book separate from Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland? What makes
this book different from the other Wonderland book?” Well, you have a little bit of a point. They’re both nonsensical, dream-like
adventures featuring Alice . However, it should be noted that when taken
together, there is far more nonsense in both than you can ever get in one of
those “greatest hits” Alice
in Wonderland adaptations. Also, Carroll
scholars will point to other things. The
two books are kind of mirror images.
While Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland takes place in summer, Through
the Looking-Glass takes place in late autumn. While Wonderland
uses cards, Looking-Glass uses
chess. However, there is one other thing
that I personally noted upon reading this book.
Unlike the characters in Wonderland,
the Looking-Glass characters are not
mad. It’s the world behind the
looking-glass that is mad and the characters just comply with it. Everywhere Alice goes, the rules as she understands them
do not seem to apply. Or, rather, they
seem to apply one moment and not apply the next. Shortly after meeting the Red Queen, the
Queen takes Alice ’s
hand and starts running at fantastic speed.
When they stop, Alice
notices they are in the same place. The
Queen tells her that this is because in that world, you have to run as fast as
you can just to stay in one spot and run even faster to get anywhere. This does not seem to make sense though, as
walking at normal speed gets people to all sorts of places. Later, the Lion and the Unicorn instruct Alice in how to serve
looking-glass cake which involves cutting it after it has already been passed
around. This happens throughout the
book. Tweedledee and Tweedledum manage
to even call Alice ’s
reality into question by suggesting she was dreamed up by a sleeping Red
King. The only rules that seem to hold
fast are the rules of the giant chess game that’s going on (which there are
references to in Alice ’s
many interactions with the various chess pieces).
All in all, I think Through
the Looking-Glass deserves a little more recognition apart from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Partially because of the interesting set up
involving the chess game and Alice ’s
goal of becoming a queen, and also because of the unique nature of the
Looking-Glass Country being a place where the rules never seem to apply for
very long. What say you?
Hey Adam! Been enjoying your posts and will be adding you to the 'other sources of tale news' blogroll. :)
ReplyDeleteOne question: I don't see a way to contact you via email or message (I can't find you on Twitter or FB) but I send messages to other active fairy tale bloggers from time to time and wanted to add you, if you're interested. Send me a mail when you get a chance: fairytalenews AT gmail DOT com.
Cheers!
PS Pity about the name Fairy Tale Geek - that suits the blog perfectly! Did you consider adding 'the'? (As in, TheFairyTaleGeek) Or perhaps FairyTaleGeekGuy? I had a similar issue with OnceUponABlog so found a work around for the URL and used OUABlog as my title, adding a clear descriptive by-line and have had no issues. The Tumblr I found using the name Fairy Tale Geek appears to be defunct - which is good for you!
I never quite enjoyed the Alice books as a kid. Part of it might be that I had only access to a heavily edited german translation (Carroll REALLY doesn't hold up in translations), part of it was the dark atmosphere (I don't mean the Queen of Hearts. Her over the top antics are fun. The Duchess seemed more threatening to me as a child).
ReplyDeleteAs an adult, I reread both books in english and now I adore them both, even though I like Through The looking Glass a little better. Hunting of the Snark couldnt really catch my attention though (not a fan of long poems) and I haven't gotten around to try Sylvie and Bruno yet.
As for Dodgsons profession: The (seemingly) nonsensical worlds of the Wonderland and the land behind the Looking Glass, fit suprisingly well into the mindset of a mathematician, because as bizarre the world may seem at a first glance, rules do exist... they are just really unusual from a "normal" perspective.
To be honest: I've always been more interested in the wordplay than the games of logic, but I gotta admit Dodgson was a master at both
In case you are interested in some deeper analysis about the Alice books, their author and the illustrator John Teniell, I can reccomend The Annotated Alice by Martin Gardner, which explains the historical, ligustic and mathematical background of the books i great detail without getting boring.