Alice, Caroll and me in Wonderland!

Alice, Caroll and me in Wonderland!


    Alice in Wonderland was written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Caroll with illustrations by John Tenniel in the year 1865.
     
      I am sure the readers of this blog (if there are any, that is) might have come across this book in their school days. To some, it might have left an indelible impression. And for some, and in this case me especially, might have been just another English lesson to be dreaded.
   
    Now, being part of a book club, has many advantages and with it some disadvantages as well. The disadvantage being, you are disrupted from your preferred choice of reading, and made to read books which you wouldn't have dared or cared to read in normal circumstances. The advantage being, you discover treasures at times by this mode of 'forced upon' reading. I re-discovered 'Alice in Wonderland', thanks to 'Cloud Watchers Society'.


    When I read it for the first time in school, I always thought Lewis Caroll was a woman ( 'Carol' being the name of one of my teachers who taught us 'Hindi') . My English teacher too, didn't prove to be of any help. With no background of the author discussed, we were thrown into the 'Rabbit Hole' with Alice. Thus the story was a no brainer for me right from the beginning. Save for some play of words, some mind warping poems, and a weird tea party the book held no interest for me.


      Now, talking about the author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was better known by the pseudonym Lewis Caroll was also a mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and a photographer besides being an author. Some called him a pedophile for his interest in child-photography, besides his disinterest in women were fostered by his various biographers. Many were led to believe 'Alice' was also an extension of his pedophilia.  The myth of Mr.Caroll's pedophilia were later quashed by one of his biographers Ms.Karoline Leach. She coined the term 'The Caroll Myth' after the traditional image of Lewis Caroll held by many. She asserted that the suggestions of pedophilia evolved only after many years of Mr.Caroll's death. This due to his family's efforts in suppressing all the evidence of his affairs with women, in order to protect his identity. 


      My re-discovery happened with the 'Annotated Alice' by Martin Gardner. This book incorporates the text of Lewis Caroll and the original illustration by John Tenniel. Its extensive annotations explain the poems, the mathematical concepts, word play which had left me confounded, even in my second attempt at reading it, after leaving school.


      Reading the 'The Annotated Alice' made me realize, the fact that the book has so many dark undertones, (which my untrained mind couldn't interpret) it surprised me even further when I recalled the fact that this book was said to be a children's book in the first place. Many meanings have been drawn out of every silly thing done by Alice, I wondered if Mr.Caroll (quite an oxymoron for me!) had a hidden agenda whilst writing the book.


      Take this for instance, 'The jar of orange marmalade, for example, is a symbol of Protestantism (William of Orange; get it?). The battle of the White and Red Knights is the famous clash of Thomas Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. The blue Caterpillar is Benjamin Jowett, the White Queen is Cardinal John Henry Newman, the Red Queen is Cardinal Henry Manning, the Cheshire Cat is Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman, and the Jabberwock "can only be a fearsome representation of the British view of the Papacy. . ." '.


      If  'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' wasn't enough to bewilder you, you also have the sequel to it 'Through the Looking Glass', which is all the more puzzling and mind bending. And Mr.Caroll completes his 'literary nonsense' masterpiece with two of his famous poems 'The Hunting of the Snark' and 'Jabberwocky'.


      But what I found very fascinating was the language used by Lewis Caroll. The play of words, be it in his poems or prose they are certainly worth 'drooling' over. My favourite happens to be "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter; "it's very easy to take more than nothing." The book is replete with such masterful prose and puzzles.
     
        Surely some might find it silly as I did for the first time, but the 'Wonderland' beckons you! And its worth taking a plunge into the 'Rabbit Hole'!