Reading Notes: Through the Looking Glass, Part A


Lewis Carroll has such an interesting way of telling a story. Not only are the characters that he creates unique and inventive, but they stand out which such vivid detail that is it just tremendously easy to imagine them. The way he uses words is also highly distinct – whimsy cuts through the story because of the dialog between the normal Alice and the absolutely abnormal circumstances. I’ve never read the sequel of Alice in Wonderland, so this was interesting for me to read it. It was obvious right from the start that this was a sequel to such a fabulous adventure from last time. He also has a ways of putting pretty fantastic poetry within his stories, something that people struggle with JUST having a poem in the middle.

An example of fine poetry (that’s funny at the same time) was the “Jabberwocky” poem, which was filled with all sorts of great wordplay and odd use of language. An example of odd wording was, “ ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves”. I’m not even sure what this phrase was even supposed to mean within the context of them poem and neither did Alice! For me, it gives the effect of losing sanity within this world that Alice is caught in. Up is down. Left is right. The words that people normally use are thrown out the window. Alice is the empathetic character within this series.

The ideas that I’ve grabbed from this week’s stories were having a sane protagonist maybe go into a world or place that makes no sense when you apply normal rules of logic. It would definitely be a great challenge to come up with situations and characters that make no sense when looking at them from our point of view, but within their world, it makes perfect sense!

The Jabberwocky
Illustration by John Tenniel (1871)

"Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" by Lewis Carroll (1871)

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