WEBVTT

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Imagine for a second that you are tumbling. Right,

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just completely in free fall. Exactly. You've

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just slipped down this dark, narrow tunnel, the

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earth completely giving way beneath you, and

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suddenly you're falling down a very, very deep

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well. But you're falling slowly. Yeah, so slowly,

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in fact, that you have plenty of time to just

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look around as you drift downward. And what do

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you actually see? Probably not what you'd expect

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in a dirt well. No, not at all. The walls aren't

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made of dirt or stone. They're lined with cupboards

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and bookshelves. There are maps and pictures

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hanging on little wooden pegs. It's basically

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a subterranean living room. Pretty much. And

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you reach out, your hand brushing past this strange

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underground wallpaper, and you grab a jar from

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a shelf as you flow past. The label, written

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in neat little letters, says orange marmalade.

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But of course you look inside and it's completely

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empty. Empty. So, politely, because you don't

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want to drop it on whoever might be standing

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far below you, you carefully place it back into

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another cupboard as you continue to fall. Down,

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down, down. Tumbling into a world where everything

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you thought you knew about logic, about rules,

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and about polite society is just about to be

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turned entirely aggressively on its head. It

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is the ultimate disorientation. Oh, absolutely.

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I mean, you are stripped of your geographical

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coordinates, your physical stability, and very

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soon, your fundamental sense of identity. You

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aren't just falling through space. No, you are

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falling through the cracks of reality itself.

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And that feeling of absolute free fall is the

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entire premise of today's deep dive. We are looking

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at a story that practically invented the modern

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portal fantasy. It really did set the blueprint

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for all of them. It did, and we have a massive

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stack of sources today. We're looking at the

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original 1865 text of Lewis Carroll's Alice's

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Adventures in Wonderland, along with just extensive

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historical, literary, and cultural data surrounding

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it. It's a lot of material to cover. It is, but

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our mission... is to discover how a simple, entirely

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made -up story told to three little girls on

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a rowboat completely revolutionized children's

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literature and became one of the most culturally

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pervasive texts in human history. So let's unpack

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this. Our approach today, though, requires stepping

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away from the superficial stuff. Right, we're

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not just doing a plot summary. Exactly. We aren't

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going to recount the basic plot of a girl chasing

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a white rabbit with a pocket watch. We are going

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to dissect the why. The why is the best part.

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It is. We are going to uncover the hidden mathematical

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satires, the biting critiques of Victorian upper

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class society, and the genuine visceral existential

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dread that is woven right into the fabric of

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all this famous nonsense. So if you are listening

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to this, I need you to do me a favor. Forget

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the sanitized pop culture versions of Alice you

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might have seen over the years. Yeah, leave the

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Disney movies at the door for a minute. Exactly.

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Forget the colorful theme park rides, the catchy

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songs, or the Halloween costumes for a second.

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I want you to prepare to look at the raw original

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text. with totally fresh eyes. Because before

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we can understand the sheer unadulterated madness

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of Wonderland, we actually have to establish

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the highly grounded, very real -world moment

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where it was born. And it started on a boat.

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Specifically, a heavy wooden rowboat on the River

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Isis. Which is in Oxford, right? Yes, a stretch

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of the Thames that runs through Oxford. And this

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was on July 4th, 1862. Okay, so midsummer. Right.

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And this date is deeply embedded in the lore

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of the book to the point of achieving a sort

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of mythical status. It's famously referred to

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as the Golden Afternoon. Oh, yeah. The book itself

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even opens with a prefatory poem that leans hard

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into that myth. Yeah. It starts off all in the

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Golden Afternoon. Full leisurely we glide. It

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paints this picture of a sun -drenched idyllic

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English summer day. Yeah, with a gentle breeze

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and perfectly behaved children listening in rapt

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attention. Well, the historical reality paints

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a notably different picture. Really, it wasn't

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sunny. Not even close. So Lewis Carroll, whose

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real name was actually Charles Lutwidge Dodgson,

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was a mathematics don at Christchurch Oxford.

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And on this particular day, he and his friend,

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the Reverend Robinson Duckworth, took the three

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young daughters of Henry Liddell out for a row.

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And Henry Liddell was Dodgson's boss, essentially.

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Exactly. He was the Dean of Christ Church. The

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girls were Lorena, who was 13, Alice, who was

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10, and Edith, who was eight. So three young

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kids on a boat. Yes. And they rode upstream from

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Folly Bridge in Oxford to a village called Godstow.

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This is a distance of about five miles. Five

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miles. Wait, rowing a heavy Victorian pleasure

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boat upstream for five miles? That is serious

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physical labor. It is a serious workout. And

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regarding that... supposedly golden afternoon,

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meteorological records from Oxford for July 4th,

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1862, show that the weather was actually cool,

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cloudy, and rather wet. So it was just a damp,

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miserable English summer day. Pretty much. It

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was not a sun -drenched idle. It was overcast

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and rainy. That detail completely changes the

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context of the story's creation for me. How so?

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I mean, it's like a modern creative pitching

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a script to a tough crowd of kids on a boring

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rainy car ride. Oh, that's a perfect analogy.

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Right. You're trapped in a confined space. The

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weather outside is dreary. You have three restless

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children in stiff, uncomfortable Victorian clothing

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getting thoroughly bored. And you just have to

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do something to stop them from complaining. Exactly.

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You just start making up the wildest things possible

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purely as a survival tactic to keep them entertained.

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You're just throwing ideas at the wall, not realizing

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you are verbally drafting a literary masterpiece.

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Well, Dodson was incredibly adept at entertaining

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children, and Alice Liddell in particular was

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a real favorite of his. Which makes sense, given

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the title. Right. The literary biographer Robert

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Douglas Fairhurst actually suggests Dodgson favored

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Alice because her very name was ripe for literary

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allusion. Her middle name, Pleasance, literally

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means pleasure. Oh, wow. I didn't know that.

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Yeah. And the name Alice was popping up in contemporary

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romantic works of the time. But on this specific

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damp boat trip, the story he spun to keep them

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occupied was something he initially called Alice's

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Adventures Underground. Underground, not Wonderland.

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Correct. He sent the protagonist named after

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the 10 -year -old sitting right across from him

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down a rabbit hole and simply improvised what

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happened next. The source notes point out that

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he told these girls stories all the time, but

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this one hit different. It really did. It was

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Alice herself who demanded he write it down.

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She specifically asked him to preserve this particular

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improvised ramble. She wanted a physical copy

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of it. And you have to understand, Dodgson was

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a man obsessed with preservation. In what way?

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Well, he was a pioneering amateur photographer.

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He actually took 20 surviving portraits of Alice

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alone. 20? In the 1860s? Yes, and photography

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back then was a laborious, chemical -heavy process.

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It required intense patience. Subjects had to

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sit perfectly still for a long time. So it wasn't

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just snapping a quick picture on a phone? Not

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at all. This background informed his almost obsessive

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focus on capturing fleeting moments of childhood

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before they inevitably disappeared into adulthood.

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That's actually kind of beautiful, but also a

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bit melancholic. It is. So when Alice asked him

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to write the story down, he treated it with the

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same meticulous dedication he applied to his

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photography. He didn't just jot down some notes.

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No. He spent the next two years painstakingly

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writing and illustrating a manuscript entirely

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by hand. Two entire years hand drawing a book

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just because a 10 -year -old asked you to. Talk

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about committing to the bit. He was incredibly

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dedicated. He finally presented it to Alice on

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November 26, 1864, as an early Christmas gift.

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That is quite the present. The dedication read,

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a Christmas gift to a dear child in memory of

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a summer's day. But the version he gave her,

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that original underground manuscript, is vastly

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different from the book we all know today, right?

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Oh, completely. It's essentially a prototype.

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It is roughly half the length. Only half? Yeah.

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When he eventually decided to publish it for

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a wider audience, which he did on the advice

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of friends like the fantasy author George McDonald,

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who tested the manuscript on his own children

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to great success, Dodgson expanded it significantly.

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So he beefed it up for publication. Exactly.

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The transition from Alice's Adventures Underground

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in 1864 to the published Alice's Adventures in

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Wonderland in 1865 is where the text fundamentally

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shifts. How so? It evolves from a private sentimental

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gift for a specific child into a broader, much

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sharper public satire. He added the really famous

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stuff. He did. He added entire iconic chapters

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like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and the Pig and

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Pepper chapter. Those simply do not exist in

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the original handwritten manuscript. That is

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wild to me. The Mad Hatter wasn't even in the

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original story. But even with all those massive

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additions for the public release, the DNA of

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that original damp boat ride is literally written

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into the fabric of Wonderland. He didn't just

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invent these characters out of nowhere. He dressed

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up his reality in fantastical clothing. It's

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a Victorian Roman aclef. Yes, exactly. And for

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those listening who might be unfamiliar with

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the literary term, a Roman aclef, which is French

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for novel with a key, is basically a story about

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real life, overlaid with a facade of fiction.

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Like an inside joke disguised as a novel. Precisely.

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The real people, places, and events are disguised

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as fictional characters and settings. Carol essentially

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took the occupants of the robo and dropped them

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straight into the narrative. Let's actually map

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those characters out because the specific correlations

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are just wild. Let's do it. Okay, so in chapter

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three, Alice finds herself swimming in a giant

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pool of her own tears. Which she cried when she

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was nine feet tall. Right. And she washes up

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on the bank with a bunch of strange, dripping

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wet birds and animals. And they end up having

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a completely nonsensical caucus race to get dry.

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Running in circles. Exactly. And the animals

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standing on that bank are the exact people from

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the boat. They are. The duck is Reverend Duckworth.

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Which is, frankly, a bit of lazy naming, but

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it works. It gets the point across. Then you

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have the lorry, which is a type of brightly colored

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Australian parrot. That represents Lorena, the

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eldest Liddell sister. Okay, lorry for Lorena.

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And the eaglet is Edith, the youngest. Okay,

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so the duck is Duckworth, the lorry is Lorena,

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the eaglet is Edith. But why make himself a dodo?

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That's a great question. I mean, it's an extinct,

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clumsy, rather tragic bird. Was Dodgson notoriously

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uncoordinated? No, the choice of the dodo is

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actually a deeply personal piece of self -deprecation.

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Dodgson had a pronounced stammer. Oh, really?

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Yes, and it was particularly noticeable when

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he was nervous or speaking to other adults. He

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would sometimes get stuck on his own surname,

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introducing himself as Doodoo Dodgson. Oh, wow.

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Doodoo Dodgson. Hence, he became the dodo. Exactly.

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It was an inside joke that the girls would have

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immediately recognized and found hilarious. That

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is surprisingly vulnerable for a Victorian academic.

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It really shows the level of comfort he had with

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the children compared to adults. But the inside

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jokes go way deeper than just the five people

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in the boat, right? Oh, much deeper. Later on

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in the book, at the manned tea party, the Dormouse

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tells a story about three little sisters living

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at the bottom of a treacle well. A very strange

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story. Very. And their names are Elsie, Lacey,

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and Tilly. These are the Liddell sisters all

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over again, hidden in a layer of war play. Let's

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break those down. Yeah. So Elsie sounds out the

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letters Elsie, which stands for Lorena Charlotte.

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Right. Lacey is a direct, perfect anagram of

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Alice. Just shuffling the letters around. Exactly.

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And Tilly is short for Matilda, which was Edith's

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family nickname. It's remarkably clever. And

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the references extend to the broader Oxford academic

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circle they all inhabited, too. Who else gets

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roasted in this book? Well, the Mad Hatter himself

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is widely believed to be a reference to a local,

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highly eccentric Oxford furniture dealer named

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Theophilus Carter. A furniture dealer. Yeah,

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he was known to stand in the door of his shop

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wearing a top hat perched on the back of his

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head. He was a very recognizable local character.

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That is so funny, just walking past a guy and

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deciding, yep, you're going into the fantasy

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novel. And then there is the mock turtle. Oh,

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the mock turtle scene is amazing. He talks nostalgically

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about his education at the bottom of the sea,

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right? And he mentions a drawing master. A drawing

00:12:30.220 --> 00:12:33.240
master. Yes. Described as an old conger eel who

00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:36.440
came once a week to teach. drawing, stretching,

00:12:36.919 --> 00:12:39.679
and fainting in coils. Which sounds like an absolute

00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.259
nightmare of a curriculum. Yeah. I'm just picturing

00:12:42.259 --> 00:12:45.299
a giant eel forcing children to stretch and faint.

00:12:45.419 --> 00:12:47.980
It's actually a direct, rather savage parody

00:12:47.980 --> 00:12:51.220
of the famous Victorian art critic, John Ruskin.

00:12:51.299 --> 00:12:54.399
John Ruskin, the huge art guy. The very same.

00:12:54.980 --> 00:12:57.799
Ruskin was a towering figure in the 19th century

00:12:57.799 --> 00:13:00.679
art world. He was a man of immense influence

00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:04.519
and serious demeanor. So why is he an eel? Because

00:13:04.519 --> 00:13:06.740
he actually came to the Liddell House once a

00:13:06.740 --> 00:13:10.279
week to teach the girls drawing, sketching, and

00:13:10.279 --> 00:13:12.820
painting in oils. Oh my goodness, so drawing,

00:13:12.980 --> 00:13:15.960
sketching, and painting in oils becomes - Drawing,

00:13:16.299 --> 00:13:19.559
stretching, and fainting in coils. That is brutal.

00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:22.860
To reduce the preeminent art critic of the age

00:13:22.860 --> 00:13:26.960
to a drawing conger eel is just a spectacular

00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:29.899
piece of academic mockery. It's incredibly witty

00:13:29.899 --> 00:13:32.100
and there are even potential political illusions

00:13:32.100 --> 00:13:34.779
tucked in there as well. Okay, maintaining strict

00:13:34.779 --> 00:13:37.019
neutrality here as to the politics of the time,

00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:40.120
obviously. But who is getting mocked in government?

00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:42.919
Take Bill the Lizard. Oh, the guy who gets kicked

00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:44.700
up the chimney earlier in the book. Yes, but

00:13:44.700 --> 00:13:46.720
later during the chaotic trial scene near the

00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:49.019
end of the book, Bill the Lizard is one of the

00:13:49.019 --> 00:13:51.639
jurors. Right. His pencil squeaks too loudly,

00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:53.500
so Alice just reaches over and takes it away

00:13:53.500 --> 00:13:55.740
from him. Which forces him to write on his slate

00:13:55.740 --> 00:13:58.039
with his finger, which obviously leaves no mark.

00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:01.120
Exactly. Well, there's a prominent theory that

00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:03.700
Bill the Lizard is a play on the name of the

00:14:03.700 --> 00:14:05.860
British Prime Minister at the time, Benjamin

00:14:05.860 --> 00:14:11.899
Disraeli. That's fascinating. Carol might be

00:14:11.899 --> 00:14:14.500
taking the highest, most powerful levels of British

00:14:14.500 --> 00:14:17.039
government and weaving them into a story about

00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:19.860
a little girl shrinking in a hallway, rendering

00:14:19.860 --> 00:14:22.299
them as ineffective lizards who can't even hold

00:14:22.299 --> 00:14:25.259
a pencil. That's the theory. And if we connect

00:14:25.259 --> 00:14:27.200
this specific character mapping to the bigger

00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:30.220
picture, we have to ask why Dodgson built the

00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:32.340
story this way. I hide all these real people

00:14:32.340 --> 00:14:35.129
in a children's book. The biographer Morton N.

00:14:35.330 --> 00:14:37.549
Cohen argues that this structure served as a

00:14:37.549 --> 00:14:39.730
sophisticated coping mechanism for the plight

00:14:39.730 --> 00:14:42.289
of the child in Victorian upper -class society.

00:14:42.409 --> 00:14:45.470
A coping mechanism? Yes. The mistreatment Alice

00:14:45.470 --> 00:14:48.330
constantly faces from the chaotic, aggressive,

00:14:48.490 --> 00:14:50.970
and entirely unreasonable creatures of Wonderland,

00:14:51.409 --> 00:14:53.950
it mirrors Dodgson's own childhood experiences

00:14:53.950 --> 00:14:56.470
with the arbitrary authority of older people.

00:14:56.570 --> 00:14:58.929
So he's punching up? Exactly. He's building a

00:14:58.929 --> 00:15:01.620
world where the adults... The authority figures,

00:15:01.779 --> 00:15:04.419
the teachers, the politicians are stripped of

00:15:04.419 --> 00:15:07.519
their real world power and exposed as utterly

00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:10.379
ridiculous pompous animals. That sounds like

00:15:10.379 --> 00:15:12.740
great therapy for Dodgson and honestly a fun

00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:15.779
afternoon for the Liddell girls. But let me push

00:15:15.779 --> 00:15:18.259
back on this a little bit. Sure. If this entire

00:15:18.259 --> 00:15:22.399
book is just a dense thicket of hyper specific

00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:25.960
inside jokes for an Oxford academic, his boss's

00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:29.529
kids and a local furniture dealer. How on earth

00:15:29.529 --> 00:15:32.129
did it translate? What do you mean? I mean, why

00:15:32.129 --> 00:15:34.169
do we care about a parody of John Ruskin today?

00:15:34.429 --> 00:15:37.230
Most people reading Alice have no idea who Henry

00:15:37.230 --> 00:15:39.909
Liddell or Robinson Duckworth are, yet the book

00:15:39.909 --> 00:15:42.409
is universally beloved. How does an inside joke

00:15:42.409 --> 00:15:45.529
become a global phenomenon? That paradox is the

00:15:45.529 --> 00:15:47.929
true genius of the work. The specific real world

00:15:47.929 --> 00:15:49.889
inside jokes, they are merely the architecture,

00:15:50.049 --> 00:15:52.350
they are the scaffolding. What those jokes actually

00:15:52.350 --> 00:15:55.590
do is tap into universal timeless truths about

00:15:55.590 --> 00:15:58.389
authority, logic, and the sheer absurdity of

00:15:58.389 --> 00:16:00.490
the adult world. So the specifics don't matter

00:16:00.490 --> 00:16:03.590
as much as the feeling. Right. A modern 10 -year

00:16:03.590 --> 00:16:05.470
-old child reading the book today doesn't need

00:16:05.470 --> 00:16:07.809
to know who John Ruskin is to find the phrase,

00:16:07.809 --> 00:16:10.830
fainting in coils, inherently hilarious. True.

00:16:10.850 --> 00:16:12.909
It's just a funny phrase. And they instantly

00:16:12.909 --> 00:16:16.070
recognize the archetype of a pompous, unhelpful

00:16:16.070 --> 00:16:19.009
teacher who talks down to them. The Romana clef

00:16:19.009 --> 00:16:21.710
elements gave the story its foundation, keeping

00:16:21.710 --> 00:16:25.629
it grounded in real human observation. But Carroll's

00:16:25.629 --> 00:16:27.990
absolute brilliance with linguistics gave it

00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:30.309
wings. Which brings us perfectly to how Carroll

00:16:30.309 --> 00:16:33.659
basically weaponized the English. He didn't just

00:16:33.659 --> 00:16:35.840
mock his boss's appearance by making him a bird.

00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:38.539
He attacked the very foundation of how Victorian

00:16:38.539 --> 00:16:40.980
children were taught to speak, read, and think.

00:16:41.399 --> 00:16:43.620
Absolutely. Victorian education for children,

00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:46.480
particularly in the affluent upper classes, was

00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:48.740
an incredibly rigid system. It was very strict.

00:16:48.899 --> 00:16:52.019
It was heavily based on rote memorization. Children

00:16:52.019 --> 00:16:54.179
were treated as empty vessels to be filled with

00:16:54.179 --> 00:16:56.679
facts. No room for creativity? None. They spent

00:16:56.679 --> 00:16:59.860
hours memorizing Latin declensions, historical

00:16:59.860 --> 00:17:04.019
dates, and deeply moralistic poetry. The goal

00:17:04.019 --> 00:17:06.380
of this education wasn't necessarily to foster

00:17:06.380 --> 00:17:09.299
critical thinking. It was to instill didactic

00:17:09.299 --> 00:17:12.579
lessons. It was about obedience. Exactly. It

00:17:12.579 --> 00:17:15.160
was designed to teach children how to be seen

00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:17.839
and not heard, how to suppress their natural

00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:20.980
impulses, and how to become morally upright,

00:17:20.980 --> 00:17:24.920
compliant citizens. The pressure was immense.

00:17:25.220 --> 00:17:27.359
I can't even imagine. It's like if a modern kid

00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:29.759
was forced to memorize the entire Apple Terms

00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:32.539
of Service and under pressure, their brain just

00:17:32.539 --> 00:17:34.779
completely That's a great way to think about

00:17:34.779 --> 00:17:37.220
it. And Wonderland systematically dismantles

00:17:37.220 --> 00:17:40.019
that entire educational framework. Let's look

00:17:40.019 --> 00:17:42.000
at the Pool of Tears scene again. Right, when

00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.539
she's swimming with the mouse. Alice is swimming

00:17:44.539 --> 00:17:47.900
for her life alongside a giant mouse. And despite

00:17:47.900 --> 00:17:50.920
the panic of drowning, her primary concern is

00:17:50.920 --> 00:17:52.920
trying to figure out how to address the mouse

00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:54.980
politely. Because that's what a good Victorian

00:17:54.980 --> 00:17:57.319
girl is trained to do, manners above survival.

00:17:57.519 --> 00:17:59.559
Exactly. So she remembers her brother's Latin

00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:02.670
grammar book. and she recites the noun declensions

00:18:02.670 --> 00:18:05.490
for mouse while literally treading water. She

00:18:05.490 --> 00:18:08.190
says a mouse of a mouse to a mouse, a mouse o

00:18:08.190 --> 00:18:11.069
mouse. Which is an incredibly clever multi -layered

00:18:11.069 --> 00:18:14.349
joke in itself. It is. Those words correspond

00:18:14.349 --> 00:18:17.670
perfectly to the first five cases of Latin nouns.

00:18:18.589 --> 00:18:22.529
Nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and

00:18:22.529 --> 00:18:25.589
vocative. But the scholar, Don L .F. Nelson,

00:18:25.829 --> 00:18:27.730
points out a brilliant hidden punchline here.

00:18:27.890 --> 00:18:29.690
He does. Hold on. Before we get to the hidden

00:18:29.690 --> 00:18:31.430
punchline, for those of us who, you know, didn't

00:18:31.430 --> 00:18:33.869
attend an elite 19th century boarding school,

00:18:34.930 --> 00:18:37.049
what actually is the grammatical setup here?

00:18:37.109 --> 00:18:39.829
Like, what is she missing? Ah, right. So in Latin

00:18:39.829 --> 00:18:42.509
grammar, there is a sixth case. OK. It's called

00:18:42.509 --> 00:18:44.960
the ablative case. And what did that do? The

00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:47.240
ablative is generally used to express concepts

00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:49.859
like movement away from something or the instrument

00:18:49.859 --> 00:18:51.900
used to do something. It's often translated using

00:18:51.900 --> 00:18:55.839
by, with, or from. OK, got it. But Alice completely

00:18:55.839 --> 00:18:58.599
omits the ablative case in her recitation. She

00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:02.039
stops evocative. Yes. Why? Because her father,

00:19:02.259 --> 00:19:04.519
Henry Liddell, the man who employed Lewis Carroll,

00:19:04.599 --> 00:19:07.400
was the co -author of the massive definitive

00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:09.900
Greek -English lexicon. A dictionary everyone

00:19:09.900 --> 00:19:12.420
used. A book that was a staple of classical education

00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:14.980
for decades, and crucially, the ancient Greek

00:19:14.980 --> 00:19:17.160
language does not have an ablative case. Wait,

00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:20.779
really? That is just astounding. It's a spectacular

00:19:20.779 --> 00:19:23.640
linguistic pun that operates on two entirely

00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:25.799
different frequencies. On the surface, it's just

00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:28.619
a joke about a child blindly relying on rote

00:19:28.619 --> 00:19:31.339
schoolwork in a life or death situation. Yes,

00:19:31.500 --> 00:19:35.299
but underneath, it's an Oxford Dawn giving a

00:19:35.299 --> 00:19:38.359
highly technical grammatical wink to the author

00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:40.960
of the Greek lexicon. That is so nerdy and I

00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:43.259
absolutely love it. And the linguistic subversion

00:19:43.259 --> 00:19:46.180
in this book is just relentless. It doesn't stop.

00:19:46.750 --> 00:19:49.089
Later, when the White Rabbit mistakes Alice for

00:19:49.089 --> 00:19:51.230
his housemaid. Oh, when she magically grows too

00:19:51.230 --> 00:19:53.609
large and gets stuck in his house. Right. The

00:19:53.609 --> 00:19:56.089
Rabbit sends his servant, Pat, to get her out.

00:19:56.470 --> 00:19:59.970
And Pat makes an excuse. He says he is digging

00:19:59.970 --> 00:20:02.970
for apples. Which just sounds like random nonsense.

00:20:03.130 --> 00:20:05.230
Why would you dig for apples? Exactly. But it's

00:20:05.230 --> 00:20:07.470
a cross -language pun. In French, the word for

00:20:07.470 --> 00:20:09.789
potato is pomme de terre. Which translates literally

00:20:09.789 --> 00:20:12.329
to apple of the earth. Yes. So he's not speaking

00:20:12.329 --> 00:20:14.569
nonsense. He's digging for potatoes, translated

00:20:14.569 --> 00:20:18.190
literally from French. Mind blown again. But

00:20:18.190 --> 00:20:21.170
the most profound and frankly the most destructive

00:20:21.170 --> 00:20:23.410
linguistic subversions happen with the poetry.

00:20:23.849 --> 00:20:26.650
Oh, the parodies are legendary. As you mentioned,

00:20:26.990 --> 00:20:29.789
children of Alice's era were constantly forced

00:20:29.789 --> 00:20:32.579
to memorize poems. meant to frighten them into

00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:34.619
good behavior. They were constantly surrounded

00:20:34.619 --> 00:20:37.279
by the threat of hellfire or moral ruin. Yeah,

00:20:37.339 --> 00:20:39.420
like, for instance, the theologian Isaac Watts

00:20:39.420 --> 00:20:42.339
wrote a famously strict nursery rhyme called

00:20:42.339 --> 00:20:46.359
Against Idleness and Mischief. It begins, How

00:20:46.359 --> 00:20:49.440
doth the little busy bee improve each shining

00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:52.619
hour? The message of Watts' poem is explicitly

00:20:52.619 --> 00:20:56.910
clear. work hard, be busy, do not be lazy, or

00:20:56.910 --> 00:20:59.269
the devil will find work for your idle hands.

00:20:59.430 --> 00:21:01.869
Right. It is a terrifying mandate for constant

00:21:01.869 --> 00:21:04.470
industry. Very Victorian. But when Alice tries

00:21:04.470 --> 00:21:06.829
to recite it in Wonderland, and she's just doing

00:21:06.829 --> 00:21:08.849
this to fold her hands and be perfectly polite,

00:21:09.170 --> 00:21:11.089
trying to prove to herself that she hasn't lost

00:21:11.089 --> 00:21:14.009
her mind, her brain completely betrays her, the

00:21:14.009 --> 00:21:17.029
rote memorization fails. It breaks down. Instead

00:21:17.029 --> 00:21:19.900
of a hard -working, morally upright B. She recites

00:21:19.900 --> 00:21:23.700
a poem about a deeply deceptive, predatory reptile.

00:21:24.180 --> 00:21:27.460
She says, How doth the little crocodile improve

00:21:27.460 --> 00:21:30.319
his shining tail and pour the waters of the Nile

00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:33.339
on every golden scale? How cheerfully he seems

00:21:33.339 --> 00:21:36.559
to grin, how neatly spread his claws, and welcome

00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:40.529
little fishes in with gently smiling jaws. It

00:21:40.529 --> 00:21:43.329
is a total calculated usurpation of the moral

00:21:43.329 --> 00:21:46.109
lesson. That's so creepy. It is. Instead of industry

00:21:46.109 --> 00:21:48.690
and piety, the poem is now about deceptive predation.

00:21:49.089 --> 00:21:50.990
The crocodile isn't working hard, it's luring

00:21:50.990 --> 00:21:53.210
the innocent to their deaths with a smile. And

00:21:53.210 --> 00:21:55.789
she performs this same act of literary vandalism

00:21:55.789 --> 00:21:58.349
again, with Robert Southey's poem, The Old Man's

00:21:58.349 --> 00:22:00.809
Comforts, and how he gained them. Another deeply

00:22:00.809 --> 00:22:03.430
didactic poem. Yeah, Southeast Palm was a tedious

00:22:03.430 --> 00:22:06.509
dialogue meant to teach children absolute unquestioning

00:22:06.509 --> 00:22:08.970
respect for their elders' wisdom. And in Alice's

00:22:08.970 --> 00:22:11.549
mouth, it becomes the famous, you are old, Father

00:22:11.549 --> 00:22:14.069
William. Where the youth asks the old man questions.

00:22:14.369 --> 00:22:16.150
But instead of sharing pious wisdom, the old

00:22:16.150 --> 00:22:18.650
man spends his time incessantly standing on his

00:22:18.650 --> 00:22:20.569
head, turning back somersaults in at the door

00:22:20.569 --> 00:22:22.970
and balancing live eels on the end of his nose.

00:22:23.259 --> 00:22:26.380
It completely disrespects the elder profoundly.

00:22:26.819 --> 00:22:29.240
And when the youth asks Father William how he

00:22:29.240 --> 00:22:31.579
manages to be so strong at his advanced age,

00:22:32.220 --> 00:22:34.420
the old man says it's because he spent his youth

00:22:34.420 --> 00:22:37.259
arguing legal cases with his wife, which gave

00:22:37.259 --> 00:22:39.920
him muscular jaw strength that lasted the rest

00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:42.900
of his life. It's totally absurd. It's brilliant.

00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.960
The scholar, F .J. Harvey Darten, actually argued

00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:48.339
that the publication of Alice single -handedly

00:22:48.339 --> 00:22:51.380
ended the era of didacticism in children's literature.

00:22:51.500 --> 00:22:54.710
That's a huge claim. It is, but before Carroll,

00:22:55.230 --> 00:22:57.549
books written for children were essentially thinly

00:22:57.549 --> 00:23:00.069
veiled lectures. They were medicinal. Like taking

00:23:00.069 --> 00:23:03.190
your literary cod liver oil. Exactly. Carroll

00:23:03.190 --> 00:23:06.829
replaced that stiff, suffocating Victorian didacticism

00:23:06.829 --> 00:23:10.369
with a looser, sillier, nonsense style that aimed

00:23:10.369 --> 00:23:13.339
purely to delight and entertain. He took the

00:23:13.339 --> 00:23:15.859
heavy moralizing tools of the adult world and

00:23:15.859 --> 00:23:17.759
smashed them, liberating the children's book

00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:19.720
in the process. I want everyone listening to

00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:21.380
think about their own childhood for a second.

00:23:21.700 --> 00:23:23.539
Think about the sheer panic of being called on

00:23:23.539 --> 00:23:26.980
in class. Oh, the worst feeling. Right. Remember

00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:29.420
reciting multiplication tables until your brain

00:23:29.420 --> 00:23:32.059
went completely numb, just chanting, four times

00:23:32.059 --> 00:23:35.420
five is 20, four times six is 24, over and over.

00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:37.859
Just drilling it into your head. Alice does exactly

00:23:37.859 --> 00:23:41.019
that. When she is sitting alone, terrified that

00:23:41.019 --> 00:23:43.200
she has been magically swapped with her less

00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:46.160
intelligent classmate named Mabel, she tries

00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:48.819
to test her own knowledge to prove her identity.

00:23:49.019 --> 00:23:52.279
She tries math. She says, let me see, four times

00:23:52.279 --> 00:23:55.359
five is 12, and four times six is 13, and four

00:23:55.359 --> 00:23:59.000
times seven is, oh dear, I shall never get to

00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:01.299
20 at that rate. And if you follow her progression,

00:24:01.900 --> 00:24:05.660
12, 13, 14, she will hit 19 at four times 12.

00:24:05.930 --> 00:24:08.789
which means she will indeed never reach 20. The

00:24:08.789 --> 00:24:11.430
math is broken, but it has a strange internal

00:24:11.430 --> 00:24:14.450
consistency. She realizes that the rigid rules

00:24:14.450 --> 00:24:17.130
of the adult world, the absolute certainty she

00:24:17.130 --> 00:24:20.029
was taught, simply do not hold up under the chaotic

00:24:20.029 --> 00:24:22.289
pressure of Wonderland. They fall apart. Which

00:24:22.289 --> 00:24:24.470
naturally leads us to a massive realization.

00:24:25.069 --> 00:24:27.430
It wasn't just spoken language, Latin grammar,

00:24:27.549 --> 00:24:30.089
and poetry that Carroll was playing with. His

00:24:30.089 --> 00:24:33.930
actual day job as an Oxford mathematician heavily

00:24:34.119 --> 00:24:36.839
fundamentally influenced the mechanics of the

00:24:36.839 --> 00:24:39.519
nonsense Alice encounters. That is a fascinating

00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:42.619
area of study. Let's get into the math. The literary

00:24:42.619 --> 00:24:45.099
scholar Melanie Bailey has done brilliant work

00:24:45.099 --> 00:24:47.039
pointing out that Carroll wrote Alice during

00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:50.480
a period of intense, highly controversial upheaval

00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:52.359
in the mathematical world. What was going on

00:24:52.359 --> 00:24:55.460
in math in the 1860s? The mid -19th century saw

00:24:55.460 --> 00:24:58.140
the rapid development of non -Euclidean geometry

00:24:58.140 --> 00:25:01.519
and symbolic algebra. For centuries, math was

00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:03.880
based on Euclidean geometry, things like flat

00:25:03.880 --> 00:25:06.960
planes, reliable angles, math that described

00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:09.339
the physical, observable world. Math he could

00:25:09.339 --> 00:25:11.319
draw on a piece of paper and measure. Exactly.

00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:14.700
But Dodgson was a deeply conservative mathematician.

00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:17.460
He believed math should reflect reality. But

00:25:17.460 --> 00:25:19.500
suddenly, his contemporaries were moving math

00:25:19.500 --> 00:25:21.819
into highly abstract theoretical realms that

00:25:21.819 --> 00:25:24.559
had no basis in the physical world. He was not

00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:27.200
a fan of the new abstract math. He hated it.

00:25:27.230 --> 00:25:30.529
And Bailey theorizes that Alice is, in part,

00:25:31.089 --> 00:25:33.910
a biting, complex satire on these new mathematical

00:25:33.910 --> 00:25:36.890
concepts that Dodgson despised. I absolutely

00:25:36.890 --> 00:25:39.569
love the idea of a stuffy Oxford Don getting

00:25:39.569 --> 00:25:42.470
so mad at a new kind of outro that instead of

00:25:42.470 --> 00:25:44.710
writing an angry letter to an academic journal...

00:25:44.569 --> 00:25:47.349
He writes a globally beloved fantasy novel just

00:25:47.349 --> 00:25:50.490
to roast his colleagues. That is peak petty academic

00:25:50.490 --> 00:25:52.809
behavior. It really is. But how does that actually

00:25:52.809 --> 00:25:55.529
work in the text? How do you satirize abstract

00:25:55.529 --> 00:25:58.609
math in a story about a talking rabbit? Let's

00:25:58.609 --> 00:26:00.730
look at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Okay. It

00:26:00.730 --> 00:26:03.410
is widely considered a masterpiece of mathematical

00:26:03.410 --> 00:26:06.970
and existential paradox. Bailey suggests the

00:26:06.970 --> 00:26:09.029
Tea Party is specifically targeting the work

00:26:09.029 --> 00:26:11.170
of William Rowan Hamilton. Who was Hamilton?

00:26:11.589 --> 00:26:13.769
Hamilton was a mathematician who created a number

00:26:13.769 --> 00:26:16.549
system called quaternions. In this system, there

00:26:16.549 --> 00:26:18.970
were four terms, and Hamilton crucially identified

00:26:18.970 --> 00:26:21.829
the fourth term as time. Time became an independent

00:26:21.829 --> 00:26:24.369
variable in the math. OK, so Hamilton makes a

00:26:24.369 --> 00:26:27.150
math system where time is a separate detached

00:26:27.150 --> 00:26:29.930
thing. How does Carol mock that at a Tea Party?

00:26:30.329 --> 00:26:33.180
Well, when Alice arrives at the Tea Party, The

00:26:33.180 --> 00:26:35.900
Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse are

00:26:35.900 --> 00:26:38.640
crammed into one corner of a massive table set

00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:41.660
for many people. Right. The Hatter explains to

00:26:41.660 --> 00:26:43.880
Alice that he had a terrible quarrel with time,

00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:47.079
who he personifies as a hymn. He fought with

00:26:47.079 --> 00:26:50.500
time. Yes. And because of this fight, time won't

00:26:50.500 --> 00:26:53.500
do a single thing, the Hatter asks. Time has

00:26:53.500 --> 00:26:55.799
abandoned them, and the clock is permanently,

00:26:56.279 --> 00:26:59.079
irrevocably fixed at 6 p .m. Which is, of course,

00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:02.410
tea time. Precisely. Carol is showing what happens

00:27:02.410 --> 00:27:04.849
when you mathematically decouple time from space,

00:27:05.049 --> 00:27:07.569
as Hamilton did. If time leaves the equation,

00:27:07.869 --> 00:27:10.609
you are stuck. And because it is permanently

00:27:10.609 --> 00:27:12.589
tea time, they never have time to wash the dishes.

00:27:12.930 --> 00:27:14.829
They must constantly rotate around the table,

00:27:15.170 --> 00:27:17.410
shifting to the next clean setting, leaving their

00:27:17.410 --> 00:27:20.809
dirty cups behind them. Wow. It is a closed system

00:27:20.809 --> 00:27:23.329
loop. It's a literal circle of madness that can

00:27:23.329 --> 00:27:25.930
never be resolved because time has ceased to

00:27:25.930 --> 00:27:28.529
be a functioning variable. So Carol is basically

00:27:28.529 --> 00:27:30.549
telling his colleagues, if you continue with

00:27:30.549 --> 00:27:33.809
this abstract math, this eternal, static, messy

00:27:33.809 --> 00:27:36.740
tea party is the universe you are creating. That's

00:27:36.740 --> 00:27:38.940
the argument, yes. That is just brilliant. It's

00:27:38.940 --> 00:27:41.440
the ultimate paradox. And right in the middle

00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:44.900
of this broken mathematical equation, the Hatter

00:27:44.900 --> 00:27:48.339
drops the most famous riddle in literary history.

00:27:48.500 --> 00:27:50.819
He does. He looks at Alice out of nowhere and

00:27:50.819 --> 00:27:54.019
asks, why is a raven like a writing desk? And

00:27:54.019 --> 00:27:56.339
Alice is thrilled. She thinks they're finally

00:27:56.339 --> 00:27:59.799
playing a civilized parlor game. Right. She loves

00:27:59.799 --> 00:28:02.720
rules. She sits there trying to logic it out,

00:28:02.819 --> 00:28:05.819
listening to the Hatter in the hair. argue about

00:28:05.819 --> 00:28:09.180
semantic logic, like whether I see what I eat

00:28:09.180 --> 00:28:11.579
is exactly the same thing as I eat what I see.

00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:14.420
Which it isn't, obviously. No. But she tries

00:28:14.420 --> 00:28:16.680
to apply traditional reasoning to the puzzle.

00:28:17.180 --> 00:28:19.519
Finally exhausted, she gives up and asks for

00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:21.460
the answer. And the hatter says, I haven't the

00:28:21.460 --> 00:28:23.539
slightest idea. Nor does the march hair. And

00:28:23.539 --> 00:28:25.299
this is where it gets really interesting, because

00:28:25.299 --> 00:28:28.859
the lack of an answer isn't just a dodge. It

00:28:28.859 --> 00:28:31.960
is the actual punchline. The nonsense is the

00:28:31.960 --> 00:28:34.359
logic. There is no hidden meaning. None at all.

00:28:34.460 --> 00:28:37.119
Humphrey Carpenter, a preeminent biographer of

00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:39.440
children's literature, notes that Carol's brand

00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:42.380
of nonsense is highly specific. It isn't just

00:28:42.380 --> 00:28:45.299
chaotic gibberish. It embraces the nihilistic

00:28:45.299 --> 00:28:48.099
and the existential. It's dark nonsense. It is

00:28:48.099 --> 00:28:50.740
rule bound. Carol is exploring what happens when

00:28:50.740 --> 00:28:53.079
you take a logical premise and follow it to its

00:28:53.079 --> 00:28:56.980
absolute, absurd, terrifying extreme. The characters

00:28:56.980 --> 00:28:59.460
pose paradoxes that are structurally perfect

00:28:59.460 --> 00:29:03.009
as sentences, but entirely void of meaning. They

00:29:03.009 --> 00:29:06.450
trap Alice in logical cages. And when mathematical

00:29:06.450 --> 00:29:08.690
and linguistic logic breaks down, it leads directly

00:29:08.690 --> 00:29:10.930
to a breakdown of physical reality. Which is

00:29:10.930 --> 00:29:13.369
where things get genuinely scary for Alice. Right.

00:29:13.630 --> 00:29:15.869
Alice is constantly losing control of her own

00:29:15.869 --> 00:29:18.329
physical body, and it's almost always because

00:29:18.329 --> 00:29:21.130
of what she consumes. Yes. Which leads us into

00:29:21.130 --> 00:29:24.009
one of the most persistent, unsettling, and frankly

00:29:24.009 --> 00:29:27.130
terrifying themes of the book. Existential consumption.

00:29:27.309 --> 00:29:29.710
The scholar Karina Garland notes how the landscape

00:29:29.710 --> 00:29:32.809
of Wonderland is continually expressed via representations

00:29:32.809 --> 00:29:35.529
of food and appetite. Food is everywhere. Alice

00:29:35.529 --> 00:29:38.670
is driven by what Garland calls curious appetites.

00:29:39.150 --> 00:29:41.069
From the very moment she lands at the bottom

00:29:41.069 --> 00:29:43.289
of the rabbit hole, her physical dimensions,

00:29:43.390 --> 00:29:46.869
her actual existence in space are dictated by

00:29:46.869 --> 00:29:49.369
what she ingests. It starts right away in that

00:29:49.369 --> 00:29:52.269
long hallway with the glass table. She finds

00:29:52.269 --> 00:29:54.430
the little bottle with the paper label beautifully

00:29:54.430 --> 00:29:57.279
printed with the words, drink me. What she notes

00:29:57.279 --> 00:30:00.640
has a mixed flavor of, what was it? Cherry tart,

00:30:00.980 --> 00:30:04.200
custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and

00:30:04.200 --> 00:30:06.880
hot buttered toast. An interesting combination.

00:30:07.180 --> 00:30:10.079
Very. And she drinks it and shrinks down to a

00:30:10.079 --> 00:30:12.359
mere 10 inches high. Then she finds the little

00:30:12.359 --> 00:30:14.700
glass box under the table with the cake marked

00:30:14.700 --> 00:30:18.380
Eat Me spelled out in currants. She eats it and

00:30:18.380 --> 00:30:20.339
violently shoots up to nine feet tall, hitting

00:30:20.339 --> 00:30:22.220
her head on the ceiling. She is also altered

00:30:22.220 --> 00:30:24.480
by fanning herself with the White Rabbit's magical

00:30:24.480 --> 00:30:27.130
fan. Oh right, she shrinks again. And later,

00:30:27.289 --> 00:30:29.170
the caterpillar provides her with the mushroom.

00:30:29.369 --> 00:30:31.529
One side makes her taller, the other side shorter.

00:30:32.170 --> 00:30:34.990
She has to carefully nibble from each hand, balancing

00:30:34.990 --> 00:30:37.589
her intake just to regulate her height back to

00:30:37.589 --> 00:30:40.549
normal. But this constant obsessive intake of

00:30:40.549 --> 00:30:43.440
food... has much darker undertones when you consider

00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:45.599
the Victorian context, right? Oh, absolutely.

00:30:46.039 --> 00:30:48.339
Because Victorian children were intimately acquainted

00:30:48.339 --> 00:30:51.460
with mortality. Disease was rampant. Life was

00:30:51.460 --> 00:30:54.279
fragile. So in Wonderland, it's not just about

00:30:54.279 --> 00:30:57.140
Alice enjoying a snack. It's about what is eating

00:30:57.140 --> 00:31:01.259
what. The food chain. Exactly. Nina Arbach, another

00:31:01.259 --> 00:31:04.039
literary critic, discusses how the novel fundamentally

00:31:04.039 --> 00:31:06.579
revolves around things entering and leaving mouths.

00:31:07.119 --> 00:31:09.619
But as the scholar Rose Lovelsmith points out,

00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:13.000
Alice's shifting size continually, dangerously

00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:15.259
repositions her within the food chain. That is

00:31:15.259 --> 00:31:17.880
such a fascinating point. When she is 10 inches

00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:20.559
tall, an ordinary puppy she encounters in the

00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:23.339
woods isn't just a cute pet. No, it is a terrifying

00:31:23.339 --> 00:31:26.019
behemoth that could effortlessly trample or eat

00:31:26.019 --> 00:31:28.529
her. And later, when her neck stretches high

00:31:28.529 --> 00:31:30.609
above the tree canopy after eating the mushroom,

00:31:31.130 --> 00:31:33.769
a pigeon aggressively attacks her face. And because

00:31:33.769 --> 00:31:36.009
the pigeon is absolutely convinced Alice is a

00:31:36.009 --> 00:31:38.910
serpent coming to eat her eggs. And Alice can't

00:31:38.910 --> 00:31:41.289
even assure the bird she isn't a threat. She

00:31:41.289 --> 00:31:43.529
admits she's a little girl, but the pigeon cross

00:31:43.529 --> 00:31:46.809
-examines her, and Alice truthfully confesses

00:31:46.809 --> 00:31:49.869
that little girls do eat eggs. So to the pigeon,

00:31:49.930 --> 00:31:51.630
that just makes her a different type of serpent.

00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:54.099
The categorization doesn't matter. The consumption

00:31:54.099 --> 00:31:57.460
does. Alice is suddenly hyper aware of this brutal

00:31:57.460 --> 00:32:00.839
eat or be eaten attitude that permeates every

00:32:00.839 --> 00:32:03.539
interaction in Wonderland. It creates a horrific

00:32:03.539 --> 00:32:06.700
underlying anxiety throughout the text. And let's

00:32:06.700 --> 00:32:08.900
look back at the riddle for a moment. Why is

00:32:08.900 --> 00:32:11.880
a raven like a writing desk? OK, the one with

00:32:11.880 --> 00:32:14.099
no answer. We mentioned Carol didn't have an

00:32:14.099 --> 00:32:16.819
answer when he wrote it, but years later, a scholar

00:32:16.819 --> 00:32:20.119
named Bo Burns put forward a chilling, deeply

00:32:20.119 --> 00:32:22.980
Victorian solution to the riddle. Oh, I remember

00:32:22.980 --> 00:32:25.119
this from the notes. It's messed up. It really

00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:28.000
is. The solution is a raven eats worms and a

00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:31.680
wooden writing desk is worm eaten. That is incredibly

00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:33.779
dark. It is an image of life feeding on life

00:32:33.779 --> 00:32:36.539
itself. The worm is the meal for the bird, and

00:32:36.539 --> 00:32:38.380
then eventually the worm becomes the eater of

00:32:38.380 --> 00:32:41.930
the wood and symbolically of the dead. It encapsulates

00:32:41.930 --> 00:32:45.130
the grotesque reality of mortality. The cycle

00:32:45.130 --> 00:32:47.970
of consumption is inescapable. It's like Alice

00:32:47.970 --> 00:32:50.630
is a character in a video game collecting power

00:32:50.630 --> 00:32:53.769
-ups to bypass physical obstacles. But every

00:32:53.769 --> 00:32:56.450
single power -up comes with a terrifying loss

00:32:56.450 --> 00:32:58.930
of bodily autonomy. That's a great modern parallel.

00:32:59.309 --> 00:33:01.390
When she first shrinks in the hallway, she actually

00:33:01.390 --> 00:33:03.809
worries she might disappear entirely. She says,

00:33:03.809 --> 00:33:06.569
for it might end, you know, in my going out altogether

00:33:06.569 --> 00:33:10.420
like a candle. That is some deep, profound, existential

00:33:10.420 --> 00:33:13.180
dread for a 10 -year -old girl to casually express.

00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:15.319
Right. She's literally afraid of blinking out

00:33:15.319 --> 00:33:17.599
of existence. And we see physical bodies being

00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:21.000
treated as consumable, malleable, or as livestock

00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:23.680
throughout her journey. Let's look at the chapter,

00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:26.619
Pig and Pepper. Okay. Alice visits the Duchess,

00:33:26.799 --> 00:33:29.380
whose kitchen is filled with thick choking pepper

00:33:29.380 --> 00:33:32.440
that makes everyone sneeze violently. It's chaos

00:33:32.440 --> 00:33:34.779
in there. The cook is throwing fire irons at

00:33:34.779 --> 00:33:37.509
people. Yes. And the Duchess is nursing a baby.

00:33:37.910 --> 00:33:40.410
When she decides to go play croquet, she carelessly

00:33:40.410 --> 00:33:42.849
throws the baby to Alice. Just tosses a human

00:33:42.849 --> 00:33:45.829
infant. And Alice carries the baby outside to

00:33:45.829 --> 00:33:48.450
save it from the violence. But as she walks through

00:33:48.450 --> 00:33:50.930
the woods looking at it, the baby's nose turns

00:33:50.930 --> 00:33:53.970
into a snout, its eyes shrink, and it begins

00:33:53.970 --> 00:33:56.509
grunting. It literally transforms into a pig.

00:33:57.079 --> 00:33:59.819
right in her arms. And Alice just sets it down

00:33:59.819 --> 00:34:02.799
and it trots off into the woods to live as a

00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:04.579
pig. She thinks to herself that it would have

00:34:04.579 --> 00:34:07.799
made a dreadfully ugly human child, but it makes

00:34:07.799 --> 00:34:10.880
rather a handsome pig. It's a literal transformation

00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:14.159
of a human infant into livestock. That's horrifying

00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:16.219
when you really think about it. It reinforces

00:34:16.219 --> 00:34:19.059
the grim fluidity of life and death, predator

00:34:19.059 --> 00:34:21.699
and prey, human and animal in this universe.

00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:24.800
No form is permanent and everything can potentially

00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:28.619
be consumed. Because Alice navigates this perilous,

00:34:28.699 --> 00:34:31.579
shifting food chain, she is desperately searching

00:34:31.579 --> 00:34:34.239
for the rules to keep herself safe. She wants

00:34:34.239 --> 00:34:36.760
instructions on how to survive. Naturally. Which

00:34:36.760 --> 00:34:39.239
leads her to expose the completely arbitrary,

00:34:39.480 --> 00:34:42.139
often violent nature of adult authority. The

00:34:42.139 --> 00:34:44.780
literary scholar Daniel Bivona writes that Alice

00:34:44.780 --> 00:34:47.500
is characterized by game -like social structures.

00:34:47.659 --> 00:34:50.280
What does that mean? It means Wonderland is extremely

00:34:50.280 --> 00:34:53.579
rule -bound, but the rules are alien to our world.

00:34:53.800 --> 00:34:56.719
What's fascinating here is the stark contrast

00:34:56.719 --> 00:34:59.340
between Alice and the native creatures of Wonderland.

00:34:59.679 --> 00:35:02.880
How so? Well, the creatures approach their world's

00:35:02.880 --> 00:35:05.280
madness uncritically. They just accept the chaos

00:35:05.280 --> 00:35:08.980
as normal. But Alice, as the critic Jillian Beer

00:35:08.980 --> 00:35:12.159
suggests, constantly looks for rules to soothe

00:35:12.159 --> 00:35:15.840
her anxiety. She craves order. She actively seeps

00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:17.880
out instructions, like when she first falls down

00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:20.099
the hole and finds the Drink Me bottle, she doesn't

00:35:20.099 --> 00:35:22.579
just chug it. No, she's cautious. She deliberately

00:35:22.579 --> 00:35:24.280
checks the bottle to make sure it doesn't say

00:35:24.280 --> 00:35:26.460
poison because she remembers cautionary tales

00:35:26.460 --> 00:35:29.619
of children who got burned or eaten by wild beasts

00:35:29.619 --> 00:35:31.719
simply because they didn't follow the rules.

00:35:32.079 --> 00:35:34.420
She wants to be obedient. But the rules in Wonderland

00:35:34.420 --> 00:35:37.539
are chaotic and actively hostile. Look at the

00:35:37.539 --> 00:35:40.539
Queen of Hearts croquet game. Oh man. That game

00:35:40.539 --> 00:35:43.099
is pure stress. It is the ultimate manifestation

00:35:43.099 --> 00:35:46.539
of arbitrary, unyielding authority masking total

00:35:46.539 --> 00:35:49.119
incompetence. The physical ground of the cord

00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:52.039
is made of deep ridges and furrows. And the croquet

00:35:52.039 --> 00:35:54.820
balls are live hedgehogs. The mallets are live

00:35:54.820 --> 00:35:58.139
flamingos. And the arches are the Queen's playing

00:35:58.139 --> 00:36:01.019
card soldiers, doubled over on their hands and

00:36:01.019 --> 00:36:04.079
feet. And the equipment actively refuses to cooperate.

00:36:04.219 --> 00:36:06.869
Right. Alice gets the flamingo tucked nicely

00:36:06.869 --> 00:36:09.489
under her arm. And just as she goes to hit the

00:36:09.489 --> 00:36:12.750
hedgehog, the flamingo twists its long neck round

00:36:12.750 --> 00:36:16.469
and looks up into her face with such a puzzled

00:36:16.469 --> 00:36:19.409
expression that she bursts out laughing. And

00:36:19.409 --> 00:36:22.110
the hedgehog unrolls itself and just crawls away.

00:36:22.429 --> 00:36:24.349
And the soldiers who form the arches keep getting

00:36:24.349 --> 00:36:26.409
up and wandering off to other parts of the garden

00:36:26.409 --> 00:36:29.139
when the queen isn't looking. Furthermore, there

00:36:29.139 --> 00:36:31.920
is no turn -taking. They play all at once, shouting

00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:34.000
and fighting over the hedgehogs. It's complete

00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:36.639
pandemonium. It's a game completely devoid of

00:36:36.639 --> 00:36:39.599
structure, fairness, or logic, yet it is governed

00:36:39.599 --> 00:36:42.239
by the absolute lethal authority of the Queen.

00:36:42.460 --> 00:36:44.239
Who just stomps around screaming, off with his

00:36:44.239 --> 00:36:46.599
head, or off with her head. About once a minute

00:36:46.599 --> 00:36:49.000
at the slightest provocation. It is a portrait

00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:51.800
of tyrannical adult rage. Then there is the mock

00:36:51.800 --> 00:36:53.559
turtle's education system we talked about earlier.

00:36:53.579 --> 00:36:55.539
We laughed at the drawing master, but... Look

00:36:55.539 --> 00:36:58.199
at the rest of his classes. He lists the regular

00:36:58.199 --> 00:37:01.900
courses. Reeling and writhing, of course. Then

00:37:01.900 --> 00:37:04.900
the branches of arithmetic. Ambition, distraction,

00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:07.960
uglification, and derision. A clear spoof on

00:37:07.960 --> 00:37:11.239
reading, writing, addition, subtraction, multiplication,

00:37:11.559 --> 00:37:14.380
and division. But when Alice asks how many hours

00:37:14.380 --> 00:37:16.780
a day he did lessons, he says 10 hours the first

00:37:16.780 --> 00:37:20.030
day, 9 the next, and so on. And the Griffin explains

00:37:20.030 --> 00:37:22.050
the pun, saying that's the reason they're called

00:37:22.050 --> 00:37:24.289
Lessons, because they lesson from day to day.

00:37:24.449 --> 00:37:27.809
A joke, yes. But think about the underlying implication

00:37:27.809 --> 00:37:30.449
there. What's that? The education system is actively

00:37:30.449 --> 00:37:33.010
degrading. The more time you spend in it, the

00:37:33.010 --> 00:37:36.369
less you do, until presumably it vanishes entirely.

00:37:36.630 --> 00:37:39.730
It is a profoundly cynical view of institutional

00:37:39.730 --> 00:37:42.449
learning. This absurdity all culminates in the

00:37:42.449 --> 00:37:45.550
grand finale, the trial of the Knave of Hearts,

00:37:45.989 --> 00:37:48.110
who is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts.

00:37:48.329 --> 00:37:52.269
It perfectly, ruthlessly exposes the sham of

00:37:52.269 --> 00:37:54.349
judicial authority. The trial is brilliant. The

00:37:54.349 --> 00:37:56.369
King of Hearts serves as the judge, wearing his

00:37:56.369 --> 00:37:58.769
crown awkwardly perched over his judicial wig.

00:37:58.929 --> 00:38:01.230
A great visual. And during the trial, Alice,

00:38:01.230 --> 00:38:03.630
who is watching from the gallery, begins to physically

00:38:03.630 --> 00:38:05.949
grow large again. Because she's eating the mushroom.

00:38:06.190 --> 00:38:08.349
Actually, it just kind of happened spontaneously.

00:38:08.670 --> 00:38:12.429
And the King, intimidated by her growing physical

00:38:12.429 --> 00:38:15.190
presence, suddenly reads a rule from his notebook.

00:38:15.389 --> 00:38:19.380
He says, Rule 42. all persons more than a mile

00:38:19.380 --> 00:38:21.840
high to leave the court. Notice how the king

00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:24.280
invokes a rule only when he feels physically

00:38:24.280 --> 00:38:27.559
threatened. Authority relies on invented statutes

00:38:27.559 --> 00:38:30.579
to maintain dominance. Precisely. And Alice just

00:38:30.579 --> 00:38:32.900
calls him out. She doesn't cower. She says, I'm

00:38:32.900 --> 00:38:35.619
not a mile high. Besides, it's not a regular

00:38:35.619 --> 00:38:37.960
rule. You invented it just now. And the king

00:38:37.960 --> 00:38:40.179
insists it's the oldest rule in the book. And

00:38:40.179 --> 00:38:41.719
later, when they're considering the evidence,

00:38:41.840 --> 00:38:44.280
which is just a letter containing a set of completely

00:38:44.280 --> 00:38:46.420
nonsensical verses that prove absolutely nothing

00:38:46.420 --> 00:38:49.280
the queen demands, sentence first verdict afterwards.

00:38:49.599 --> 00:38:51.900
It is the ultimate critique of how adult society

00:38:51.900 --> 00:38:54.699
relies on arbitrary rules and blind obedience

00:38:54.699 --> 00:38:58.000
to maintain power. The justice system is exposed

00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:00.539
as a theatrical farce designed only to inflict

00:39:00.539 --> 00:39:03.440
punishment, not to discover truth. So what does

00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:06.059
this all mean for you listening? Think about

00:39:06.059 --> 00:39:08.260
how often in your own life, your own workplace,

00:39:08.420 --> 00:39:11.019
your own society, you do things just because

00:39:11.019 --> 00:39:12.940
that's the way it's done. We all follow broken

00:39:12.940 --> 00:39:16.840
rules. We do. And Alice represents the child's

00:39:16.840 --> 00:39:20.440
clear -eyed, uncorrupted ability to look at massive

00:39:20.440 --> 00:39:23.300
adult bureaucracy, see that the emperor has no

00:39:23.300 --> 00:39:26.610
clothes, and loudly call it out. By the end of

00:39:26.610 --> 00:39:29.710
the trial, when she has grown to her full towering

00:39:29.710 --> 00:39:33.010
size and the Queen orders her immediate beheading,

00:39:33.309 --> 00:39:35.789
Alice doesn't run away. No, she stands her ground.

00:39:35.849 --> 00:39:37.929
She simply looks at the entire screaming courtroom

00:39:37.929 --> 00:39:40.289
and says, who cares for you? You're nothing but

00:39:40.289 --> 00:39:42.670
a pack of cards. She recognizes the artifice.

00:39:42.889 --> 00:39:44.769
Exactly. She breaks the illusion of authority

00:39:44.769 --> 00:39:47.429
by stating the plain material reality of her

00:39:47.429 --> 00:39:50.170
oppressors. They aren't kings and queens. They

00:39:50.170 --> 00:39:53.099
are flimsy pieces of cardboard. Once she names

00:39:53.099 --> 00:39:55.280
their reality, they lose all their power over

00:39:55.280 --> 00:39:57.480
her, and they fly up into the air, waking her

00:39:57.480 --> 00:40:00.039
from the dream. Which is such an immensely empowering

00:40:00.039 --> 00:40:03.039
moment of catharsis. But this brilliant subversion

00:40:03.039 --> 00:40:06.679
of society, this empowering rebellion, it almost

00:40:06.679 --> 00:40:08.739
didn't reach the public. Oh, it came very close

00:40:08.739 --> 00:40:11.860
to failing. The physical creation of this book...

00:40:11.849 --> 00:40:14.210
Transitioning it from Dodgson's mind to a printed

00:40:14.210 --> 00:40:18.510
object was rigorous, dramatic, and almost obsessive.

00:40:18.670 --> 00:40:21.230
The publication history is a saga in itself,

00:40:21.550 --> 00:40:24.429
revealing just how protective Dodgson was of

00:40:24.429 --> 00:40:26.869
his vision. He first met Alexander Macmillan,

00:40:26.889 --> 00:40:30.289
the powerful London publisher, in October 1863.

00:40:30.570 --> 00:40:33.429
Yes. Macmillan agreed to publish the book, recognizing

00:40:33.429 --> 00:40:36.949
its unique charm. But remarkably, Dodgson actually

00:40:36.949 --> 00:40:40.090
financed the initial print run entirely by himself.

00:40:40.210 --> 00:40:43.190
Wait, why would he do that? that if a major reputable

00:40:43.190 --> 00:40:46.110
publisher agrees to take your book, why on earth

00:40:46.110 --> 00:40:48.170
would you pay for the printing costs out of your

00:40:48.170 --> 00:40:50.949
own pocket? Because paying for it gave him total

00:40:50.949 --> 00:40:54.090
unassailable editorial control. Ah, the ultimate

00:40:54.090 --> 00:40:56.590
creative control. Exactly. He wasn't beholden

00:40:56.590 --> 00:40:58.929
to Macmillan's budget or deadlines. He managed

00:40:58.929 --> 00:41:01.469
the typesetting directly. He engaged the illustrators

00:41:01.469 --> 00:41:03.789
himself. He oversaw the physical dimensions of

00:41:03.789 --> 00:41:06.289
the book. He micromanaged it. He did. He approached

00:41:06.289 --> 00:41:09.150
John Tenniel, who was already famous as the chief

00:41:09.150 --> 00:41:11.630
political cartoonist for the highly influential

00:41:11.630 --> 00:41:14.369
satirical magazine punch. So he got a big name

00:41:14.369 --> 00:41:17.409
for the art. He wanted Tenniel to reinterpret

00:41:17.409 --> 00:41:20.989
his original amateur drawings, and Tenniel provided

00:41:20.989 --> 00:41:25.010
42 spectacular wood engraved illustrations. And

00:41:25.010 --> 00:41:27.289
the collaboration between Dodgson and Tenniel

00:41:27.289 --> 00:41:31.440
was notoriously intense. two massive perfectionists

00:41:31.440 --> 00:41:34.159
just clashing. Very intense. The first run of

00:41:34.159 --> 00:41:36.579
2000 copies was finally printed and ready by

00:41:36.579 --> 00:41:39.840
July 1865. OK. But Tenniel received his advance

00:41:39.840 --> 00:41:42.519
copy, looked at the pages and objected to the

00:41:42.519 --> 00:41:45.460
print quality. He wasn't happy with how the illustrations

00:41:45.460 --> 00:41:47.820
looked. The ink was bleeding slightly or the

00:41:47.820 --> 00:41:49.719
pressure of the press wasn't right. And because

00:41:49.719 --> 00:41:51.780
Dodgson had financed it and maintained total

00:41:51.780 --> 00:41:54.440
control, he actually listened to his illustrator.

00:41:54.500 --> 00:41:57.860
He did. He instructed Macmillan to halt the publication

00:41:57.860 --> 00:42:00.309
entirely. scrapped the whole run. He destroyed

00:42:00.309 --> 00:42:02.829
the UK print run. Though some unbound sheets

00:42:02.829 --> 00:42:05.090
were later sold to a publisher in the US with

00:42:05.090 --> 00:42:07.789
a different title page to recoup costs, the primary

00:42:07.789 --> 00:42:11.309
UK run was scrapped. Wow. Dodgson then paid £600

00:42:11.309 --> 00:42:14.610
entirely out of his own pocket to reprint the

00:42:14.610 --> 00:42:17.070
book with a completely new printer, Richard Clay,

00:42:17.190 --> 00:42:19.130
who he felt could do the woodblock's justice.

00:42:19.510 --> 00:42:21.989
Let's put that in perspective for a second. £600

00:42:21.989 --> 00:42:25.929
in 1865 is a staggering amount of money. It was

00:42:25.929 --> 00:42:28.940
a fortune. It is the equivalent of tens of thousands

00:42:28.940 --> 00:42:31.519
of dollars today. It's like an indie filmmaker

00:42:31.519 --> 00:42:34.400
today taking out a second mortgage to shoot a

00:42:34.400 --> 00:42:37.179
movie, getting it perfectly edited, and then

00:42:37.179 --> 00:42:39.280
burning the expensive master print right before

00:42:39.280 --> 00:42:41.380
the premiere just because the color grading was

00:42:41.380 --> 00:42:43.900
slightly off in one scene. And then paying to

00:42:43.900 --> 00:42:47.880
reshoot it. Yes. It shows a fierce, almost terrifying

00:42:47.880 --> 00:42:50.679
dedication to his artistic vision. Because of

00:42:50.679 --> 00:42:53.659
that massive recall, There are only 22 known

00:42:53.659 --> 00:42:56.900
first edition copies of that initial rejected

00:42:56.900 --> 00:43:00.280
1865 run in existence today. Making them some

00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:02.940
of the rarest books in the world. The new approved

00:43:02.940 --> 00:43:06.000
edition finally came out in November 1865, though

00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:09.480
it was dated 1866. And Dodgson insisted it be

00:43:09.480 --> 00:43:12.179
bound in bright red cloth because he deems that

00:43:12.179 --> 00:43:14.059
color the most appealing to young readers. And

00:43:14.059 --> 00:43:16.199
it was an immediate sensation. But interestingly,

00:43:16.420 --> 00:43:18.820
regarding those famous illustrations, Tenniel

00:43:18.820 --> 00:43:21.360
did not portray the real historical Alice Liddell.

00:43:21.480 --> 00:43:25.039
No, he didn't. The real Alice had dark haircut

00:43:25.039 --> 00:43:28.679
with a short straight fringe. Tenniel drew a

00:43:28.679 --> 00:43:32.420
girl with long flowing blonde hair. And the iconic

00:43:32.420 --> 00:43:35.219
blue dress we all associate with Alice. The one

00:43:35.219 --> 00:43:37.139
from the Disney movie and countless Halloween

00:43:37.139 --> 00:43:39.400
costumes. That wasn't even established in the

00:43:39.400 --> 00:43:42.750
original publication. It wasn't. No. That visual

00:43:42.750 --> 00:43:46.090
cannon wasn't set until 1911 when an artist named

00:43:46.090 --> 00:43:48.969
Harry Thieker was commissioned to color 16 of

00:43:48.969 --> 00:43:51.150
Tenniel's original black and white plates for

00:43:51.150 --> 00:43:53.369
a new edition. Oh, that's fascinating. I didn't

00:43:53.369 --> 00:43:56.269
know the blue dress came that late. But despite

00:43:56.269 --> 00:43:58.670
the visual differences from the real girl, the

00:43:58.670 --> 00:44:01.190
text and Tenniel's illustrations became totally

00:44:01.190 --> 00:44:03.989
symbiotic. They are permanently fused in the

00:44:03.989 --> 00:44:06.269
cultural consciousness. The source material notes

00:44:06.269 --> 00:44:08.449
a fascinating event about that, actually. When

00:44:08.449 --> 00:44:10.409
the copyright on the book finally expired in

00:44:10.409 --> 00:44:13.469
the UK in 1907 and the text entered the public

00:44:13.469 --> 00:44:16.909
domain, a plethora of publishers rushed to release

00:44:16.909 --> 00:44:19.889
new versions with new contemporary illustrators.

00:44:19.989 --> 00:44:22.550
They flooded the market. They did. But the public

00:44:22.550 --> 00:44:24.650
and the literary reviewers actually rejected

00:44:24.650 --> 00:44:27.420
them. because Tenniel's vision was inextricably

00:44:27.420 --> 00:44:30.719
linked to Carol's words. You cannot imagine the

00:44:30.719 --> 00:44:32.920
mad hatter, the white rabbit, or the grinning

00:44:32.920 --> 00:44:36.039
Cheshire cat looking any other way. The specific

00:44:36.039 --> 00:44:38.860
cross -hatching, the slightly grotesque realism

00:44:38.860 --> 00:44:42.039
of Tenniel's animals, it perfectly matches the

00:44:42.039 --> 00:44:45.599
sharp unsentimental tone. of Carol's nonsense.

00:44:46.199 --> 00:44:48.320
That fierce dedication, that financial risk,

00:44:48.420 --> 00:44:51.460
and that perfect artistic marriage paid off exponentially.

00:44:52.039 --> 00:44:55.340
It turned a personal improvised tale into a global

00:44:55.340 --> 00:44:58.219
timeless phenomena. Alice has become... what

00:44:58.219 --> 00:45:00.739
we might call a cultural inkblot. Let's talk

00:45:00.739 --> 00:45:02.800
about that legacy because the sheer scale of

00:45:02.800 --> 00:45:04.940
it is hard to wrap your head around. It has literally

00:45:04.940 --> 00:45:07.659
never been out of print since 1865. Never out

00:45:07.659 --> 00:45:10.300
of print. And it has been translated into 174

00:45:10.300 --> 00:45:12.659
languages. Think about the linguistic difficulty

00:45:12.659 --> 00:45:15.619
of translating the ablative case joke or the

00:45:15.619 --> 00:45:18.920
pom de terre pun into Japanese or Swahili. Right.

00:45:19.079 --> 00:45:21.539
How do you translate a Latin grammar pun based

00:45:21.539 --> 00:45:24.460
on a Greek lexicon into another language? Yet

00:45:24.460 --> 00:45:26.519
translators attempt it because the core story

00:45:26.519 --> 00:45:29.530
is so vital. Walt Disney himself wrote in 1946,

00:45:30.369 --> 00:45:32.570
no story in English literature has intrigued

00:45:32.570 --> 00:45:35.190
me more than Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

00:45:35.469 --> 00:45:38.429
And he released his famous animated film in 1951,

00:45:38.489 --> 00:45:40.750
which obviously codified the imagery for a whole

00:45:40.750 --> 00:45:43.829
generation. But the very first screen adaptation

00:45:43.829 --> 00:45:47.750
was a British silent film made way back in 1903

00:45:47.750 --> 00:45:50.610
when cinema was still in its infancy. And its

00:45:50.610 --> 00:45:53.389
influence spans every conceivable medium. Eva

00:45:53.389 --> 00:45:56.190
Le Gallien staged famous, highly acclaimed theatrical

00:45:56.190 --> 00:45:58.920
plays in in the 1930s. It has been adapted into

00:45:58.920 --> 00:46:01.880
complex contemporary operas by composers like

00:46:01.880 --> 00:46:04.400
Unsuk Chin. It has been turned into massive,

00:46:04.579 --> 00:46:07.260
visually stunning ballets by choreographers like

00:46:07.260 --> 00:46:09.179
Christopher Wheldon at the Royal Opera House.

00:46:09.280 --> 00:46:12.300
It deeply influences modern music too. John Lennon

00:46:12.300 --> 00:46:15.059
explicitly attributed the surreal fantastical

00:46:15.059 --> 00:46:17.659
imagery of the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with

00:46:17.659 --> 00:46:20.239
Diamonds, the tangerine trees and marmalade skies

00:46:20.239 --> 00:46:22.500
directly to his childhood reading of Carol's

00:46:22.500 --> 00:46:24.980
books. It even became a vessel for intense political

00:46:24.980 --> 00:46:28.300
expression. Yes, the Argentine prog rock band

00:46:28.300 --> 00:46:31.920
Cerro Duran used Alice as an extended thinly

00:46:31.920 --> 00:46:35.019
veiled metaphor to represent the tense, dangerous

00:46:35.019 --> 00:46:37.380
and oppressive political climate in Argentina

00:46:37.380 --> 00:46:40.400
under the military dictatorship during the 1970s.

00:46:40.519 --> 00:46:44.320
Their song Cancion de Alicia en el Pes used the

00:46:44.320 --> 00:46:46.400
Queen of Hearts and the Madness of Wonderland

00:46:46.400 --> 00:46:49.159
to sing about disappearances and tyranny without

00:46:49.159 --> 00:46:51.719
getting censored. The story is so incredibly

00:46:51.719 --> 00:46:54.119
elastic, so fundamentally robust, that it can

00:46:54.119 --> 00:46:56.239
hold almost any meaning you pour into it. There

00:46:56.239 --> 00:46:59.039
was even a widespread contemporary myth that

00:46:59.039 --> 00:47:02.179
Queen Victoria loved the book so much she requested

00:47:02.179 --> 00:47:04.519
Carol's next publication be sent directly to

00:47:04.519 --> 00:47:06.559
her. I love this story. And according to the

00:47:06.559 --> 00:47:08.539
myth, she was thoroughly bewildered when she

00:47:08.539 --> 00:47:11.340
received a dry, highly technical mathematical

00:47:11.340 --> 00:47:13.480
treatise on determinants. I desperately want

00:47:13.480 --> 00:47:16.059
that to be true. It is a delightful story, though

00:47:16.059 --> 00:47:18.679
Dodgson himself vehemently publicly denied it

00:47:18.679 --> 00:47:20.639
ever happened, but the The fact that the myth

00:47:20.639 --> 00:47:23.420
existed and was widely believed speaks to the

00:47:23.420 --> 00:47:26.099
absolute cultural saturation of the book. As

00:47:26.099 --> 00:47:28.820
Robert Douglas Fairhurst wrote, the blank faced,

00:47:29.179 --> 00:47:31.659
rational little girl made famous by Tenniel's

00:47:31.659 --> 00:47:34.719
illustrations has become a cultural inkblot we

00:47:34.719 --> 00:47:37.630
can interpret in any way we like. From surrealist

00:47:37.630 --> 00:47:40.449
masters like Salvador Dali, who provided stunning,

00:47:40.550 --> 00:47:43.969
melting illustrations for a 1969 edition, to

00:47:43.969 --> 00:47:46.250
modern video game designers mapping out deep

00:47:46.250 --> 00:47:49.289
psychological trauma and horror in games like

00:47:49.289 --> 00:47:52.389
American McGee's Alice. Everyone projects their

00:47:52.389 --> 00:47:55.730
own specific anxieties, fears, and wonders onto

00:47:55.730 --> 00:47:58.809
her. She is the ultimate, dauntless, no -nonsense

00:47:58.809 --> 00:48:01.530
heroine navigating a world of absolute madness.

00:48:02.130 --> 00:48:04.710
She doesn't have a sword or magic powers. She

00:48:04.710 --> 00:48:07.409
just has logic, manners, and a profound refusal

00:48:07.409 --> 00:48:09.650
to put up with nonsense. And in doing so, she

00:48:09.650 --> 00:48:11.590
single -handedly created the template for the

00:48:11.590 --> 00:48:14.630
entire modern Portal fantasy genre. Every story

00:48:14.630 --> 00:48:16.769
where a normal person falls into a magical world

00:48:16.769 --> 00:48:18.630
and has to learn the rules from Narnia to the

00:48:18.630 --> 00:48:21.389
Matrix owes a massive debt to Alice. Indeed.

00:48:21.909 --> 00:48:23.929
And it all stems from a story that simply sought

00:48:23.929 --> 00:48:26.730
to entertain a bored child on a damp boat rather

00:48:26.730 --> 00:48:28.789
than to lecture her. That's quite a legacy. So

00:48:28.789 --> 00:48:31.760
we have journeyed a long way today. From a rainy

00:48:31.760 --> 00:48:34.940
boat trip on the river Isis to a biting satire

00:48:34.940 --> 00:48:38.320
of 19th century symbolic algebra, we've seen

00:48:38.320 --> 00:48:40.739
a linguistic rebellion against the crushing weight

00:48:40.739 --> 00:48:43.510
of Victorian rote learning. And we've unpacked

00:48:43.510 --> 00:48:46.550
an existential masterpiece about the brutal reality

00:48:46.550 --> 00:48:49.670
of the food chain and the completely arbitrary

00:48:49.670 --> 00:48:52.809
fragile nature of adult authority. It is the

00:48:52.809 --> 00:48:55.289
book that liberated children's literature forever.

00:48:55.570 --> 00:48:57.989
Which brings up an important lingering question

00:48:57.989 --> 00:48:59.969
and it's hidden right at the very end of the

00:48:59.969 --> 00:49:02.730
novel, a moment people often forget. What happens

00:49:02.730 --> 00:49:05.179
at the end? After Alice wakes up from her dream,

00:49:05.380 --> 00:49:07.139
she tells her older sister, the one who is reading

00:49:07.139 --> 00:49:09.199
the boring book with no pictures on the bank,

00:49:09.619 --> 00:49:12.380
all about her curious adventures. And then Alice

00:49:12.380 --> 00:49:14.940
runs off to have her tea. But she leaves her

00:49:14.940 --> 00:49:17.559
older sister sitting alone on the bank. Right.

00:49:17.739 --> 00:49:20.199
Alice runs off to be a kid. And the sister just

00:49:20.199 --> 00:49:23.280
sits there, resting her head on her hand, watching

00:49:23.280 --> 00:49:25.699
the setting sun. Exactly. And as the sister sits

00:49:25.699 --> 00:49:28.219
there, she begins to dream of Wonderland herself.

00:49:28.460 --> 00:49:30.920
She doesn't fall down the hole, but she looks

00:49:30.920 --> 00:49:33.420
at the real world and she imagines the rustling

00:49:33.420 --> 00:49:36.460
grass as the white rabbit hurrying by. She imagines

00:49:36.460 --> 00:49:39.280
the splash of the nearby pool as the giant mouse

00:49:39.280 --> 00:49:41.920
swimming. She hears the tinkling of the sheep

00:49:41.920 --> 00:49:44.260
bells in the distance and imagines it's the queen

00:49:44.260 --> 00:49:46.840
ordering her executions and the voice of the

00:49:46.840 --> 00:49:49.380
shepherd boy calling his flock becomes the violent

00:49:49.380 --> 00:49:52.760
sneeze of the Duchess's pig baby. The real world

00:49:52.760 --> 00:49:56.539
is suddenly overlaid with the magic. She is completely

00:49:57.590 --> 00:50:00.010
irrevocably overtaken by the story. Wonderland

00:50:00.010 --> 00:50:02.329
isn't just a physical place Alice visited in

00:50:02.329 --> 00:50:04.989
her sleep. It is a contagion of imagination.

00:50:05.750 --> 00:50:08.489
By simply hearing the story, the sister is infected

00:50:08.489 --> 00:50:11.429
by it. The mundane world will never look the

00:50:11.429 --> 00:50:14.630
same to her again. And for over 160 years, so

00:50:14.630 --> 00:50:16.909
is every single reader who picks up the book.

00:50:17.110 --> 00:50:19.489
The true magic of the text isn't just that Alice

00:50:19.489 --> 00:50:21.289
fell down the rabbit hole. It's that she dragged

00:50:21.289 --> 00:50:23.269
the rest of the world down there with her. Which

00:50:23.269 --> 00:50:26.000
leaves us with this final thought for you. In

00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:28.820
a modern world full of its own arbitrary rules,

00:50:29.219 --> 00:50:31.880
chaotic logic, algorithms, and relentless demands

00:50:31.880 --> 00:50:35.300
on our time and identity, what rabbit holes are

00:50:35.300 --> 00:50:37.820
you letting shape your reality today? Are you

00:50:37.820 --> 00:50:39.820
questioning the nonsense around you, demanding

00:50:39.820 --> 00:50:41.940
to know the rules, or are you just drinking the

00:50:41.940 --> 00:50:44.260
potion and hoping for the best? Thanks for tumbling

00:50:44.260 --> 00:50:46.099
down this one with us. Go pick up the original

00:50:46.099 --> 00:50:48.179
text, read it closely, and see what nonsense

00:50:48.179 --> 00:50:49.480
suddenly makes sense to you.