Men's Second Style

In July of 1862, the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat up the River Thames with three little girls, the daughters of Henry George Liddell, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Dean of Christ Church as well as headmaster of Westminster School. During the ride, Dodgson apparently told the Liddell sisters a tale about a bored little girl named Alice.

Three years later, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by “Lewis Carroll” with illustrations by John Tenniel was published. Even the Queen of England loved the tale, and the tale has never been out of print since. While the tale has always been enjoyed by adults and children, the tale has always been a bit.. well.. creepy.

Alice’s journey “down the rabbit hole” has much in common with a nightmare. Isn’t that perfect for Halloween?

Express Zenovka – Curiouser and Curiouser

“Cheshire Puss,” she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. “Come, it’s pleased so far,” thought Alice, and she went on. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don”t much care where–” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“–so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. “What sort of people live about here?”

“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can”t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Alice didn’t think that proved it at all; however, she went on “And how do you know that you”re mad?”

“To begin with,” said the Cat, “a dog’s not mad. You grant that?”

“I suppose so,” said Alice.

“Well, then,” the Cat went on, “you see, a dog growls when it’s angry, and wags its tail when it’s pleased. Now I growl when I’m pleased, and wag my tail when I’m angry. Therefore I’m mad.”

“I call it purring, not growling,” said Alice.

“Call it what you like,” said the Cat. “Do you play croquet with the Queen to-day?”

“I should like it very much,” said Alice, “but I haven’t been invited yet.”

“You’ll see me there,” said the Cat, and vanished.

Alice was not much surprised at this, she was getting so used to queer things happening. While she was looking at the place where it had been, it suddenly appeared again.

“By-the-bye, what became of the baby?” said the Cat. “I’d nearly forgotten to ask.”

“It turned into a pig,” Alice quietly said, just as if it had come back in a natural way.

“I thought it would,” said the Cat, and vanished again.

Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did not appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the direction in which the March Hare was said to live. “I’ve seen hatters before,” she said to herself; “the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won”t be raving mad–at least not so mad as it was in March.” As she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat again, sitting on a branch of a tree.

“Did you say pig, or fig?” said the Cat.

“I said pig,” replied Alice; “and I wish you wouldn’t keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.”

“All right,” said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.

“Well! I”ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice; “but a grin without a cat! It”s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!”^[0]

^[0]excerpt from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Catero Revolution – Alec in Wonderland

Many are familiar with Lewis Carroll’s classic tale of a young Alice, who inadvertently falls into a rabbit-hole while chasing an unusual looking white rabbit dressed in a waistcoat and lamenting over his tardiness for an important appointment. Within, she encounters a bizarre and fantastical world inhabited by a cast of curious anthropomorphic characters.

In 1951 Disney popularized what has become the commonly visual iconography for Carroll’s trippy tale. The original illustrations by John Tenniel, however, gave the surreal story a markedly stark tone.

Largely unbeknownst to the literary world, an earlier draft of Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was recently uncovered and made known to the general public. Of particular with regard to this newly uncovered document are Alice’s transformations when she consumes Wonderlandian foods. In the story the child explorer drinks and eats food which affect her physicality, making her smaller or larger in various ways.

Some have speculated that Carroll has nestled mathematical theories within the pages of his twisted, trippy tale – Alice’s size changes representing Carroll waxing poetic on theories of limit. Other subtle references to mathematical theorizing appear throughout the text.

Within the lost manuscript, during Alice’s encounter with the hookah-smoking caterpillar in Chapter 5, her already exaggerated proportional predicament, the narrative takes a remarkably different turn from the one we now know. Insulted by the girl’s condescending comments directed at his diminutive size The Caterpillar misleads her with a bit of misinformation, leading her to believe that eating a select piece of his mushroom will solve her size dilemma. Instead, the ‘shroom transforms the oversized girl into a regular-sized *gasp* boy. The experience an consequent encounters in Wonderland lead to teaching Alice about empathizing with those who may be very different than her – even her opposite, in fact. Carroll’s illustration of the artistic theory of opposites.

Needless to say, this version of the Alice story was considered highly undesirable at the time, offending the Victorian sensibilities of the potential publisher and the storyline was adapted to incorporate a less drastic means of educating Alice about the importance of appreciating diversity in life, and relaying the resulting message to the reader.

I wonder how Tenniel’s illustrative hand would have captured a boy Alice.

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