“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” – Lewis Carroll

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written in 1865 by the English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson – better known as Lewis Carroll. It was originally written as a gift for Alice, the daughter of fellow deacon, Henry Liddell.

Why do I like this story?  Remember, Carroll was a mathematician. And fifty years before Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, he was very much aware of the idea of relativity because Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are seen from this point of view.  A wonderful example is when Alice is playing croquet and hits the ball which happens to be a hedgehog, with a mallet which happens to be a flamingo.  I remember reading once when I was trying to understand this theory, Bertram Russell’s explanation that it was just as useful to measure something with a  live snake as it was with meter rule – everything is relative. Another example is in Through the Looking Glass, when the Red Queen is running full speed with Alice holding her hand. They are going so fast that Alice’s hair is pulled almost off her head. And then you find that they haven’t moved at all and you have to run fast just to stay on one spot.

Perhaps my favourite idea is revealed at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. It shows that “Time” is a man-made invention. “Time” and the Mad Hatter have quarrelled and now that “Time” won’t co-operate anymore, the time stays at 6 o’clock – and that is why they have to stay at the tea-table.

The importance of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is that things are never what they seem.  They can have their own strange logic which has nothing to do with any kind of conventional logic but yes, it is just as real. I think this is a very good attitude or lesson for a child to have – so they’re not always so complacent about believing what they’re told.  Of course it’s also terribly, terribly amusing – the logic of Wonderland compared to our conventional logic.  The Mad Hatter’s tea party is the gem of the story.  I love the bit when the Dormouse tells the story of three little sisters who lived in a treacle well.  Alice wants to know what they ate and the Dormouse answers, “Treacle.”  Alice says they couldn’t live on treacle because they’d be terribly ill.  And the Dormouse replies, “Oh they were – very ill”.

When you read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you’ll see the original drawings by Tenniel which also help to make the book so sensational.  They are how we normally think of Alice – a little girl with a band holding her hair back.  Because they are so brilliant, the drawings are an important part of appreciating the story. Books are much more interesting than films on the subject – quite different to a film or a cartoon.

In sum, I think Lewis Carroll is a genius who had a fantastic rapport with kids.  The Alice books are so stimulating to read.  They make you believe you could be in a parallel world – or that the world we think we know reflects the way we are programmed to see it. Maybe! It’s not like that at all.