Alice in Wonderland XI -- chapter 8: CALVINBALL or CROQUET?

The BIG QUESTION of chapter 8:  Yes, Alice enters a garden, and at the end of chapter 7 she even identifies it as the garden; but is this indeed the garden which she spied first through the little door?

I humbly acknowledge that these questions are asked remarkably inefficiently but declaim irresponsibly that I intend not to change them.

1. More (see question 2 on "The Great Ugly") on the importance of appearances here, as three cards--gardeners--frantically paint mistakenly-planted white roses red.  Is this a parallel case to that of the previous post?
2. Disregarding Tenniel's illustration, what does it mean to "be-head" a non-face-card (impertinent question)? 
3. What would be the difference between Alice laying on her face (contrary to what may be minimally proper) like the cards?  What are the cards--gardeners--attempting to do, really, by prostrating themselves?  This introduces an interesting issue (and this also ties into the next question): what is going on with the utter lack of variety when their backs are turned: "she could not tell whether they were gardeners, or soldiers, or courtiers, or three of her own children."
4. The general community of Wonderland is very diverse, and I've never thought of it as one inclusive group until now, perhaps fittingly, having just finished Jane Eyre.  Describe this community in terms of how it fits within the format of a typical Victorian region and/or countryside.  Which type of people perhaps have more substance than others, and what commentary is Carroll making?  (Grammatical aside (trick question, subject to grammatical subjectivity): is there a way to rewrite "what commentary is Carroll making" without splitting the infinitive, "is making," and without going into the dangerous waters of The Passive?)
5. Interesting choice of words: "How should I know?  It's no business of mine," which, of course, comes across as rude; couldn't she have simply referred (*another ridiculous verbal split*) to the impossibility of distinguishing them in such a state.
6. Apart from the primary argument at hand (in chapter, in book, in "series"), are the Alice books inappropriate for children?  Gardner humorously offers: "'I pictured to myself the Queen of Hearts,' Carroll wrote in his article 'Alice on the Stage,' 'as a sort of embodiment of ungovernable passion--a blind and aimless Fury.'  Her constant orders for beheadings are shocking to those modern critics of children's literature who feel that juvenile fiction should be free of all violence and especially violence with Freudian undertones.  Even the Oz books of L. Frank Baum, so singularly free of the horrors to be found in Grimm and Andersen, contain many scenes of decapitation.  As far as I know, there have been no empirical studies of how children react to such scenes and what harm if any is done to their psyche.  My guess is that the normal child finds it all very amusing and is not damaged in the least, but that books like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz should not be allowed to circulate indiscriminately among adults who are undergoing analysis."
7. Is there any way for the King of Hearts to be other than timid in the face of his spouse?  (Poor man!)
8. What is Carroll doing to/with/by Alice when he writes her as contradicting, and effectively so, the Queen? Consider also that the Queen shifts from ordering the offing of her head to inviting her to play Croquet.
9. "The Knave did so, very carefully, with one foot."  I expect there's a fair level of bigotry between the four suits of cards in the deck.
10. "Their heads are gone, if it please your Majesty!"
11. How do you suppose W. Rabbit feels now that Alice has been invited to play?
12. Is it such a "great wonder," as Alice believes, that there are any members of the deck of cards yet alive?
13. Notice the King's lack of ability--or authority--in the removal of the cat and his subsequent deferment to his wife.
14. What of the court's petition to Alice to solve their problem?

by Bill Waterson: Calvinball

Alice in Wonderland VII -- chapter 4: FETCH!

Lewis Carroll was a proponent and practitioner of "automatic writing," which indicates writing without planning ahead.  I've also heard it called, and myself call it, organic writing.  The approach seems fitting for the man, so intent as he was on remaining within his childhood and avoiding the general responsibilities and associations of adulthood.  Now along those lines, critics generally assert that the puppy in the second portion of this chapter is out of place, and that it must have wandered into Alice's dream (more on the dream in a moment) by mistake.  Also, they claim it's the only animal that interacts with Alice but doesn't speak (however, I think those critics have forgotten or ascribe a different standard to the baby who turns into a pig two chapters from now).  It doesn't require a lot of imagination to understand how Carroll, lost in a session of automatic writing, came up with the puppy and didn't give a second thought, at least in the moment, as to whether it did or didn't fit in Wonderland.  However, Carroll didn't submit the book for publication after his first draft.  He made a number of changes, including some additions and subtractions of lengthy substance.  From my limited perspective and even more limited expertise, I expect he could have easily removed the game of fetch with the puppy here and the story wouldn't have suffered.  The question then is why did he keep it?  I think it could be for reason of simple narrative fluidity.  Alice undergoes a significant experience at W. Rabbits house and is soon to undergo another with the Caterpillar in chapter 5.  The moment with the puppy is a respite for Alice and therefore a respite for us--a relatively stress-free interlude between two traumatic events.

Now about the dream (and the narration claims directly that Wonderland is a dream, as Alice escapes it only by waking up), and I'm just going to put this out there and invite your thoughts: It's not Alice's dream; it's Carroll's dream.

1. A couple of simple notes:  "Mary Ann" was a common, generic nickname for a servant girl (also, there's a lot more slang usage ascribed to the name and its other forms, "Mary Anne" and "Marianne," many of which are period appropriate); ferrets were used for hunting rabbits.
2. Alice's perspective of her relationship with W. Rabbit is interesting as it changes depending on her size. When she's small, she's intimidated by him; when she's large, she's utterly unconcerned.  What might this say about Alice and/or Carroll, or the latter's impressions of the former?
3. With the new growth elixir, is Alice projecting her assumptions of Wonderland by past experience onto her present and causing an ordinary draught to do what it does, or does Carroll simply understand that he doesn't need her to have it labeled in order for her to drink it?  (Okay, that question was a syntactical mess!)
4. Alice can't move about the house as she'd like, and it makes her uncomfortable, and she claims "It was much pleasanter at home."  The discomfort and the house being too small for her is, I think, a pretty typical issue for kids, especially as they mature.  They want to break free.  How can we reconcile Alice's feelings in Wonderland with her feelings in life in this case?  They don't align (Alice uncomfortable in a house that doesn't fit her now that she's grown in Wonderland, and Alice comfortable in a house in life despite her growth and development), unless maybe, though not exclusively, you place at least a little of Carroll into the Alice who's currently in Wonderland.  Thoughts?
5. "Digging for apples" -- two possibilities (and W. Rabbit seems to understand neither): 1, in French, potatoes are apples of the earth; and 2, Irish apples was slang for Irish potatoes, and Pat is an Irish name, not to mention his likely Irish accent, also emphasized here as the Rabbit calls Pat a goose for his pronunciation of "arm."
6. The next couple pages don't offer a lot to analyze, but just a perfectly narrated comic sequence.  This has always been one of my favorite scenes.
7. Notice the continued mention of Dinah and her use as a tool of threat.
8. Alice has not forgotten her goal to find the garden, and her plan to get there is perfectly childish: "neatly and simply arranged" and impractical, which is just as well as she won't get there anyway.
9. Finally, notice how Alice wishes she could stick around play with the bigger, though still obviously young, puppy (and maybe this is why Carroll keeps it), yet it's just too big and dangerous, and she has to run away, no matter how she regrets leaving it behind.

Alice in Wonderland IV -- chapter 2: JUST KEEP SWIMMING

1. Unavoidable, but highly speculative: in extension of yesterday's brief discussion on Alice's growth as representation of real world growth through childhood and adolescence (the idea (and that as supposedly subconscious inclusion by Carroll) and its connection to Tenniel's illustrations are credited to Richard Ellmann and Selwyn Goodacre, respectively) and in tandem with the odd conjoining (meta-story: they are one and yet separate) of story-Alice and Carroll (who is not exclusively the same as Dodgson), this growth away from her feet could be looked at as further evidence of predicted separation anxiety on the part of Carroll.  Alice will grow up and away from Carroll, who will miss her--and misses her terribly--once it finally happens.
2. The attribution of the male "Esquire" to this girl's foot may come Latinate languages' (French, of course, is most likely in this case) masculine gender pie or ped for foot--pied in French.
3. What of the rabbit, symbolically speaking and as contrast/foil to Alice?  Carroll intended him to be "elderly, timid, feeble, [and] nervously shilly-shallying" (from Carroll's "Alice on the Stage").
4. "...'Who in the world am I?'  Ah, that's the great puzzle!"
5. Math puzzle!  (Hint: the secret is in the bases.)
6. Many of the poems that show up in Alice are parodies of popular rhymes of the time.  Certainly they're better in contrast against the originals than alone.  Copied below is Isaac Watt's poem "Against Idleness and Mischief" (aren't you glad you didn't have to memorize these for "lessons"?).  What interests me here is not the fun (though tremendous fun it is) of Carroll's parody, but his placing it into the mouth of poor and now much frustrated Alice.  This is another change wrought upon her without her foreknowledge or consent.  I just can't let myself believe that it's simply some bizarre symptom of Wonderland on the brain, but an effect of its creator; but why then, if he's so fond of Alice, would Carroll do this to her, for she clearly is uncomfortable with it?  Thoughts?  (While reversals are a common and influential motif in Looking Glass such is not the case for Wonderland.)
7. The notion of swimming in tears has always repulsed me.
8. I wonder if Carroll was ever concerned that he might be smothering Alice, or that he maybe worried that others might have thought so.  Thankfully, in Wonderland, Alice survives the sea of tears.  Are they exclusively hers (okay, that beggars an obvious answer: Carroll, of course; but what of it?)?
9. (Not an issue for this reading: an alternative approach to this book could easily be that of inter-lingual translation.  Supposedly the mouse came from a childish misreading of "muse" in the brother's Latin grammar book, and then the subsequent faux pas of cat and mouse, not to mention (what a stupid colloquialism: "not to mention," when it's always followed by the very this it claims will not go mentioned) the foot from earlier.)
10. Interested in John Tenniel and political humor?  Well, lucky you, they go right together!  Tenniel illustrated a political cartoon in the magazine, "Punch."  Search for some of the cartoons online; they're hilarious.
11. Carroll makes his first visible appearance here at the end of chapter 2 as the Dodo.  Dodgson (have I even mentioned that Lewis Carroll is the pen name for Charles Dodgson?) stuttered and was labeled by himself and others "Dodo-Dodgson").  The other members of the party at the shore are Reverand Robinson Duckworth as, duh, the duck; Alice's older sister, Lorina, as the Lory; and her little sister, Edith, as the Eaglet.

Against Idleness and Mischief
by Isaac Watts


How doth the little busy bee

Improve each shining hour

And gather honey all the day

From every opening flower!

How skillfully she builds her cell!

How neat she spreads the wax!

And labours hard to store it well

With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill,

I would be busy too;

For Satan finds some mischief still

For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,

Let my first years be passed,

That I may give for every day

Some good account at last.

If you have questions about jargon or context through any of the passages, just post a comment and I'll find the answer for you.

Alice in Wonderland II -- chapter 1: ALL IN A GOLDEN AFTERNOON

1. Carroll is endlessly crafty.  What hidden references to the Liddell sisters ("Liddell" pronounced with first-syllable emphasis) do you find in the poem?  (Of the three girls mentioned in the opening poem, which is a fair account of the story's genesis on July 4, allegedly, Prima, Secunda, and Tertia, the second is Alice.)  Additionally, and I expect some of his metaphysical humor rubbed of on his friends, it is the girls who claimed, and rightfully so, "It is next time!"  Isn't it always "next time"?
2. Alice was Carroll's favorite.  I believe it's fair to say the preference came from a mutual affinity in personality: "...what is the use of a book without pictures or conversations?" seems to indicate Carroll's preference, especially as such a preference is justified across these and his other fantastical works.
3. The fantasy of Alice reaches beyond the rabbit hole.  How so, and to what significance (I'm thinking of this as further indication of traits and preferences of Carroll, rather than Alice)?
4. Perhaps surprisingly, death is a frequent visitor in Alice, and generally in the form of very dark humor.  Can you spot any in this first chapter (I've got 2)?  More importantly, and generally skipped, why the death jokes at all?
5. Remember the cat, Dinah (one of two cats of the Liddells'), and her kittens for later.
6. The garden through the little door (with the possible addition of the key) is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the most important metaphors in the book.  T.S. Eliot interpreted the garden as "a metaphor for events that might have been, had one opened certain doors" (The Annotated Alice, p16, note7).  I have reason to believe, which I will be expound upon when we read Looking Glass (particularly in the forest with no names) that this is more of an allusion to Eden; though in this case, I think the two interpretations are easily reconciled.  Thoughts?
7. "Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible."  This, in context of the garden, I think, is a very optimistic statement.  But what are the implications that the impossible--and this particular impossibility regarding the garden--is only superable in Wonderland (apply also to #3)?
8. WARNING: potential over-analysis -- Here is the first moment when I believe Carroll makes a personal appearance (the first of many) in the setting of the story, unbeknownst to Alice; these events evince a sort of meta-story only ever apparent (though never fully realized) between the lines.  This appearance (though can it be an "appearance" if we, whose eyes are Alice's eyes, don't "see" him?)  is particularly anonymous, and demonstrates a keen understanding of children and their attentions.  For many children, there is essentially nothing beyond their immediate focus.  The world could crumble and, if they were adequately drawn to another point, they would not notice.  So, then, where does the bottle come from and why?  How might, if at all (highly speculative, but I feel justified by my general understanding of the books), this relate to the garden?
9. "Nice little stories."
10. There are 12 changes of physical size that Alice undergoes throughout the books.  Is there something deeper than the fantasy of it?  Consider Alice Liddell's age and all the problems that go with it, at least as far as Carroll's concerned.
11. The fact that Alice still cannot get into the garden despite her new size indicates...  what?  Is there any way for her to control her circumstances, or is her impotence due solely to her mistake (see also #3 and #8)?
12. "...going out altogether, like a candle."
13. Alice :: Alas -- a pun?
14. (For future reference: Though I haven't yet read Finnegan's Wake, allegedly he alludes frequently to Alice.)
15. Is it Alice or Carroll who likes to be two people at once--or both, i.e. in the case of the book Alice and Carroll may arguably be the same person inasmuch as twins or even reflections are the same (consider also this appearance ALICE LIDDELL :: LEWIS CARROLL)?  (Doubles are another important series of allusions, like the death jokes, the garden, etcetera.)

In defense of apparent "reading-too-much-into-it": The definable layers in Carroll's writing--jokes, allusions, puzzles, etcetera--are all fine precedent to support the possibility of other more deeply speculative bits.