I'm not looking to settle this argument or even enter into it. Just pointing out that there's a reason for the ambiguity. Carroll knew it didn't matter. The word "worldbuilding" hadn't been coined yet. The idea that his fantasylands had to have consistent backstories would have been laughable to him. As it would be to most writers and readers of his time.
RETVRN
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Jer noted this morning that recent events prove the example you gave of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass show Lewis Carroll's worldview is far more realistic than those described by Orwell or Huxley.
It's remarkable just how much has been written about Lewis Carroll and the Wonderland books. Having spent the greater part of his life at Christ Church College, Oxford, Carroll was first of all a mathematician but he was talented in other fields. It can't be doubted that the politics and personalities of Oxford in the mid 19th century contributed much to the stories.
It seemed he really did like children - Alice in Wonderland, inpired by Alice Liddell, wasn't published until George MacDonald's children heard the story and demanded it be published. Those children lived in privileged liberal families while the majority did not - Dickens gave us good examples of how most kids lived in Victorian times.
The illogic of Alice was deliberate. Carroll, who loved logic, mathematics, and games added his love of words and nonsense stories to produce a multifaceted, beautifully structured work of literature. The books have maintained their fascination so well did they describe the challenges of living in a world where nothing is as it seems
Do you remember the Muppets performing Jabberwocky:
https://youtu.be/LbGbU65_Rbg?si=3mylggttNtkDLlZ8
The man was writing satire, after all. He might have been surprised at just how many people would live up or down to the level of his satire without seeming to realize it, but that's it.
Oxford must have been quite a place at the time that Charles Lutwidge Dodgson attended. No one could get in without being a truly exceptional student. At the same time, no one could get in without being the son of a well-to-do family. So there would be a lot of egos on display, among other things.
The Liddells were certainly in a better position than some of the people Dickens wrote about. Alice had two sisters she was very close to. She looked quite blithe at the age of 80, although she had lost two sons in the Great War by that time.
Studying advanced mathematics exposed Carroll to some brain twisting ideas. That seems to have had an affect on his stories. Alice's changing of size, the Red Queen's race, etc. Of course it can be tricky trying to nail down the exact source of an inspiration.
"This is the weirdest thing we've ever done on this show." Indeed, Scooter. Looking at it now, the Jabberwocky seems to have been an expert act of projection.
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