January 27: Charles Dodgson was born on this day in 1832. Attempts to unravel The Mystery of Lewis Carroll (title of
Jenny Woolf's 2010 biography) have approached the writing and the man from all
sides of the looking-glass. The following is from the Robin Wilson's Preface to
Lewis Carroll in Numberland
(2008):
If Dodgson had not written
the Alice books, he would be
remembered mainly as a pioneering photographer, one of the first to consider
photography as an art rather than as simply a means of recording images. …If
Dodgson had not written the Alice
books or been a photographer, he might be remembered as a mathematician, the
career he pursued as a lecturer at Christ Church, the largest college of Oxford
University.
Numberland
is aimed at the general reader, and though it explores a wide range of
Dodgson's mathematical interests, it also does the literary
math:
Arthur: For a
complete logical argument we need two prim Misses—
Lady Muriel: Of
course! I remember that word now. And they produce—?
Arthur: A
Delusion.
Lady Muriel: Ye—es? I
don't seem to remember that so well. But what is the whole argument
called?
Arthur: A
Sillygism.
(from
Sylvie and Bruno)
"I know what you're
thinking about," said Tweedledum; "but it isn't so,
nohow."
"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might
be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
"I was
thinking," Alice said politely, "which is the best way out of this
wood…?"
(from Through the Looking-Glass)
Carroll's
books and journals are full of puzzles, paradoxes, mindbenders, and an array of
speculative or just madcap inventions. Some of these, such as his games of
"Circular Billiards" and "Arithmetical Croquet," may
reflect no more than the mathematical musings of an Oxford don; some others,
such as the Professor's boot-umbrellas for horizontal rain in Sylvie and Bruno, are clearly aimed at
provoking Victorians into some alternative thinking.
Daybook is contributed by Steve King, who teaches in the English Department of Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. His literary daybook began as a radio series syndicated nationally in Canada. He can be found online at todayinliterature.com.
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