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long nattering about Lewis Carroll 

I forget people aren’t as familiar with Lewis Carroll as I am (still not that well versed in him I admit), since this stands out to me as quite unlike his writing.

Of possible interest on qoto is that he was also a mathematician in his day life (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) and combined that with his sense of whimsy in his works on Logic Puzzles.

(One actual extract from the informative matter in The Game of Logic, since it amused me:

Now please to look at the smaller Diagram on the Board, and suppose it to be a cupboard, intended for all the Cakes in the world (it would have to be a good large one, of course). And let us suppose all the new ones to be put into the upper half (marked ‘x’), and all the rest (that is, the NOT-new ones) into the lower half (marked ‘x’’). Thus the lower half would contain ELDERLY Cakes, AGED Cakes, ANTE-DILUVIAN Cakes–if there are any: I haven’t seen many, myself–and so on.
)

Even his writing advocating continued use of Euclid instead of contemporary alternative textbooks apparently has a whimsical side, taking the form of a dialogue between his advocate mathematician and a Professor Niemand (=”nobody” in German). In the quote from the introduction that’s on Wikipedia, he says he finds geometry not too serious to be light-hearted about. (The quote being on Wikipedia is probably connected to the note that it was featured in that site’s first logo.)

The Annotated Alice (Wonderland + Through the Looking Glass) was annotated by Martin Gardner, of math column fame, and from reading it some years ago it’s given me the sense that in some respects Wonderland is a little almost-satirical, of the society in which he lived, and the nonsense it seemed to produce. (my impression from what period works I have read is also that the particular way of talking about emotions exhibited in the incorrectly attributed fanfic was not likely at the time). So even as fanfic I find it hard to take the White Rabbit quite seriously.

(and imo the psychological understanding in that excerpt is too deterministic—but I think I’ll separate that into another toot)

I do recommend the biography Lewis Carroll in Numberland. (I think it mentions him not being keen on the then new non-Euclidean developments in geometry, as a Euclid fan.) His lesser known works for amusement include the epic nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark” and two works about Sylvie and Bruno (I have only skimmed Snark and not really read S&B)

🎓 Dr. Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱  
Turns out this is not from the books at all. It was just fan fiction. QT: https://qoto.org/@freemo/109360711879641914
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