May 23, 2022

MSA031: Alice’s Adventures, Session 1

1 hour 52 minutes

Session 1: An Origin Poem and Foreshadowing. In a lilting and bouncy Introductory Poem, Lewis Carrol gives an origin story for the first book. Is it iambic heptameter or double quatrains of ballad stanza with which Carroll turns a pastoral poem into a demand by the Fates 3? He doesn't miss a trick, a twist, or a comical turn of poetic imagery, and in the end, he leaves an offering that should be taken seriously.

And we meet the Alice who loves to show off her learning. Her maths and her wonders and her manners meet with a degree of difficulty insurmountable, and she makes a mistake. It will not be the last.

Indeed, the first two chapters deal with Alice's relative size and desire to get through a small passage to the garden. But the whole thing starts with Alice easily popping down a rabbit hole foreshadowing many future improbably juxtaposed scenes.

Another foreshadowing has Alice thinking about just her head and not her body getting through. We know where that will end up, don't we?

But Carroll is not, here, imitating Cautionary Tales. Alice already knows them very well, such causes and effects won't stop her from considered action, especially where cordial and cake are concerned. And the effect? Surprise!

For more information about the Mythgard Academy series on Alice's Adventures, visit https://mythgard.org/academy/alice-in...

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By Mythgard Institute

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