Songs from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

I managed to find a songbook of tunes composed for the various verses and poems in both Alice in Wonderland and through the looking glass. This includes the melody of the song that the white knight sings to Alice, "A-Sitting on a Gate" which is called "Ways and Means," named "The Aged, Aged Man," and name-called (in an entirely different sense than what name-calling usually means) "Haddock's Eyes".  Alice recognizes the tune as "I Give Thee All, I Can No More" but that's actually just the first line of the song, which is actually titled "My Heart and Lute".  You can download the midi to listen to the melody.

If you're interested, the lyrics to the original song are here.

Winter

I started thinking about setting the stage for the show. It is sunnier, warmer weather when Alice goes through the Looking Glass but I like the idea of establishing the winter world she is in before doing so. 

Music:

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Nutcracker (Images irrelevant)

The Alice of my childhood

It's got really great music and imagery.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

The way Lewis Carol thought

`You have heard of Fortunatus's Purse, Miladi? Ah, so! Would you be surprised to hear that, with three of these leetle handkerchiefs, you shall make the Purse of Fortunatus, quite soon, quite easily?' `Shall I indeed?' Lady Muriel eagerly replied, as she took a heap of them into her lap, and threaded her needle. `Please tell me how, Mein Herr! I'll make one before I touch another drop of tea!' `You shall first,' said Mein Herr, possessing himself of two of the handkerchiefs, spreading one upon the other, and holding them up by two corners, `you shall first join together these upper corners, the right to the right, the left to the left; and the opening between them shall be the mouth of the Purse.' The lower edges shall first be joined--ah, not so!' (as she was beginning to sew them together). `Turn one of them over, and join the right lower corner of the one to the left lower corner of the other, and sew the lower edges together in what you would call the wrong way.' `I see!' said Lady Muriel, as she deftly executed the order. `And a very twisted, uncomfortable, uncanny-looking bag it makes! But the moral is a lovely one. Unlimited wealth can only be attained by doing things in the wrong way! And how are we to join up these mysterious--no, I mean this mysterious opening?' (twisting the thing round and round with a puzzled air). `Yes, it is one opening. I thought it was two, at first.' `You have seen the puzzle of the Paper Ring?' Mein Herr said, addressing the Earl. `Where you take a slip of paper, and join its ends together, first twisting one, so as to join the upper corner of one end to the lower corner of the other?' `I saw one made, only yesterday,' the Earl replied. `Muriel, my child, were you not making one, to amuse those children you had to tea?' `Yes, I know that Puzzle,' said Lady Muriel. `The Ring has only one surface, and only one edge. It's very mysterious!' `The bag is just like that, isn't it?' I suggested. `Is not the outer surface of one side of it continuous with the inner surface of the other side?' `So it is!' she exclaimed. `Only it isn't a bag, just yet. How shall we fill up this opening, Mein Herr?' `Thus!' said the old man impressively, taking the bag from her, and rising to his feet in the excitement of the explanation. `The edge of the opening consists of four handkerchief edges, and you can trace it continuously, round and round the opening: down the right edge of one, handkerchief, up the left edge of the other, and then down the left edge of the one, and up the right edge of the other!' `So you can!' Lady Muriel murmured thoughtfully, leaning her head on her hand, and earnestly watching the old man. `And that proves it to be only one opening!' She looked so strangely like a child, puzzling over a difficult lesson, and Mein Herr had become, for the moment, so strangely like the old Professor, that I felt utterly bewildered: the `eerie' feeling was on me in its full force, and I felt almost impelled to say `Do you understand it, Sylvie?' However I checked myself by a great effort, and let the dream (if indeed it was a dream) go on to its end. `Now, this third handkerchief,' Mein Herr proceeded, `has also four edges, which you can trace continuously round and round: all you need do is to join its four edges to the four edges of the opening. The Purse is then complete, and its outer surface--' `I see!' Lady Muriel eagerly interrupted. `Its outer surface will be continuous with its inner surface! But it will take time. I'll sew it up after tea.' She laid aside the bag, and resumed her-cup of tea. `But why do you call it Fortunatus's Purse, Mein Herr?' The dear old man beamed upon her, with a jolly smile, looking more exactly like the Professor than ever. `Don't you see, my child--I should say Miladi? Whatever is inside that Purse, is outside it; and whatever is outside it, is inside it. So you have all the wealth of the world in that leetle Purse!' "


 Many of you might not know that Lewis Carol, in addition to all his other pursuits, was a mathematician. Here is an excerpt from Lewis Carol's book "Sylvie and Bruno Concluded" Describing the creation of a remarkable purse. The "puzzle of the paper ring" mentioned is a discription of a möbius band. The Purse of Fortunatus is actually what you get when you glue every point of a möbius band to the opposite point on the band! (it cant actually exist in 3 dimensional space). Here is a picture of the möbius band, and a link to a gif of the purse (which is called a projective plane). 

http//mathhub.blogspot.com/2009/05/boys-surface-trivia-2.html

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

In Scotland, there is a garden that is open to the public one day a year. There are far too many amazing pictures to put on this site, so go google "Garden of Cosmic Speculation"

to see the rest.