O Jabberwock, My Jabberwocky I have never read "Through the Looking Glass" before, so it should be by no means a surprise that I was shocked to find how incredibly different and unrelated it was from our traditional view of Alice and Wonderland. "Through the Looking Glass" seemed to me like almost a parallel dimension - like a version of Alice's story written for aliens on another planet, yet altogether completely relevant to our own. The most fascinating thing I found was the Jabberwocky (and oh how I wish I could only arrange type backwards in this blog). I even considered writing this entire blog in the style of Jabberwocky - some nonsensical poem that even the red king (see the image [1]) couldn't snore about. This nonsense reminds me of when I was very young and heard the men mowing the lawn outside talking in this fantastical jibberish language that I had never heard before. The r's were rolled so tightly and consistently, and oh how fast they talked! Of course, at that time with my narrow view on the world there was no such language besides English. I was sure that I was understanding them though. I was sure I could speak to them in their language. So, what did I do, well, I went up to them, opened my mouth, started flapping my tongue around, and made several remotely gutteral sounds attempting to mimic their strange and unusual language. I did that for a few years and they all laughed pretty hard every single time. The Jabberwocky is a similar gibberish. It seems like something that was written not to mock the English language but instead to engage in a strange sort of simulation. "'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe." [2] This "Looking-glass book" seemed to actually make no sense whether or not it was read up to the looking glass or not. But the language, though incoherent, altogether expresses a sense of ominousness. This, to me, is fascinating - that through complete gibberish one can still express a certain sense of feeling with the words. As it continues: "'Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The fruminous Bandersnatch!'" [3] Although this makes a little more sense, it still expresses the beautiful jibberish of this whole ordeal. So I'll leave you with one question in addition to John Tenniel's illustration of the Jabberwocky [4] above: What the hell is a Bandersnatch? (Next time: Snarkhunting!) [1] John Tenniel's illustration of the red king from "Through the Looking Glass". Wikimedia commons: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Red_King_sleeping.jpg/400px-Red_King_sleeping.jpg. [2] Lewis Carrol: Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. Norton, 2000. 148. [3] Lewis Carrol: Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. Norton, 2000. 148. [4] John Tenniel's illustration of the Jabberwocky from "Through the Looking Glass". Answers.com content: http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/2/27/250px-http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Red_King_sleeping.jpg/400px-Red_King_sleeping.jpghttp://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/2/27/250px-shapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1