’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

By Lewis Carroll
 
When I was a kid I didn’t get Lewis Carroll. Maybe it was the age that he came into my orbit but he seemed nonsensical to me. I know, that’s the point, but I was at the age where I was struggling to make sense of the world and his nonsense was scary and vaguely insulting of my efforts to understand. I was not included in the joke, I was the butt of it.
I was much more attracted to Winnie the Pooh and Tigger.
We had a set of 45’s and a book by Disney records, possibly the first records I ever listened to. Jimmy Stuart read the Pooh books and if I remember correctly, there were actors doing the characters voices.
“Rum tum tiddly um tum tum! Did you turn the page?” That was how you knew to turn the page of the accompanying book. Golly, I wish I could find that. It’s probably in some attic someplace waiting for… Waiting for the record player to be reinvented, probably.
The part I remember best is the story about Tigger. He appeared and no one knew what he was or where he came from. There was a guessing game about that. Then they tried to figure out what Tiggers eat for breakfast. At some point Tigger says, politely but in a muted and almost David Attenborough stalking a real tiger voice said, “Excuse me, there is something crawling on your table.” Whereupon Tigger leaps onto the tablecloth and after a furious fight wrestles it onto the floor. He pops up his head and says, “Have I won?”
That phrase became a family joke. Whenever we were struggling with something, Mom would perk up and say, “Have I won?” It would always break the tension of being frustrated by some task my brother or I were working through. She also started using it when things were going so wrong that there was no possibility of a solution. When she gave up, she would ask, “Have I won?” It became a funny way in my family of admitting defeat, once again, by the absurdities of life.
I can still hear Jimmy Stuart’s voice and Kanga’s ultra-motherly voice comforting Roo and adopting Tigger.
I’ll have to spend some time on youtube to see if there is a copy of it someplace. That would be fun.
When I became as adult as possible, Alice in Wonderland really caught my imagination. The strange world she was wandering in, sliding in and out of nightmare, actually seemed to explain life to me. Things happen. Pansies talk, grinning cats disappear, Caterpillars smoke opium and pontificate. It all made sense.
I know that’s ridiculous but I accepted Alice because I admired her willingness to keep going. She was tough and yet, she filled a corridor with her tears. Then she got interested and progressed through the story. It was a weird Pilgrim’s Progress for me.
These days, there is all this completely absurd stuff going on, the prime example being Trump, our Queen of Hearts, screaming, “Off with his head!” and making bizarre pronouncements, just because he can. And all his followers a pack of cards. At some point someone is going to say, “Who cares for you?” (Alice had grown to her full size by now) “You are nothing but a pack of cards!” and it will all be revealed to be a dream; we will wake up with our head in the lap of a beloved sister and Dinah, the cat, will be napping nearby.
Of course, that’s a children’s tale and not productive politically but I still can’t get over the feeling that we are wandering in Wonderland or have stepped through the Looking Glass and as soon as we find a way back to sensible reality, everything will be fine.
I do know better, but I can hope, can’t I?
Have I won?