Mythgard Academy

This evening, Alice will attempt to adjust to living backwards.

Is Alice a monster? Is she in a fable? Can she cut the plum cake? All this, plus shark-bite prevention, tonight in the Mythgard Academy.

What is a poem about when it never actually says anything?

Tonight we get to meet every philologist's favorite talking egg.

Tonight we meet the White Queen and learn some more lessons in cause and effect.

It's time for more poetry, concerning which I hope your enthusiasm exceeds Alice's!

It's time for another really famous poem! I'm so excited.

Tonight we return to Looking-Glass House and immediately attempt to leave it, spending time being considered by flowers.

Tonight we consider train tickets, insects, and the use of names.

Tonight, we will join Alice in Looking-Glass House, but we may not be able to escape it.

This evening we start Through the Looking Glass!

Tonight we get towards, if not to, the end of Alice in Wonderland -- ending with intense courtroom drama!

It is time for more silly poetry this evening.

Tonight we meet the bloodthirsty Queen of Hearts, and perhaps also the musical Mock Turtle with his excellent curricular plans.

In a mad world, everyone misbehaves.

Be careful what you say!

Tonight, Alice begins to reflect on her own identity and changing sizes. And she also recites more wonderful poetry.

Tonight we will look at Alice's interactions with her body and mind, neither of which seem very predictable.

Join me tonight for our discussion of the last chapter of the book, looking at the rivers and beacon-hills of Gondor. We're finished!

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