Through The Looking-Glass Podcast Chapter 3

06/23/16 • 24 min

Chapter 3 – Looking-Glass Insects

Episode Summary

Alice finds herself on an accidental train journey in Chapter 3 of Through The Looking Glass entitled Looking-Glass Insects. She makes the acquaintance of a chicken-sized gnat who explains the titular arthropods to her, and wanders through the wood with no names with an adorable travelling companion. Plus, hear Heather’s movie review of Alice Through The Looking Glass. Spoiler alert, she found it to be pretty okay!

Vocabulary Words For Young Listeners

opera glass – noun – little bitty binoculars for use at the opera – You’ll never get a good look at that evening gross beak with that measly opera glass !

allusion – noun – words that call something to mind in an indirect fashion – Heather probably should have said “reference” instead of “allusion” in this episode, as the snap dragon mention was rather explicit and not indirect at all.

Chapter 3 Quotable Quotes

“What sort of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?” – The Gnat

Chapter 3 Illustrations By John Tenniel

“Tickets, please!”

He’s sticky cuz he just got painted.

Ready to pop, burning, into Victorian children’s mouths.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Bread-and-Butter-Fly!

Didn’t I tell you it was a cute picture?

Chapter 3 Looking-Glass Insects By Lewis Carroll

Of course the first thing to do was to make a grand survey of the country she was going to travel through. ‘It’s something very like learning geography,’ thought Alice, as she stood on tiptoe in hopes of being able to see a little further. ‘Principal rivers—there are none. Principal mountains—I’m on the only one, but I don’t think it’s got any name. Principal towns—why, what are those creatures, making honey down there? They can’t be bees—nobody ever saw bees a mile off, you know—’ and for some time she stood silent, watching one of them that was bustling about among the flowers, poking its proboscis into them, ‘just as if it was a regular bee,’ thought Alice.

However, this was anything but a regular bee: in fact it was an elephant—as Alice soon found out, though the idea quite took her breath away at first. ‘And what enormous flowers they must be!’ was her next idea. ‘Something like cottages with the roofs taken off, and stalks put to them—and what quantities of honey they must make! I think I’ll go down and—no, I won’t just yet,’ she went on, checking herself just as she was beginning to run down the hill, and trying to find some excuse for turning shy so suddenly. ‘It’ll never do to go down among them without a good long branch to brush them away—and what fun it’ll be when they ask me how I like my walk. I shall say—”Oh, I like it well enough—”‘ (here came the favourite little toss of the head), ‘”only it was so dusty and hot, and the elephants did tease so!”‘

‘I think I’ll go down the other way,’ she said after a pause: ‘and perhaps I may visit the elephants later on. Besides, I do so want to get into the Third Square!’

So with this excuse she ran down the hill and jumped over the first of the six little brooks.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

‘Tickets, please!’ said the Guard, putting his head in at the window. In a moment everybody was holding out a ticket: they were about the same size as the people, and quite seemed to fill the carriage.

‘Now then! Show your ticket, child!’ the Guard went on, looking angrily at Alice. And a great many voices all said together (‘like the chorus of a song,’ thought Alice), ‘Don’t keep him waiting, child! Why, his time is worth a thousand pounds a minute!’

‘I’m afraid I haven’t got one,’ Alice said in a frightened tone: ‘there wasn’t a ticket-office where I came from.’ And again the chorus of voices went on. ‘There wasn’t room for one where she came from. The land there is worth a thousand pounds an inch!’

‘Don’t make excuses,’ said the Guard: ‘you should have bought one from the engine-driver.’ And once more the chorus of voices went on with ‘The man that drives the engine. Why, the smoke alone is worth a thousand pounds a puff!’

Alice thought to herself, ‘Then there’s no use in speaking.’ The voices didn’t join in this time, as she hadn’t spoken, but to her great surprise, they all thought in chorus (I hope you understand what thinking in chorus means—for I must confess that I don’t), ‘Better say nothing at all. Language is worth a thousand pounds a word!’

‘I shall dream about a thousand pounds tonight, I know I shall!’ thought Alice.

All this time the Guard was looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope, and then through an opera-glass. At last he said, ‘You’re travelling the wrong way,’ and shut up the window and went away.

‘So young a child,’ sai...

Chapter 3 – Looking-Glass Insects

Episode Summary

Vocabulary Words For Young Listeners

opera glass – noun – little bitty binoculars for use at the opera – You’ll never get a good look at that evening gross beak with that measly opera glass !

Chapter 3 Quotable Quotes

“What sort of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?” – The Gnat

Chapter 3 Illustrations By John Tenniel

“Tickets, please!”

He’s sticky cuz he just got painted.

Ready to pop, burning, into Victorian children’s mouths.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Bread-and-Butter-Fly!

Didn’t I tell you it was a cute picture?

Chapter 3 Looking-Glass Insects By Lewis Carroll

‘I think I’ll go down the other way,’ she said after a pause: ‘and perhaps I may visit the elephants later on. Besides, I do so want to get into the Third Square!’

So with this excuse she ran down the hill and jumped over the first of the six little brooks.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

‘I shall dream about a thousand pounds tonight, I know I shall!’ thought Alice.

‘So young a child,’ sai...

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Through The Looking-Glass Podcast Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – The Garden Of Live Flowers

Episode Summary

Alice runs into a bevy of disagreeable flora in Chapter 2 of Through The Looking-Glass, The Garden Of Live Flowers. She also learns just what game she is playing from The Red Queen, and how to advance. In addition, Heather shares her theory on Alice in Wonderland dates, explaining what exact days of the year Alice visited Wonderland and Looking Glass Land. What in the world could U2, Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon have to do with The Garden Of Live Flowers? You’ll have to listen to find out!

Vocabulary Words For Young Listeners

bough – noun – a larger branch on a tree – “When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,” is a rather alarming lullaby lyric.

bevy – noun – a large group of similar people or things- If you go to a Lewis Carroll convention, you are sure to run into a bevy of Carrollians.

Chapter 2 Quotable Quotes

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” – The Red Queen

Chapter 2 Illustrations By John Tenniel

Finally, the talking flowers show up!

“Curtsey while you’re thinking what to say. It saves time.”

This country totally reminds me of something...

“Now, here, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

Chapter 2 The Garden Of Live Flowers By Lewis Carroll

‘I should see the garden far better,’ said Alice to herself, ‘if I could get to the top of that hill: and here’s a path that leads straight to it—at least, no, it doesn’t do that—’ (after going a few yards along the path, and turning several sharp corners), ‘but I suppose it will at last. But how curiously it twists! It’s more like a corkscrew than a path! Well, this turn goes to the hill, I suppose—no, it doesn’t! This goes straight back to the house! Well then, I’ll try it the other way.’

And so she did: wandering up and down, and trying turn after turn, but always coming back to the house, do what she would. Indeed, once, when she turned a corner rather more quickly than usual, she ran against it before she could stop herself.

‘It’s no use talking about it,’ Alice said, looking up at the house and pretending it was arguing with her. ‘I’m not going in again yet. I know I should have to get through the Looking-glass again—back into the old room—and there’d be an end of all my adventures!’

So, resolutely turning her back upon the house, she set out once more down the path, determined to keep straight on till she got to the hill. For a few minutes all went on well, and she was just saying, ‘I reallyshall do it this time—’ when the path gave a sudden twist and shook itself (as she described it afterwards), and the next moment she found herself actually walking in at the door.

‘Oh, it’s too bad!’ she cried. ‘I never saw such a house for getting in the way! Never!’

However, there was the hill full in sight, so there was nothing to be done but start again. This time she came upon a large flower-bed, with a border of daisies, and a willow-tree growing in the middle.

‘O Tiger-lily,’ said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, ‘I wish you could talk!’

‘We can talk,’ said the Tiger-lily: ‘when there’s anybody worth talking to.’

Alice was so astonished that she could not speak for a minute: it quite seemed to take her breath away. At length, as the Tiger-lily only went on waving about, she spoke again, in a timid voice—almost in a whisper. ‘And can all the flowers talk?’

‘As well as you can,’ said the Tiger-lily. ‘And a great deal louder.’

‘It isn’t manners for us to begin, you know,’ said the Rose, ‘and I really was wondering when you’d speak! Said I to myself, “Her face has got some sense in it, though it’s not a clever one!” Still, you’re the right colour, and that goes a long way.’

‘I don’t care about the colour,’ the Tiger-lily remarked. ‘If only her petals curled up a little more, she’d be all right.’

Alice didn’t like being criticised, so she began asking questions. ‘Aren’t you sometimes frightened at being planted out here, with nobody to take care of you?’

‘There’s the tree in the middle,’ said the Rose: ‘what else is it good for?’

‘But what could it do, if any danger came?’ Alice asked.

‘It says “Bough-wough!”‘ cried a Daisy: ‘that’s why its branches are called boughs!’

‘Didn’t you know that?’ cried another Daisy, and here they all began shouting together, till the air seemed quite full of little shrill voices. ‘Silence, every one of you!’ cried the Tiger-lily, waving itself passionately from side to side, and trembling with excitement. ‘They know I can’t get at them!’ it panted, bending its quivering head towards Alice...

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Through The Looking-Glass Podcast Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Tweedledum And Tweedledee

Episode Summary

Alice encounters two chunky, childlike fellows in Chapter 4 of Through The Looking Glass entitled Tweedledum And Tweedledee. They favor her with the very famous poem The Walrus And The Carpenter, and also engage in a battle over a nice new rattle. Plus, hear Heather relay John Lennon’s thoughts on his inspiration for the Beatles song I Am The Walrus, and learn what in the world Matt Damon has to do with this dynamic duo.

Vocabulary Words For Young Listeners

coal scuttle – noun – a container for coal specially shaped to pour coal onto the fire – This coal scuttle won’t be very useful for our gas fireplace.

recitation – noun – the act of repeating something aloud from memory – I assume you are all ready to perform a recitation of The Walrus And The Carpenter after hearing it once?

Chapter 4 Quotable Quotes

“Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.” – Tweedledee

“The time has come, the Walrus said, To talk of many things: Of shoes-and ships-and sealing wax- Of cabbages-and kings-” – Tweedledee

Chapter 4 Illustrations By John Tenniel

“If you think we’re wax-works, you ought to pay, you know.”

“I doubt it,” said The Carpenter, And shed a bitter tear.”

DON’T LISTEN TO THEM, OYSTERS!!!

Gross.

Don’t wake him up, or we all go out like a candle!

A slight overreaction.

“Every one of these things has got to go on, somehow or other.”

Chapter 4 Tweedledum And Tweedledee By Lewis Carroll

They were standing under a tree, each with an arm round the other’s neck, and Alice knew which was which in a moment, because one of them had ‘DUM’ embroidered on his collar, and the other ‘DEE.’ ‘I suppose they’ve each got “TWEEDLE” round at the back of the collar,’ she said to herself.

They stood so still that she quite forgot they were alive, and she was just looking round to see if the word “TWEEDLE” was written at the back of each collar, when she was startled by a voice coming from the one marked ‘DUM.’

‘If you think we’re wax-works,’ he said, ‘you ought to pay, you know. Wax-works weren’t made to be looked at for nothing, nohow!’

‘Contrariwise,’ added the one marked ‘DEE,’ ‘if you think we’re alive, you ought to speak.’

‘I’m sure I’m very sorry,’ was all Alice could say; for the words of the old song kept ringing through her head like the ticking of a clock, and she could hardly help saying them out loud:—

'Tweedledum and Tweedledee Agreed to have a battle; For Tweedledum said Tweedledee Had spoiled his nice new rattle. Just then flew down a monstrous crow, As black as a tar-barrel; Which frightened both the heroes so, They quite forgot their quarrel.'

‘I know what you’re thinking about,’ said Tweedledum: ‘but it isn’t so, nohow.’

‘Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, ‘if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.’

‘I was thinking,’ Alice said very politely, ‘which is the best way out of this wood: it’s getting so dark. Would you tell me, please?’

But the little men only looked at each other and grinned.

They looked so exactly like a couple of great schoolboys, that Alice couldn’t help pointing her finger at Tweedledum, and saying ‘First Boy!’

‘Nohow!’ Tweedledum cried out briskly, and shut his mouth up again with a snap.

‘Next Boy!’ said Alice, passing on to Tweedledee, though she felt quite certain he would only shout out ‘Contrariwise!’ and so he did.

‘You’ve been wrong!’ cried Tweedledum. ‘The first thing in a visit is to say “How d’ye do?” and shake hands!’ And here the two brothers gave each other a hug, and then they held out the two hands that were free, to shake hands with her.

Alice did not like shaking hands with either of them first, for fear of hurting the other one’s feelings; so, as the best way out of the difficulty, she took hold of both hands at once: the next moment they were dancing round in a ring. This seemed quite natural (she remembered afterwards), and she was not even surprised to hear music playing: it seemed to come from the tree under which they were dancing, and it was done (as well as she could make it out) by the branches rubbing one across the other, like fiddles and fiddle-sticks.

‘But it certainly was funny,’ (Alice said afterwards, when she was telling her sister the history of all this,) ‘to find myself singing “Here we go round the mulberry bush.” I don’t know when I began it, but somehow I felt as if I’d been singing it a long long time!’

The other two dancers were fat, and very soon out of breath. ‘Four times round is enough for one dance,’ Tweedledum panted out, and they left o...