Through The Looking-Glass Podcast Chapter 4
06/27/16 • 22 min
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...
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...
Previous Episode
Through The Looking-Glass Podcast Chapter 3
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...
Next Episode
Through The Looking-Glass Podcast Chapter 5
Chapter 5 – Wool And Water
Episode Summary
Alice takes a rowboat out for a spin in Chapter 5 of Through The Looking Glass entitled Wool And Water. The White Queen is her boating companion, or is it a sheep?! Learn who actually said that famous quote about believing in six impossible things before breakfast, and visit a store where everything remains just out of reach. Plus, we talk more about John Lennon and his connection to Through The Looking-Glass, despite his always referring to it as Alice In Wonderland.
Vocabulary Words For Young Listeners
plaintive – adjective – very sad and sorrowful – “Cooooooooookiiieeeee !” the man cried in a plaintive tone.
teetotum – noun – a small spinning top – Back in my day, children were happy to play with a teetotum all day. There was none of this “electricity.”
Chapter 5 Quotable Quotes
“The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday- but never jam to-day.” – The White Queen
“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.” – The White Queen
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – The White Queen
Chapter 5 Illustrations By John Tenniel
Guys, can we all agree that The White Queen is kind of a mess?
Hey, we know that guy!
Turning into a sheep might be an improvement...
If only we could figure out why the chapter is called Wool And Water
Chapter 5 Wool and Water By Lewis Carroll
She caught the shawl as she spoke, and looked about for the owner: in another moment the White Queen came running wildly through the wood, with both arms stretched out wide, as if she were flying, and Alice very civilly went to meet her with the shawl.
‘I’m very glad I happened to be in the way,’ Alice said, as she helped her to put on her shawl again.
The White Queen only looked at her in a helpless frightened sort of way, and kept repeating something in a whisper to herself that sounded like ‘bread-and-butter, bread-and-butter,’ and Alice felt that if there was to be any conversation at all, she must manage it herself. So she began rather timidly: ‘Am I addressing the White Queen?’
‘Well, yes, if you call that a-dressing,’ The Queen said. ‘It isn’t my notion of the thing, at all.’
Alice thought it would never do to have an argument at the very beginning of their conversation, so she smiled and said, ‘If your Majesty will only tell me the right way to begin, I’ll do it as well as I can.’
‘But I don’t want it done at all!’ groaned the poor Queen. ‘I’ve been a-dressing myself for the last two hours.’
It would have been all the better, as it seemed to Alice, if she had got some one else to dress her, she was so dreadfully untidy. ‘Every single thing’s crooked,’ Alice thought to herself, ‘and she’s all over pins!—may I put your shawl straight for you?’ she added aloud.
‘I don’t know what’s the matter with it!’ the Queen said, in a melancholy voice. ‘It’s out of temper, I think. I’ve pinned it here, and I’ve pinned it there, but there’s no pleasing it!’
‘It can’t go straight, you know, if you pin it all on one side,’ Alice said, as she gently put it right for her; ‘and, dear me, what a state your hair is in!’
‘The brush has got entangled in it!’ the Queen said with a sigh. ‘And I lost the comb yesterday.’
Alice carefully released the brush, and did her best to get the hair into order. ‘Come, you look rather better now!’ she said, after altering most of the pins. ‘But really you should have a lady’s maid!’
‘I’m sure I’ll take you with pleasure!’ the Queen said. ‘Twopence a week, and jam every other day.’
Alice couldn’t help laughing, as she said, ‘I don’t want you to hire me—and I don’t care for jam.’
‘It’s very good jam,’ said the Queen.
‘Well, I don’t want any to-day, at any rate.’
‘You couldn’t have it if you did want it,’ the Queen said. ‘The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day.’
‘It must come sometimes to “jam to-day,”‘ Alice objected.
‘No, it can’t,’ said the Queen. ‘It’s jam every other day: to-day isn’t any other day, you know.’
‘I don’t understand you,’ said Alice. ‘It’s dreadfully confusing!’
‘That’s the effect of living backwards,’ the Queen said kindly: ‘it always makes one a little giddy at first—’
‘Living backwards!’ Alice repeated in great astonishment. ‘I never heard of such a thing!’
‘—but there’s one great advantage in it, that one’s memory works both ways.’
‘I’m sure mine only works one way,’ Alice remarked. ‘I can’t remember things before they happen.’
‘It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,’ the Queen remarked.
‘What sort of things do you...
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