"Speak English! I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and I don't believe you do either!" -Lewis Carroll
After visiting Oxford, I was inspired to pick up "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" this summer. They're quickly climbing my list of favorite books, to be certain. They're just so different from anything else you will pick up and read. They're child-like and imaginative, yet extremely witty.
Frequently, Carroll plays with language and makes fun of homonyms. One of the corniest examples (yet, I still love it) is a mixing up of the words "porpoise" and "purpose." I never would have guessed that Carroll was so interested in identity until I finally picked up his books. Really, what is a word without context? What is English to those who are not native speakers? To young children? Confusing, to say the least. Why, plain English could easily be transformed into nonsense in the ears of the hearer. It depends on who the hearer is. Language rides a fine line between sense and gibberish.
This is the second blog I've written about Carroll. I must like him quite a bit, eh?
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