Chapter Eight: Humpty Dumpty (Janusian Intelligence)
Through The Looking-Glass EXPLAINED
Lewis Carroll makes Humpty Dumpty an idiot, and he does it on purpose. To fully understand Humpty Dumpty, one must first understand who author Lewis Carroll really was.
Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He had been at Oxford only two days when he received a summons home. His mother had died of "inflammation of the brain" – perhaps meningitis or a stroke – at the age of 47 in 1851.
Carroll would begin and end his life as a Lecturer in Mathematics at Christ Church of Oxford Unversity, something his father did decades earlier. Unfortunately, when his father, Charles Dodgson decided to get married and have a family, he was no longer able to hold his position as Lecturer in Christ Church.
(Jump to 1:07:00ish for the Humpty Dumpty part)
Interestingly enough, Rothenberg showed that truly remarkable creative children often have parents with unfulfilled creative wishes, which they somehow pass onto their children.
In a lot of ways, Lewis Carroll's success signifies the completion of his father's aspirations.
In Chess Terms
Like with all characters in Through the looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty is a chess piece. Specifically, Humpty Dumpty is a Red Rook. Rooks in Through the Looking Glass represent communicators and communication channels, just like Tweedlee and Tweedledum.
Janusian Intelligence
Martin Gardner, renowned magician, puzzle-maker, and author of The Annotated Alice, sees things clearly.
"Humpty Dumpty is a philologist and philosopher skilled primarily in linguistic matters. Perhaps Carroll is suggesting here that such types, exceedingly plentiful both then and now in the Oxford area, are seldom gifted mathematically." - Gardner
Humpty Dumpty is similar to the Reporters on either side of a political debate. They're incredibly intelligent when it comes to wordplay and semantics, yet are terribly feeble when it comes to logic and math and in fact get upset when math andsss logic are used to verify the validity of their arguments. Both sides are victims of the same hypocrisy.
Even the most well-read scholars of our time are uncertain about the nature of reality. When Alice meets the Unicorn, he provides her with the only solid footing in reality she can expect in such a backwards land.
Reality is a dish best served cold.
Through The Looking-Glass EXPLAINED uncovers the hidden algorithms that underlie Lewis Carroll’s greatest work. Along the way, you’ll learn how you can go from a Pawn to a Queen, just like Alice does.