Chapter Five: The Walrus & The Carpenter
Through The Looking-Glass EXPLAINED
Follow along with this timeless audiobook read by John Gielgud.
Alice gets on a train with a Goat, a Beetle, a horse and a gentleman dressed in white paper, not unlike the characters you meet on the train every morning. After awhile, the Horse sticks his head out of the window and calmly tells everyone that the train is about to jump over a brook. The scene abruptly changes.
In Chess Terms
Alice is progressing from the White side of the chess board towards the Red side of the chessboard. When Alice travels by train, it really means in chess terms that the White Pawn is moving two squares forward in it's first move. As Alice progresses across the chessboard, every square she moves forward results in a drastic changing of her surroundings, just like in chess. Just like a real Pawn, for the rest of the journey, she will be on foot, moving one square at a time.
The Two White Rooks tell Alice the poem, 'The Walrus and the Carpenter.'
The Walrus represents the lawyers and politicians. The Carpenter, in contrast, represents inventors, industry, and big business.
In contrast, Tweedlee and Tweedledum are White Rooks describing a story with the Walrus and the Carpenter. The Walrus is a Red Bishop and the Carpenter is a Red Knight. The two Rooks sit on both ends of the chessboard at the very corners. Lewis Carroll depicts the power of being on both sides of an argument through the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter. Tweedledee and Tweedledum are in a perfect position to see how the Knights and Bishops really act towards the Pawns they capture. Funny enough, Tweedlee is able to describe clearly what the opposition is doing wrong.
Janusian Understanding
In the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter, The Walrus represents Politicians, while the Carpenter represents Big Industry. Both conspire together to eat the oysters - or the commoners - who think they're just going for a stroll along the beach.
In Sprint by Jake Knapp, he tells the story of how Blue Bottle Coffee became a half a billion dollar coffee giant. Blue Bottle Coffee wanted to redesign their website. Surprisingly, the best website design came from the person who said he couldn't draw at all; the Communications Manager. People in Customer Service are often treated the worst by the rest of the organization. After all, the more you interact with the customer, the lower you are on the organizational hierarchy. So, while Customer Service Experts are often ignored because of their low status, they are the very people who know what your customers love and what they hate. Ignore them at your own peril.
In the second half of Alice's meeting with Tweedlee and Tweedledum, she receives a message similar to the one Morpheus tried to explain to Neo in the Matrix.
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.