Chapter Nine: The Lion & the unicorn
Through The Looking-Glass EXPLAINED
After leaving Humpty Dumpty, Alice encounters the Red King. The Red King learns that the Lion and the Unicorn are fighting for the Red King's crown. Together, Alice and the Red King trot off to see the battle between the two combatants. After a brief battle, the Unicorn and Alice have a critical meeting of the minds.
In Chess Terms
Alice's mentorship under the Red King is itself an exercise in Janusian Thinking. Why would a Red King help a White Pawn become a White Queen? Perhaps it's because Alice as a White Pawn studies under the tutelage of the Red King instead of trying to fight or capture him.
The idea of a lion fighting a unicorn dates back thousands of years. The Lion is a Red Rook and the Unicorn is a White Knight. Symbolically, it's believed that Lewis Carroll used the Lion and the Unicorn to represent the King of England and the King of the Scots, whose territories eventually merged to form the United Kingdom.
Janusian Reality
After the battle, the Unicorn talks to Alice. In a world where nothing is real, the Unicorn makes a pact with Alice: if Alice agrees to believe in the Unicorn, the Unicorn will believe in Alice. In a world where Elon Musk believes we're living in a simulation, interpersonal physical reality - the reality shared by two people over time - is one of the only things we can be truly sure of.
In her final meeting with the Queens, Alice finally smartens up.
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.