Chapter Seven: The White Queen (Janusian Presence)
Through The Looking-Glass EXPLAINED
Just then, the White Queen comes thrashing through the wood towards her. Eventually, Alice and the White Queen strike up a conversation in which the White Queen offers Alice a job and tells her what it's like to live backwards.
Comically, the White Queen's vision of the future is so clear that she begins applying a band-aid to her finger BEFORE she accidentally pricks herself on her brooch.
Depression vs. Anxiety vs. Presence
My Auntie Mitra Singh had a Masters in Social Work, worked at Jane and Finch all her life, and taught at the University of Toronto. One day, she showed me a simple diagram that showed me where depression and anxiety come from. She said that people oriented towards the future experience anxiety, and people oriented towards the past feel depressed. Rest in Peace, Auntie Dev.
The White Queen is the embodiment of Evolutionary Creativity gone mad.
She is a tragic figure in that she recognizes that she herself does not have the ability to be happy, even with the gift of perfect foresight and the ability to see the future.
The White Queen explains that while the jam is delicious, she and the other chess pieces are unable to enjoy their jam today. What Lewis Carroll means by this is that the characters are unable to enjoy the present moment, even though they may have everything that makes them happy within reach.
Just like my Aunt described, The White Queen only exists in the future and the past, and is unable to enjoy the present moment.
It's why Ram Dass aka Richard Alpert called his most popular book, Be Here Now. If it wasn't for Ram Dass, Steve Jobs the famous Apple Computers CEO and inventor of the iPhone would've never gone to India when he was 19.
Limiting one‟s desires actually helps to cure one of fear. Cease to hope,‟ he says, and you will cease to fear.‟ But how,‟ you will ask, can things as diverse as these be linked?‟ Well, the fact is, Lucilius, that they are bound up with one another, unconnected as they may seem. Widely different though they are, the two of them march in unison like a prisoner and the escort he is handcuffed to. Fear keeps pace with hope. Nor does their so moving together surprise me; both belong to a mind in suspense, to a mind in a state of anxiety through looking into the future. Both are mainly due to projecting our thoughts far ahead of us instead of adapting ourselves to the present. Thus it is that foresight, the greatest blessing humanity has been given, is transformed into a curse. Wild animals run from the dangers they actually see, and once they have escaped them worry no more. We however are tormented alike by what is past and what is to come. A number of our blessings do us harm, for memory brings back the agony of fear while foresight brings it on prematurely. No one confines his unhappiness to the present.
- Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
In Chess Terms
The White Queen soon turns into a Sheep. Oddly enough, the Sheep is the White Bishop. The White Queen's metamorphosis into a White Bishop signifies that the White Queen, through her own misuse of Creativity and Evolution, has gone from a chess piece that can move in a myriad of different ways to a chess piece that can only move diagonally like a Bishop. Her strength, power, and intelligence is behind her.
Before her final crowning, Alice will be berated by the White Queen one last time. Fulfilling the Red Queen's prophecy, Alice meets Humpty Dumpty, who proceeds to fall off of the wall he's sitting on when he attempts to shake Alice's hand.
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.