Gertrude Chataway, Lewis Carroll’s forgotten child-friend

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - Gertrude Chataway, lying on sofa
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson – Gertrude Chataway, lying on sofa (c.1876) – Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Everyone knows about Lewis Carroll’s friendship with Alice Pleasance Liddell, who inspired the main character in his famous books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass; indeed, after a rowing boat travelling during which Carroll regaled Alice and her two sisters with a fantastic story of a girl named Alice who had fallen into a rabbit-hole, she asked him to write it down, and so came Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, the initial version of the first book. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Who loves working class children?

Lewis Hine - Little Lottie
Lewis Hine – Little Lottie, a regular oyster shucker in Alabama Canning Co. She speaks no English. Note the condition of her shoes caused by standing on the rough shells so much. A common sight. Bayou La Batre, Ala. (22 February 1911) – from National Archives (Identifier 523398), via Wikimedia Commons

One seldom finds persons who really love all children. Most people show themselves selective in their affection, while some don’t like children at all. Usually it is a family affair, one loves one’s own children, but not those of other people, and this attitude gets a wide support in society, since children are implicitly considered as their parents’ property, and too much love for other people’s children is seen with suspicion. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

No good work of love goes unrewarded with blood libel

Does our epoch love children? All children? Official opinion will answer “yes,” but we can look behind this façade. Rather than love for real children, it is rather a worship for an idealised image of childhood innocence. Behind it lurks a pornographic obsession with defilement and sadism. We can see this through the accusations raised by various authors against known men of the past who were known for loving children. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Aleister Crowley parodies Lewis Carroll

John Tenniel - The White Knight, In Through the Looking-Glass
John Tenniel – The White Knight, In Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1897)

Crowley’s The Sword of Song (1904) consists mainly of two long poems, ‘Ascension Day’ and ‘Pentecost,’ both critical of Christianity; they are preceded by an Introduction and followed by lengthy notes. The title, with its subtitle and long dedication, is itself rather ironic: CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…