Alice explores the under world
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland is the story of a girl that explores the under ground world. But this story is not more fantastic than Jules Verne's Journey to the Interior of the Earth neither more unbelievable than Ludvig Holberg's Niels Klim's Underground Travels.
In 1864, Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures, handled the manuscript to Alice Liddell, the little girl that inspired the story. The story, or novel, is about an underground Kindom, full of lovely animal characters, and crooked logic in their conversations.
But Alice went into this place when she 'followed' a rabbit that ran close to her saying to himself "Oh Dear! Oh dear! I shall be late! "
However, 'following' a rabbit is the metaphor that Lewis used to send Alice to explore the world under their feet. Other explorers went down to the underground by their own initiative, but Alice went down by 'following a rabbit'.
Alice's Adventures is possibly the most popular of a series of books of a quest by authors of many nationalities through many centuries about the possibility of life near, or at the center of the Earth. In the beginning, people wondered if there more people at the other side of the globe. Later they asked themselves if there were people at the center of the Earth, at the center of the globe.
One of the early starters was the Italian Dante with his Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia) is a narrative poem of himself taking a journey down to the center of the Earth.
Here is a short timeline of some of those stories and attempts:
- 1308 - Dante Alighieri began his epic poem placing Satan and the Hell at the center of the earth.
- 1664 - the prolific German Scholar and inventor Athanasius Kircher published his Mundus Subterraneus ( Subterranean World ).
- 1692 - Edmund Halley, a British astronomer and mathematician put forth the idea of a hollow Earth. For an in-depth account about how he came-up with this idea in the article: The subterranean world of Edmund Halley
- 1741 - The Norwegian-Danish dramatist Ludvig Holberg wrote Niels Klim's Underground Travels.
- 1864 - Jules Verne published his Journey to the Interior of the Earth.
- 1864 - Charles Lutwidge Dogson, under the pen-name of Lewis Carroll published his Alice's Adventures Under Ground later known as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
So, in some sense, Alice was also part of an long series of explorers of the "under ground'.
Some excerpts about how Alice 'fell' down to the 'center of the Earth':
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next.
Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? “I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think–” (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) “–yes, that’s about the right distance–but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got to?” (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. “I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think–” (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didn’t sound at all the right word) “–but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?” (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke–fancy curtseying as you’re falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) “And what an ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.”
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. “Dinah’ll miss me very much to-night, I should think!” (Dinah was the cat.) “I hope they’ll remember her saucer of milk at teatime. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I’m afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that’s very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?” ... “Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?” when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
Once the fall was over, the real fun of the adventures of Alice in an unsuspected, unreal, and fantastic world begins.
Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice’s first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!
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