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Matthew Moran's avatar

There is a version of Carroll's book I purchased for my brother-in-law years ago - The Annotated Alice - that dissects and discusses the various puzzles and commentary found throughout the book.

It is interesting that you mention this because I often use either lectures or other recordings to kick me off into sleep. Recently, I've listened to the following version of Alice in Wonderland for this purpose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27SwZZ8jiBc

Other favorites are the many Sherlock Holmes stories and various histories or biographies.

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Dr. G.V. Loewen's avatar

I am cautious about Carroll given the allusions to pedophilia and the Victorian penchant for having surrogate sex with children via physical 'discipline'. Not a children's book by any means, more of a voyeuristic mockery that, in its less literary version, is utilized by groomers of all stripes. The cat's off the cuff - or scruff? - remark about insanity is typical of the adult who rationalizes such abuse as the way of the world. Alice's own ongoing and unremitting naivety allows the adult reader to imagine that their own excesses do not seriously effect the character of the child who, in her ignorance, plods along from absurdity to absurdity, just as many do in real life.

Not quite 'down the bunny hole', but close.

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