Added: Mar 13, 2010
From: 2bsirius
Duration: 2:15
The last level of metaphor in the "Alice" books is this: that life, viewed rationally and without illusion, appears to be a nonsense tale told by an idiot mathematician. At the heart of things science finds only a mad, never-ending quadrille of Mock Turtle Waves and Gryphon Particles. For a moment the waves and particles dance in grotesque, inconceivably complex patterns capable of reflecting on their own absurdity. We all live slapstick lives, under an inexplicable sentence of death, and when we try to find out what the Castle authorities want us to do, we are shifted from one bumbling bureaucrat to another. We are not even sure that Count West-West, the owner of the Castle, really exists. More than one critic has commented on the similarities between Kafka's "Trial" and the trial of the Jack of Hearts; between Kafka's Castle and a chess game in which living pieces are ignorant of the game's plan and cannot tell if they move of their own wills or are being pushed by invisible fingers. This vision of the monstrous mindlessness of the cosmos ("Off with their heads") can be grim and disturbing, as it is in Kafka and the Book of Job, or lighthearted comedy, as it is in "Alice"... ["The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition" by Lewis Carroll With an Introduction and Notes by Martin Gardner, page xxxiii] The Annotated Alice: An Excerpt fomr the Introduction by Martin Gardner: http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Alice-Definitive-Lewis-Carroll/dp/0393048470/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268431001&sr=8-1 "The Trial" by Franz Kafka: http://www.amazon.com/Trial-Franz-Kafka/dp/0805209999/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268432263&sr=8-2 NOTE: Martin Gardner died at age 95 on May 22, 2010. Music a royalty free soundtrack, Emerald Therapy from: http://www.audionautix.com/ The silent movie clip was taken from "Alice in Wonderland" (1915) directed by W. W. Young http://www.archive.org
Channel: Education
Rating: 5.0' max='5' min='1' numRaters='43' rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#overall ( ratings) Views: 1354 Comments: 19
2bsirius Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - A mind is a terrible thing to misplace.
SingleEyeMovement Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - This is really wonderful thank you very much for taking the time to share this. I have heard "Wonderland" is one of the most widely interpreted stories of all time -- I'd call that a success.
DickensianDreams Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - That's a fascinating analysis. This is going to be yet another book that's added to my Amazon "wish list." I can't think of any "Alice" quotes off the top of my head, but there's a line from "The Beatles" song "Strawberry fields" that I think describes the illusion of reality perfectly: "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see."
slobomotion Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - I always said, since about 1983, "A mind . . . is a terrible thing." Great video. Five stars. Favorited. I saw a rare book of Llewis Carroll's personal photos, by the way. Um . . .
artemisfair Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - wonderful. I love your videos, 2b.
TheDigitalreign Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - I'm a Mach Terrtol
thedeeliciousplum Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - @2bsirius Watching this old footage and listening to the story was quite surreal :) Thank you for sharing this. Kafka's The Trial was my first introduction to Kafka. I read it in one sitting for the sole reason that it is a story that we each can find elements to relate to within its ebbs and flow. Best wishes.
pangeaprogress Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - great video 2b thanks for sharing
dewinthemorning Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - @2bsirius Or, it's a terrible thing to misplace a mind. :)
almafarag Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - this is nice, the dialectic between tragedy and comedy, between meaning and -lessness, between surface and depth, gripping video
TWITfromURANUS Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - Yesh! 'chasing after wind...'
Geodge Says:
Mar 14, 2010 - Luv it!
Israe5l Says:
Mar 14, 2010 - (logic and antilogic) is always false.
BlackLaval Says:
Mar 14, 2010 - Or it can be both, grim and diturbing and lighthearted comedy as in Becket'ts plays.
BlackLaval Says:
Mar 14, 2010 - Your sentence reminds of my favorite quote from The Man who was Thursday: "A man's brain is a bomb." I also f5-starred and favorited this vid.
aelyzium Says:
Jul 28, 2010 - @dewinthemorning ministry reference fail ;-)
aelyzium Says:
Jul 28, 2010 - @aelyzium perhaps, not to presume 2bsirius's taste in music - haha. thanks for the upload
. . . . . . . because these video appear directly from youtube.com which we cannot control it.)
Barklord Says:
Mar 13, 2010 - "i've lost my mind in a gallery of truths"