Tag: literature

Posted in History & Literature

Crime And Punishment

Posted on by Jinavie

Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali. 
No crime or punishment without a previous penal law. 

This is the backbone of modern criminal law, stating that the law defines what a crime is, and without the law, there can be no crime. Ergo, a crime in the past cannot be punished with the law of the present.

The principle has allowed for many loopholes where past crimes went unpunished as they were not subjected to new laws. An example is The Homicide Act of 1957 in English law, which never gave a statutory definition of murder. This led to no less than six appeals challenging the definition, using it as a defence.
It also protects criminals by allowing them to use a defence (e.g. provocation) even after it is outlawed, as long as the crime was committed before the law came in place.

If Wonderland’s legal system was based around nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege, then the King of Hearts would not have been able to impose his Rule #42: “all persons more than a mile high must leave the court immediately”, as he created the rule after Alice ate the mushrooms and grew in size.

Posted in History & Literature

The Lamb And The Tyger

Posted on by Jinavie

The creator made the Lamb, but he also made the Tyger.
In this world, there is no light without darkness. No good without evil. No life without death. The Lamb represents innocence, Christ and aesthetic beauty, while the Tyger represents evil, the Devil and primal ferocity.
An all-powerful deity that created the world; if he exists, then all rules of this universe were devised by his design. So why did he – the supposedly loving, benevolent maker – create these dualities? What god would make such a monstrosity, as beautiful as it is, that is the Tyger?
And how is it that we are both a Lamb and a Tyger at the same time?

(Both The Lamb and The Tyger by William Blake after the break)

The Lamb

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and he is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb.
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!

~ William Blake

The Tyger

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies,
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

~ William Blake

Posted in History & Literature

Black Death

Posted on by Jinavie

This disease, also known as Pest or the bubonic plague, was a vicious infectious disease that decimated medieval Europe. It is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, usually transmitted by fleas. The symptoms vary from high fever, malaise, nausea and vomiting, headaches, muscle cramps, seizures, red rashes, coughing and swollen lymph nodes, and causes death within four or five days without treatment.
People did not know about the existence of bacteria back then (it would be 200 more years until Louis Pasteur would suggest germs as the cause of infections). Back then, they considered diseases to transmit through miasma, or bad air. Also, they believed that to prevent transmission, they required a stronger smell to counter it.

Plague doctors, who treated according to the miasma theory of disease, wore a special set of equipments that were known as beak doctor costumes. They wore an overcoat, hat, gloves and boots made from waxed leather, carried a cane to assess the patient and point things out, and a peculiar mask. The mask had a long beak like a bird’s, giving the doctors the nickname beak doctors. The masks had round, glass windows to see through, and two small nostrils at the end of the beak.

Why did they wear this strange mask? The beak was hollow and doctors filled it with flowers, herbs, vinegar and incense that produce a strong smell, so as to “purify” the air coming through the nostrils. 
Although the miasma theory has been falsified by germ theory, this gear was the first hazmat suit in history.

There is another fascinating fact regarding the Plague, miasma theory and beak doctors. It regards the nursery rhyme, Ring a Ring o’ Roses:

Ring-a-ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies; 
Atishoo! Atishoo! 
We all fall down. 

This nursery rhyme actually describes the Plague. The ring of roses refers to the red rashes and swelling of lymph nodes – a symptom of the Plague; the posies were herbs used to counter the miasma; coughing and sneezing were end-stage symptoms before death, which is shown in the final line. 

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Madness

Posted on by Jinavie

“As mad as a hatter” – this is a well-known English idiom, particularly famous after Lewis Carroll created the Mad Hatter character in his work Alice in Wonderland. However, what is less known is the fact that this idiom is based on actual events.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, hatters used mercury to treat felt (traditionally made from rabbit fur or the more luxurious beaver fur). Unfortunately, mercury is a highly toxic heavy metal, which causes severe damage in the human body. In the case of mercury poisoning (also known as Minamata disease or the Mad Hatter disease), it infiltrates neurons to cause severe neurological symptoms. For example, it can impair vision and hearing, cause paresthesia (pins and needles), anxiety, depression, tremors and hallucinations. The famous physicist, Isaac Newton, also suffered from Mad Hatter disease.

Another mad character from Alice in Wonderland is the March Hare. As one may deduce from his name, he is modelled after a normal hare. The reason why the March Hare is mad is that March is around the time when rabbits enter their mating season, and male hares are in heat. They then have only one thing in mind: sex. 

Maybe, as the Cheshire Cat explains, “we’re all mad down here”.

image

Posted in Philosophy

Cheshire Cat

Posted on by Jinavie

As an important character in the book Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat is infamous for his non-sensical and strange questions and answers. But his words also carry a very strong philosophical message.
For example, when asked by Alice, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” he replies:

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. 
“I don’t much care where-” said Alice. 
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. 
“-so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation. 
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

This directly applies to life: if you keep walking without giving up, you will eventually end up somewhere. Even if you are lost and without direction, life will, without a doubt, take you somewhere as long as there is hope. However, it also points out how it’s much more useful and time-conserving to know the destination you want to reach, also known as a “goal”.

Additionally, the Cat is well-known for his ear-to-ear grin, thus the term “grinning like a Cheshire Cat”. The origin of this cat is most likely from Cheshire, England, where cheese made from there were molded into the shape of a grinning cat.

Posted in History & Literature

The Raven

Posted on by Jinavie

Edgar Allan Poe is quite possibly the father of horror literature, well-known for his macabre works such as mystery novels, poetry and critiques. His stories are uncanny and gripping at the same time, and it can only be described as “mad genius”. Among his most famous works is a poem called The Raven.

It is a story about a young scholar whose lover has passed on, and his eerie, dream-like conversation with a raven on a winter night. The poem repeats the word nevermore extensively, creating a powerful effect as its meaning varies for every stanza. The narrator constantly cries out to the raven, expressing pain and torment, to which the raven replies – cold and succinctly – “Nevermore”, depriving him of hope.

Here, the raven is a metaphor of the man’s anguish and his eternal devotion and love. Furthermore, as a raven is often a symbol of logical thought and darkness, it sets the atmosphere of the poem very nicely. Lastly, as the reader is left pondering whether the bird actually converses with the narrator, or simply repeating the same word meaninglessly, it brings upon a chill down the reader’s spine, as the man is placed in a perverse conflict between desire to forget and desire to remember. The raven leads him through his descent from weakness and frailty to confusion, and from confusion to madness.

However, the reason The Raven is so famous is not just because of its sinister mood, the metaphor of the young man’s sorrow and anguish or the powerful repetition of the word nevermore, but also because of the actual structure. Poe wrote the poem in the meter of trochaic octameter, where stressed syllables and unstressed syllables alternate to produce beautiful fluidity. The meter together with the rhyming scheme (including internal rhymes and alliterations) allows the poem to be read in a dreamy way, reinforcing the question of whether the raven comes to the man in reality or in his dream.

(Original poem after the break)

Continue reading “The Raven” →

Posted in History & Literature

Palindrome

Posted on by Jinavie

A palindrome is a word or sentence which can be read both ways and still be exactly the same. This type of mirroring can be found in words such as radar or level, or in more advanced sentences such as “Was it a rat I saw?”.
The following is an example of how far a palindrome can be taken.

The Faded Bloomer’s Rhapsody

Flee to me, remote elf — Sal a dewan desired;
Now is a Late-Petal era.
We fade: lucid Iris, red Rose of Sharon;
Goldenrod a silly ram ate.
Wan olives teem (ah, Satan lives!);
A star eyes pale Roses.

Revel, big elf on a mayonnaise man —
A tinsel baton-dragging nice elf too.
Lisp, oh sibyl, dragging Nola along;
Niggardly bishops I loot.
Fleecing niggard notables Nita names,
I annoy a Man of Legible Verse.

So relapse, ye rats,
As evil Natasha meets Evil
On a wet, amaryllis-adorned log.
Norah’s foes’ orders (I ridiculed a few) are late, Pet.
Alas, I wonder!  Is Edna wed?
Alas — flee to me, remote elf.

– Howard W. Bergerson

It is interesting to note that there have even been a couple of novels written that are completely palindromic.

Another interesting literature technique is called a semordnilap. This is a word or a phrase that reads something completely different when read in reverse (a keen reader may note that “semordnilap” is “palindromes” spelled backwards). Examples include live/evil, star/rats and stressed/desserts (ironically).

(Source: http://lanwu.deviantart.com/art/through-the-looking-glass-145045719?q=boost:popular%20alice%20looking%20glass&qo=8)

Posted in History & Literature

The Raven And The Writing Desk

Posted on by Jinavie

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

 This riddle was first posed by Lewis Carroll in his famous work, Alice in Wonderland, asked by the Mad Hatter. The Mad Hatter asks this riddle in his nonsensical character, stating that he does not know the answer either. In fact, the book never reveals what the answer to the riddle is.

Perplexed, many readers wrote to Carroll as to the answer of this puzzle. After receiving so many enquiries, Carroll wrote in the preface of his next book that the riddle was thought of without the answer in mind, meaning that he did not know the commonality between the two either. However, he did suggest an answer that: 

“Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!” (note that “nevar” is “raven” “put with the wrong end in front”)

Knowing that this riddle was never created with an answer, scholars have attempted to solve this riddle themselves ever since. There have been many proposed answers, such as “they both stand on sticks”, “they both come with inky quills” and the most famous “because Edgar Allan Poe wrote on both” (see The Raven). There have also been nonsensical answers (thus answering to the nonsensical nature of the riddle) such as “because there is a B in both and an N in neither”.

However, perhaps the best answer, as with all works by both Carroll and Poe, is that “you can baffle billions with both”.