Why ’The Smoking Caterpillar’?
November 17 2024 02:04:07 PM
| Alice in Wonderland. Of course. You may well remember this if you are of a certain age. Let's say around 70... The line drawings have a charm and dream-like quality that fits well with the theme. The Caterpillar seems to be a complex character. A rather brusque and enigmatic character, he does at least engage with Alice, but is really quite absorbed in his own world. To me, at least, he is one of the most engaging characters in the book. Whether or not Lewis Carroll was influenced by drugs himself seems unclear. Certainly, Carroll would have had access to opium, alcohol, cannabis and cocaine. Although not wealthy, strictly speaking, he would likely to have been able to purchase drugs and also would probably had access to drugs through social circles - he was a mathematics lecturer at Cambridge University, so it's reasonable to suppose that his social circles were fairly extensive. However, there's no evidence that Carroll took any recreational drugs at all. Some medicinal drugs may have had a psychedelic effect, but again, there's no evidence that he consumed anything for medicinal purposes. My personal overview is that the Caterpillar is on his own journey. His first words to Alice are 'Who . . .Are . . . YOU?' He doesn't seem to be asking for his own purposes. Rather he is advising Alice to find out for herself who she is. Of course he's a little short-tempered. Look at it from his point of view. He's spent all lot of time pondering the meaning of life and then this rather annoying little girl comes along and expects to be given the secrets, or so it seems to the Caterpillar. Eventually, the Caterpillar wanders off and metamorphoses into a butterfly. Before he goes, though, he hints to Alice that one side of the mushroom (on which he is sitting) will make her taller, the other, shorter. It may seem to be unnecessary to have a portion of the mushroom make the consumer shorter when Alice is only three inches high (an ideal height according to the Caterpillar) but then as the story goes on, the reason why this is important becomes clear. Do I think of myself as the Smoking Caterpillar? Not at all really. He's way more intelligent than I am. But it's his chilled (stoned?) attitude plus the fact that he's surrounded by recreational drug accoutrements that makes him a suitable mascot. So I'll be talking about life, death, drugs, philosophy and many other things. If you find what I have to say useful or diverting, great. If not, there's plenty of other places - as I get older I care less and less about whether people take an interest in what I have to say. In fact, as one becomes older, it's wonderful how liberating one's increasing irrelevance to society can be. |
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