Dearly beloved logicians, amature and pro among us,

We've been slaving in newsgroup all day and night over dry academic
subjects. I thought we could now have some amusement on logic at this
moment!

yesterday i discovered a song (while slaving (literally) in Second
Life) from the 1960s that is based on the book Alice In Wonderland.
The song is called White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane.

I SO love it.

Of all books i've red in my life, may it be esoteric logic, math, text
books or philosophical transactions, may it be encyclopedia
britannica, may it be fictitious such as A Tale Of 2 Cities, may it be
poetry as of Emily Dickinson, may it be comics as Batman, may it be,
may it be, but of all the books, that i'm pressed to pick one book as
my favorite, that will be Alice In Wonderand and Tthru The Looking-
Glass.

[began unconsciously starting to write on (possible few thousands
words) my reasons ... but STOP!]

Ok, i don't mean to ramble, but what i wanted to say in this post, was
that i soooooo love the song. And, i spent about 30 min to write some
commentaries on the lyrics.

Without further ado, the HTML version with colors, youtube vid, links,
formatting, is at:
http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/sanga_pemci/white_rabbit.html

Following is a plain text version.

Hope you enjoy it as much as i do.

------------------------------------------
White Rabbit

White Rabbit (song)↗ (1967) by Jefferson Airplane↗.

「• pill = Actually, pill doesn't appear in Wonderland. It was a drink
and a cake, and later mushroom, that makes Alice grow larger or
smaller. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Chapter 1) 」

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

「• rabbits = Alice chased a White Rabbit and fell into a hole, where
her dream-like adventure began. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
(Chapter 1) 」

「• caterpillar = The caterpillar is somewhat a mysterious sage-like
character, who smokes a hookah↗. He appeared in Chapter 4. Note that
caterpillar never gave Alice a call. 」

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Recall Alice
When she was just small

「• chessboard = Chess is not mentioned in the first book, but is a
central theme in the sequal. Through The Looking Glass (Chapter 1). 」

「• mushroom = Mushroom appears first at the end of chapter 4, where
the caterpillar is sitting on one in chapter 5. The Caterpillar told
Alice that the mushroom: “One side will make you grow taller, and the
other side will make you grow shorter.”. Though, there's no indication
of which is which, as it is round. In subsequent chapters 6 and 7,
Alice kept the pieces of the mushroom in her pocket so she can nibble
it and grow or shrink at will. 」

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

「• logic = Logic is a central theme in Wonderland. Its author Lewis
Carroll is a logician. For example, here's a quote from Chapter 4
where the word “logic” in mentioned explicitly : «“Contrariwise,”
continued Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so,
it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.”» 」

「• White Knight = The Red Knight and White Knight are main charaters
in the Looking-glass. The Knights are most prominently featured in
Through The Looking Glass (Chapter 8). 」

「• backwards = Backwards, as in reversal, inversion, mirroring, is a
central theme in Looking-glass. It implicitly applied to time, shape,
speech. For example, in Chapter 5, excerpt: «“That's the effect of
living backwards,” the Queen said kindly: “it always makes one a
little giddy at first—”» 」

「• off with her head! = The Queen is a central character in
Wonderland. She is Queen of Hearts of playing card (thus “Red” Queen).
The Queen is found of execution by shouting “Off with his/her/their
head”, first spoke in Chapter 7, and said it the most in Chapter 8. In
Looking-glass, there's the White Queen and Red Queen (of Chess).
However, phrase “off with ... head” or execution didn't appear in
Looking-glass. In Looking-glass, Alice start as a pawn, and in the end
became a Queen herself too. 」

「• dormouse = Dormouse is a main character in Chapter 7, and also
appeared in Chapter 11. The Dormouse is most of the time asleep or
dormant and in that state got manipulated or abused by the March Hare
and Mad Hatter. The dormouse never said “feed your head” or anything
like it. However, “feeding” and “head” are recurrent themes. 」

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's “off with her head!”
Remember what the dormouse said:
“FEED YOUR HEAD”

YouTube search: White Rabbit, Jefferson Airplane↗

What a greatest song!

See also: Wonderland Alice Art Gallery.

Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄