"The story that Queen Victoria, delighted by Alice, requests another book from Carroll and receives an impenetrable mathematical treatise is unfortunately not true.
"It's just one of the many myths that surround him."
-Bryan Talbot, Alice In Sunderland (London, 2007), p. 227, captions 1-2.
I thought that if I added this quote in the combox to the first "Alice" post, it might be missed.
As was pointed out in that combox, one literary influence on Poul Anderson that I missed was Kipling. See Anderson's The Enemy Stars and The Game Of Empire.
See also "Harvest Of Stars II" (here) where I respond to Anson Guthrie's remark about Kipling.
4 comments:
Ah, pity about Queen Victoria and the book!
I don't know how it's known for sure. Talbot must have researched and just found no record of such a correspondence. It would have had to be documented somewhere if it had happened.
We appreciate the historical facts, which are pretty amazing, and the myths - and like to know the difference.
Kaor, to Both!
Or, if my recollection is correct, Queen Victoria was so pleased by the ALICE books that she either wrote or had communicated to Dodgson of how she had enjoyed them. Then Dodgson dedicated his next book to her, that abstruse mathematical tome!
As for Kipling I recommend we look up Anderson's essay about him, detailing both his affection for Kipling's works and how they had affected him and his own works. It can be found in ALL ONE UNIVERSE (1996).
I've read enough of Kipling to agree with Anderson that he was a great writer, and often a pleasure to read!
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I think the essay about Kipling in ALL ONE UNIVERSE is the same as the general introduction Anderson wrote for A SEPARATE STAR: A SCIENCE FICTION TRIBUTE TO RUDYARD KIPLING (Baen, 1989), ed. by Dave Drake and Sandra Miesel, collecting commentaries and stories by SF writers influenced by Kipling. Anderson selected "No Truce With Kings" as his contribution. I'll quote a bit from his prefatory comments to that story: "In the case of Kipling, this [influence, my addition, SMB] could be slight--for instance, a quotation--or it could be the idea from which a plot grew or an insight of his which I tried to convey in my own fashion. I would scarcely have written THE BROKEN SWORD had I never read "Cold Iron." Whatever significance is in THE ENEMY STARS is more powerfully in the lines cited at its end. "The Master Key" is a deliberate pastiche.* "Full Pack/Hokas Wild," with Gordon R. Dickson, is an affectionate burlesque.** THE GAME OF EMPIRE is an hommage, to use a current buzz word, with the first and last sentences [of KIM..."
Ad astra! Sean
*Except Anderson did not say which of Kipling's stories inspired "The Master Key."
**See esp. Kipling's THE JUNGLE BOOKS and "The Ballad of Boh Da Thone."
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