Email: Dr. Lecter
[E-mail to typhoidandswans in response to his question about my e-mail address and signature. queenemma gets a mention.]
To: PAT.B13290@bshci.org
From: theredqueen@yahoo.transia.de
Subject: Adventures in Wonderland
Dr. Lecter,
Certainly you may call me Wanda.
I read a great deal. I spend hours in the library. We have only one school in town, elementary and secondary students together. Some few persons go on to university in Latveria or America but my aunt's health required me to remain here. I read books instead. And I read to amuse myself. As I have stated I live in a small, provincial town. While we have access to the amenities of modern living most of the villagers prefer to live simply. Although I have lived here all my life I have never quite fit in to their way of life. I stand out. Life in a book seems both simpler and more exciting at once. And what was it someone once said? "Books are friends who never leave."
I read many books but my favorites are the ones ostensibly written for children. Those are the ones I have in my own home to read again and again: the Alice books, the Chronicles of Narnia, the Harry Potter series, the Once and Future King, the Hobbit, Peter Pan. Adventure stories I suppose. And tales of growing up. I like Alice's story very much. In Adventures in Wonderland everything she does has a direct impact on what happens next, but in a completely chaotic manner. She's completely in charge of her situation but she's unconscious of it until she realizes at the very end "you're just a pack of cards". In Through the Looking-Glass she becomes more aware of her own power. I like the chess metaphor very much. Do you play? I am not particularly good at strategy, it's hard for me to see the many possible outcomes of my actions. When I play I generally expend all my energies attempting to bring one pawn across the board to be crowned Queen. If I succeed at that I feel I've won regardless of the outcome of the game. It is perhaps an odd way to play the game but one must do what one can, particularly when she's usually playing both sides anyway.
The reason I chose "the Red Queen" can be explained in the following quote from the very end of Through the Looking-Glass:
"she went on, turning fiercely upon the Red Queen, whom she considered as the cause of all the mischief"
After this Alice shakes the Queen until she turns into her kitten and the book ends with Alice realizing the whole of the Looking-Glass World is in her own mind. She, Alice, is in fact the Red Queen, the White Queen, the Unicorn, the White Knight, all of it. She is, herself, the cause of all the mischief. I find that rather empowering.
The quote I use in my signature is actually a dialog between Alice and the White Queen (and actually Alice is a White Pawn, not Red). I believe most people would recognize it from Lewis Carroll but not know the precise details and therefore I can get away with using it, though it may not quite match. Most of what the Red Queen says is sharp and cross and wouldn't make a good quotation. However the White Queen is scatter-brained and simplistic. I don't wish to be like her. Also, Ms. Frost (headmistress of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children and formerly known as the White Queen, though I'll say she bears no resemblance at all to the one in the book) is an acquaintance of mine and I wouldn't want to step on her toes by using the White Queen. In standard chess of course the enemy of white is black not red. I prefer Alice's version. Red is a strong color, representing both passion and wrath. It's my favorite color. Anyway, I chose that quote because it speaks to Alice's power in an indirect way. If we accept that the White Queen is in fact a manifestation of Alice's subconscious we realize the Queen is actually one of the impossible things she believes in. I appreciate that. Also, I like to imagine a world broader and more accepting than the one I live in. The people here in town would consider many of the things I hope for or dream of "impossible". The mountain is very real, they don't like to look beyond it.
Wanda
[There is no use trying, said Alice; one can't believe impossible things.
I dare say you haven't had much practice, said the Queen.
When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day.
Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.]
To: PAT.B13290@bshci.org
From: theredqueen@yahoo.transia.de
Subject: Adventures in Wonderland
Dr. Lecter,
Certainly you may call me Wanda.
I read a great deal. I spend hours in the library. We have only one school in town, elementary and secondary students together. Some few persons go on to university in Latveria or America but my aunt's health required me to remain here. I read books instead. And I read to amuse myself. As I have stated I live in a small, provincial town. While we have access to the amenities of modern living most of the villagers prefer to live simply. Although I have lived here all my life I have never quite fit in to their way of life. I stand out. Life in a book seems both simpler and more exciting at once. And what was it someone once said? "Books are friends who never leave."
I read many books but my favorites are the ones ostensibly written for children. Those are the ones I have in my own home to read again and again: the Alice books, the Chronicles of Narnia, the Harry Potter series, the Once and Future King, the Hobbit, Peter Pan. Adventure stories I suppose. And tales of growing up. I like Alice's story very much. In Adventures in Wonderland everything she does has a direct impact on what happens next, but in a completely chaotic manner. She's completely in charge of her situation but she's unconscious of it until she realizes at the very end "you're just a pack of cards". In Through the Looking-Glass she becomes more aware of her own power. I like the chess metaphor very much. Do you play? I am not particularly good at strategy, it's hard for me to see the many possible outcomes of my actions. When I play I generally expend all my energies attempting to bring one pawn across the board to be crowned Queen. If I succeed at that I feel I've won regardless of the outcome of the game. It is perhaps an odd way to play the game but one must do what one can, particularly when she's usually playing both sides anyway.
The reason I chose "the Red Queen" can be explained in the following quote from the very end of Through the Looking-Glass:
"she went on, turning fiercely upon the Red Queen, whom she considered as the cause of all the mischief"
After this Alice shakes the Queen until she turns into her kitten and the book ends with Alice realizing the whole of the Looking-Glass World is in her own mind. She, Alice, is in fact the Red Queen, the White Queen, the Unicorn, the White Knight, all of it. She is, herself, the cause of all the mischief. I find that rather empowering.
The quote I use in my signature is actually a dialog between Alice and the White Queen (and actually Alice is a White Pawn, not Red). I believe most people would recognize it from Lewis Carroll but not know the precise details and therefore I can get away with using it, though it may not quite match. Most of what the Red Queen says is sharp and cross and wouldn't make a good quotation. However the White Queen is scatter-brained and simplistic. I don't wish to be like her. Also, Ms. Frost (headmistress of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children and formerly known as the White Queen, though I'll say she bears no resemblance at all to the one in the book) is an acquaintance of mine and I wouldn't want to step on her toes by using the White Queen. In standard chess of course the enemy of white is black not red. I prefer Alice's version. Red is a strong color, representing both passion and wrath. It's my favorite color. Anyway, I chose that quote because it speaks to Alice's power in an indirect way. If we accept that the White Queen is in fact a manifestation of Alice's subconscious we realize the Queen is actually one of the impossible things she believes in. I appreciate that. Also, I like to imagine a world broader and more accepting than the one I live in. The people here in town would consider many of the things I hope for or dream of "impossible". The mountain is very real, they don't like to look beyond it.
Wanda
[There is no use trying, said Alice; one can't believe impossible things.
I dare say you haven't had much practice, said the Queen.
When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day.
Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.]