R2OK!

Clive55 · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 668

I am a big fan of the "Alice" Books by Lewis Carroll/Dodgson. They are great treasures of literature. Overflowing with humour, puzzles, logic, perspective & humanity.
In my lunch break I was in the library perusing a book about Lewis Carroll & the Alice books & their resonance in 20th century culture.
An interesting book. Now, i have not lived in a cocoon & I have heard the inuendos as to dodgsons sexuality.
But none of these are borne out by the facts.
Dodgson was a very prim Victorian gentleman. He was very atracted to young girls, & enjoyed their friendship.
Whether he was ever also at times sexually atracted to them, no one would ever know.
Least of earl the young girls whose friendship he treasured.
No suggestion ever came from any of these girls of even the hint of sexual molestation from him.
Anyway, reading the above mentioned book I saw that a number of sick paedophile rings have started up using references to the Alice books in their title.
A book, even exists titled "Alice" which depicts the sexual molestation then the mutilation & murder of a young girl called "Alice". This is considered a turn-on for these sickos.
Thing is, they are using the Alice name & other references (Wonderland et al) in a total perversion of everything Lewis Carroll & the Alice books were about.
How these guys latched on to something of great beauty & charm to create their sick fantasies.
People who don't know much about Dodgson & the Alice books may see him as tainted by all of this.
He couldn't be further away from it

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 2071 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Clive,

I really am disappointed that this had happened. This is the sort of thing that 'The Internet World' needs to sort, needs to remove.

When wikipedia started up it was getting ruined by people editing freely and putting on untruths, speculations and just being idiots and changing bios for the hell of it. I believe wiki has really tightened up now and thanks to many devoted contributors it is fast becoming a very reliable reference source. So it can be done.

People's reputation, work and history needs to be protected otherwise the 'world knowledge' becomes a nonsense; quite a challenge for the internet in the future.

John

Clive55 · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 668

I agree, John.
It is amazing how many people simply hear something, & will come up wih something like, "of course, Lewis Carol was a paedo" as if it is "common knowlewdge"
I am fascinated by the Alice books, & think there is so much in them & in some of Carrolls other writtings.
I am just so disturbed that something so beautiful is being sullied in this way.
The book reffered to a couple of paedophile web sites with Alice inspired names that are "well known"
If they are well known, why can't they be closed down?
Surely a site can be traced to the computer it orinates from? And can't such a site be pulled from the web?
My technical knowledge is not good enough to know the answers.
That is a problem with the internet.
It is a brilliant resource, but it can be abused, too

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 2071 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Similar thing has been happening to Herbert von Karajan, the most celebrated classical conductor of the 1960s-1980s. (died 1989)

Because he joined the Nazi party in the 30s or 40s he was reviled by some in the 1960s as a Nazi and, especially after his death he was getting a bad press. Opinion is now swaying given more evidence. Most conductors who stayed in Germany in the 1930s HAD to join the party if they wanted a career, and it seems likely that was the case with Karajan, he joined to enhance his career not for politics, and turns out his wife was part-Jewish and he knew. There were stories that he divorced her in 1942 because of it but the truth is, apparently that that's when they married and they got divorced in the late 1950s.

A recent interview on BBC Radio 4 tore an anti-Karajan jounalist to shreds.

Karajan was a genius, I have about 50 of his recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, I don't care if he joined the party.