When The Red King Dreams

The Looking-glass world is one filled to the brim with strange concepts and odd creatures. There is perhaps none more eerie than The Red King. The whole of this "dreamscape" world is reportedly "dreamt into being" by this old snoring man. (Perhaps he has sleep apnea.) As it is explained to Alice by Tweedledum and Tweedledee, I shall let them do the explaining to you as well.

" 'Isn't he a LOVELY sight?' said Tweedledum Alice couldn't say honestly that he was. He had a tall red night-cap on, with a tassel, and he was lying crumpled up into a sort of untidy heap, and snoring loud—'fit to snore his head off!' as Tweedledum remarked. 'I'm afraid he'll catch cold with lying on the damp grass,' said Alice, who was a very thoughtful little girl. 'He's dreaming now,' said Tweedledee: 'and what do you think he's dreaming about?' Alice said 'Nobody can guess that.' 'Why, about YOU!' Tweedledee exclaimed, clapping his hands triumphantly. 'And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you'd be?' 'Where I am now, of course,' said Alice. 'Not you!' Tweedledee retorted contemptuously. 'You'd be nowhere. Why, you're only a sort of thing in his dream!' 'If that there King was to wake,' added Tweedledum, 'you'd go out—bang!—just like a candle!' 'I shouldn't!' Alice exclaimed indignantly. 'Besides, if I'M only a sort of thing in his dream, what are YOU, I should like to know?' 'Ditto' said Tweedledum. 'Ditto, ditto' cried Tweedledee. He shouted this so loud that Alice couldn't help saying, 'Hush! You'll be waking him, I'm afraid, if you make so much noise.' 'Well, it no use YOUR talking about waking him,' said Tweedledum, 'when you're only one of the things in his dream. You know very well you're not real.' 'I AM real!' said Alice and began to cry. 'You won't make yourself a bit realler by crying,' Tweedledee remarked: 'there's nothing to cry about.' 'If I wasn't real,' Alice said—half-laughing through her tears, it all seemed so ridiculous—'I shouldn't be able to cry.' 'I hope you don't suppose those are real tears?' Tweedledum interrupted in a tone of great contempt. 'I know they're talking nonsense,' Alice thought to herself: 'and it's foolish to cry about it.' So she brushed away her tears, and went on as cheerfully as she could. 'At any rate I'd better be getting out of the wood, for really it's coming on very dark. Do you think it's going to rain?' "

This concept of the hidden powers of dreaming is also echoed in numerous myths, one of which involves the Biblical Jacob ascending into heaven while he lays dreaming in a field"Jacob's Ladder." It is a fascinating idea, that dreaming can have alternate effects. Tweedledum and Tweedledee question the very nature of Alice's existence as a valid and "real" living being. It is interesting that Alice choses not to question the reality of the world she is in, but rather that of the two Tweedle twins. She is understandably upset when they insist that she is nothing more than a figment of the Red King's dream. It seems to be the defining hallmark of all sentient beings, to insist upon their own concept of reality and their own view of themselves as a "real" and valid entity within that reality. Alice doesn't relish the idea of the Red King waking, she would rather avoid calling the twins' bluff on that account. Carroll may be alluding to the notion of our own reality being less than solid, less than "real." He introduces us to Alice (as a young girl entranced in a strange dream) but this section questions, "Who is the dreamer?", and "Who is the dreamed?" Both the Wonderland and Looking-Glass worlds contain far too many concepts that point to Quantum Mechanics related Cosmology as well as science well in excess of that which was available to him in that day and age. Carroll stands out to us now, like few others, he seems out of place. I will discuss this more in later blogs, as Carroll figures heavily in my own cosmological upbringing.
I encourage you all, read both works, and read them to your children, by Carroll, they will open an entire world of questions to you.
Here is a link to a free version of both works provided by Project Gutenberg:
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
Through The Looking-Glass: And What Alice Found There