Alice in Wonderland Artwork

Alice Playing Cards (2014)

Soph Laugh

Copic Marker on Smooth Bristol Paper

11 x 17 (27.9 x 43.2 cm)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), a novel written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantastical world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures such as The White Rabbit (with a pocket watch), The Cheshire Cat, The March Hare, The Hatter, The Dormouse, The Queen of Hearts, The Gryphon, and The Mock Turtle. 

Those who have read Carroll's delightful logic stories, have probably questioned their own rational thinking, their own ability to believe in the unbelievable. 

From the time of Descartes, when he, at twenty-eight-years-old uttered the word "Doubt!" a word that would reverberate for the next four centuries, the gauntlet for using reason rather than faith was set into motion, and Carroll picked it up.  In fact, Carroll mentions that Alice often gave herself good advice but seldom followed it. If you are a reader of the Latin poets, you might recall Ovid said, "I see what is best. I do what is worse."  

Throughout history people have had in common the tendency to believe too much and doubt too little. Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 - 1914), who spent the last twenty-six years of his life in seclusion thinking, thought that the warrants for belief were the inferential links that people use to hold on to or to justify their conviction and confidence in something. According to Pierce the usual warrants are: tenacious, authority, a priori, and verification. 

The Queen of Hearts - tenacious

The Queen of Hearts represents that tenacious mode, the idea or belief that one holds onto irregardless of how the situation changes or evolves. 

The Red Queen shook her head, "You may call it 'nonsense' if you like," she said, "but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!" 

"Off with her head!" [she said] about once in a minute.

"No, no!" said the Queen. "Sentence first - verdict afterwards."

The King of Hearts - authority

The King of Hearts represents the authority mode, that mode in which people will obey authority no matter what, which can pose significant problems when the authority is wrong. In real life, blind obedience to authority leads to disaster. 

"You are all pardoned." 

"Herald, read the accusation!" said the King. 

"I'll fetch the executioner myself," said the King eagerly, and he hurried off.

['The judge, by the way, was the King; and, as he wore his crown over the wig, he did not look at all comfortable, and it was certainly not becoming.]

Alice - a priori

Throughout Carroll's stories, Alice relies on a number of a priori judgments. A priori is based on the application of a general and previously accepted principle to a particular situation. A priori judgments constitute a starting ground, but they do not always prove true in new situations. 

Alice sighed wearily. "I think you might do something better with the time," she said, "than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers." 

"If you knew Time as well as I do," said the Hatter, "you wouldn't talk about wasting it. It's him." 

"I don't know what you mean," said Alice.

"Of course you don't!" the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. "I dare say you never even spoke to Time!" 

"Perhaps not," Alice cautiously replied; "but I know I have to beat time when I learn music." 

Alice - Verification

Alice exhibits verification when she insists on evidence that she herself can verify. Verification is that mode in which all evidence is examined, ideas are tested against reality. One of the ways Alice demonstrates this mode is when she examines the jar of marmalade.

She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled "ORANGE MARMALADE" but to her great disappointment it was empty. 

Alice Selfie (2014)

Soph Laugh

Copic Marker on Vellum

14 x 17 (35.6 x 43.2 cm)

Reality can sometimes be difficult to confront and verification can often times disappoint, but in the long run, and as it turns out with Alice, we are better off knowing what is real (the truth) rather than what is not real (the illusion). Sometimes verifying rather than trusting can help us out of an uncomfortable situation.

"Hold your tongue!" said the Queen, turning purple.

"I won't!" said Alice.

"Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.

"Who cares for you?" said Alice (she had grown to her full size by this time.). "You're nothing but a pack of cards!" 

Other times verifying can leave us empty. 

She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled "ORANGE MARMALADE" but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of [hurting] somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

Of course, emptiness can lead to a revelation.

"Well!" thought Alice to herself, "after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down-stairs! How brave they'll think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!" (Which was very likely true.)

Alice's revelations throughout her adventure in Wonderland raises important questions like "Is the nothing in that jar something or is it nothing? Is nothing something or is nothing nothing?"*

In other words:

Where does the candle flame go when we blow it out?

 *Bernard M. Patten, Alice: Clear Thinking in Wonderland

El Señor Hacienda -vs- Capitán Guapo

The Hacienda Uprising

Hacienda exists to wreak havoc on the Pueblos below and El Señor Hacienda Number Six is concentrated on where you live! 

When El Señor Hacienda Number Six rose up against the inhabitants of Cuernabaches, Riley and Bo took up arms in their own backyard to ward off the brainless, mindless, slow, vapid creature in the hopes of diverting him from the town before any serious engagements could begin.

Only Little Bo with his trusty red blivet and Riley with her ferocious labradoodle scary face have the flexibility and maneuverability to beat El Señor Hacienda before he makes their Pueblito his base camp. 

Concealment

Little Bo and Riley evacuated everyone into a naturally concealed location... the cave. 

Old musty, creepy caves make the perfect hideout; hidden from spy satellites and Wifi-free, they make the perfect "Is it over yet?"-hideout. 

By naturally thwarting any and all communication, the cave dwellers must wait until our heroes conquer El Señor Hacienda Number Six and then later, at some point in time when they get around to it, come to tell the Cuernabachians that it is safe to come out. 

Recruitment

It is now time to form the Riley and Bo Resistance League. As rebels on the run, Riley and Little Bo must adorn themselves with their finest scuba gear, spread-out in small groups of one, and begin gathering intelligence or scout for opportunities that will prepare them for a counterattack. 

What's that Smell? 

Pay special attention to smells - El Señor Hacienda Number Six and the entire fleet of Señores Haciendas eat tacos al Pastor nonstop. 

When they are not wreaking havoc on local Pueblos, they are reportedly seen frequenting local taco stands. When they arrive, even the dogs leave. 

Rather than closing all Cuernabaches' taco stands, they left them open. Riley and Little Bo can now begin to lure El Señor Hacienda Number Six to a secured taco stand where he will meet his doom. 

Leave a Subtle Signal

Little Bo, before trying to lure El Señor Hacienda Number Six to the taco stand on the corner of Insurgentes and San Jerónimo, left a well-placed signal that will alert Riley to a friendly presence. From here, Riley can securely radio Capitán Guapo in the hopes that he will come and save the day. 

The sign Little Bo left for Riley is visible only upon close inspection. Natural materials are more difficult for El Señor Hacienda to spot, but are surprisingly obvious to labradoodles like Riley. 

Beware of El Feo

Never allow El Feo to enter your safe haven without a rigorous inspection. Indulge your paranoia; that puppy that followed Riley home might just be part of the first wave of a four-legged Hacienda invasion.

How to Use Directed-Energie Weapons

Inside the frigid heartless breast of every Señor Hacienda courses the sizzling flow of evil electric current. Bullets bounce harmlessly from their steel-like gaze, but directed-energie weapons can cause electrical surges that fuse together their accounting skills rendering them calculatorless. The flow of evil electrical energy is the lifeblood of El Señor Hacienda Number Six; it is up to Capitán Guapo to stop it cold! 

Energie weapons are usually nonlethal to little boys and their labradoodles. In extreme cases energie weapons may interfere with electrical activity in the human brain, so don't try this at home, kids. 

Little Bo, sending out a signal to Capitán Guapo with his red blivet, summons Capitán Guapo and he sails in on his trusty seaworthy vessel: Valhalla. 

Capacitor-Charged Pipe Bombs

While waiting for Capitán Guapo to arrive, Little Bo and Riley busy themselves outside the taco stand with the natural material signal building improvised devices. Their capacitor-charged pipe bombs wrapped in coils of copper wire will do the trick in the event El Señor Hacienda Number Six arrives to Cuernabaches before Capitán Guapo. 

If necessary, these CCPBs can create a moving short circuit or a ramping current pulse which will expand in every direction, laying waste to unprotected iPhones everywhere. El Señor Hacienda Number Six and his drones will never see it coming. 

The Reboot Attack

Little Bo remembered an episode he saw on MacGyver when with faced with sudden annihilation, MacGyver took a piece of gum wrapping paper, a paperclip, and a remote control battery and fashioned a radio frequency pulse gun to emit a burst of electromagnetic interference. 

Since Cuernabaches' tacos are served on parabolic dishes instead of paper plates, Little Bo and Riley improvised again and used Cuernabaches' signature waveguide service setting as a dish at which they could aim their burst of electromagnetic interference. 

Little Bo shot out a wide beam of destruction toward El Señor Hacienda Number Six's base camp forcing his main server to reboot. This tactic is called a Soft Kick in the Tuckus; Hacienda's base camp circuit boards fried immediately slowing down El Señor Hacienda Number Six's descent upon Cuernabaches. 

Beware of Counterattack

For every sword there is a shield. Fortunately Little Bo and Riley thought to install high-tech vacuum tubes to avoid using circuits altogether. Like the Russian MiG fighter jets Little Bo played with after school, Little Bo knew that Capitán Guapo also armed Valhalla with a Faraday cage, the metal enclosure around his boat with a BIG SUN painted on it to absorb and harmlessly ground electrical discharges aimed at his extensive underboat lair.  
Hardened against the effects of EMP, Little Bo and Riley knew that they must follow Capitán Guapo's good example and equip Cuernabaches properly. 

Capitán Guapo and his Thermal Gun

Capitán Guapo's Thermal Gun, a simple directed-energie weapon, can be found all over Cuernabaches. Before evacuating the Pueblo's inhabitants to the cave, Little Bo instructed them to pull out the innards of their microwave ovens, which emit radiation at around 2.5 gigahertz. 

Careful not to cook their own flesh in the process, Cuernabaches' inhabitants are not only safely tucked out of the way but they are armed with homemade thermal guns which they can use to destroy all of the electronics at El Señor Hacienda Number Six's base camp. 

These homemade thermal guns are not as powerful as Capitán Guapo's thermal gun, but they will suffice, saving valuable time until Capitán Guapo's boat arrives to Veracruz and he then makes his way to Cuernabaches on his trusty burro named Joté. 

Comic Summa: Lines of Love

W

hen I was 14-years old, I came across Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis at my local library. Intrigued by its intimacy and yet its unfamiliarity, the idea of changing form struck a cord with me, whisking my mind off toward labyrinthine complexities that I still have not fully resolved. The sense of freedom inherent in Kafka’s work liberated me into a primal exuberance. If we could change form, my own sense of being and thinking could change with it. No matter how many times I consider the implications of this concept, the ideas that arise never lose their sense of novelty.  

("R" u kidding? Where's the "R"?)

I do not recall reading anything else philosophical for a number of years other than Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, which admittedly I read a number of times due to my fascination and unfamiliarity with both the language and the concept of melancholia. Burton, this curious calculator of naïvities, was both melancholic and humorous. I barely followed his discourse, but determinedly took it upon myself to understand it the best I could. While passages in Burton’s Melancholy spoke deeply to me, the beginning lines were what initially drew me in…

Go forth my book into the open day;

Happy, if made so by its garish eye.

O’er earth’s wide surface take thy vagrant way,

To imitate thy master’s genius try.

The Graces three, the Muses nine salute,

Should those who love them try to con thy lore.

The country, city seek, grand thrones to boot,

With gentle courtesy humbly bow before.

Should nobles gallant, soldiers frank and brave

Seek thy acquaintance, hail their first advance:

From twitch of care thy pleasant vein may save,

May laughter cause or wisdom give perchance.

            This impression returns me to the idea of Stickfigurism. As a teenager, I was overcome by the emotional heights language could stir within me. Something tangible on paper, yet intangible in real life perplexed and intrigued me. You could say those were the years I read more for the “lustre of the firmament of bards and sages” (Emerson, Self-Reliance) than for the pursuit of valuable information. 

Despite what was undeniably a copious amount of profound passages swirling around in my young mind, my expressions of them were (then and still remain) simple; perhaps more connected to the deep fissures they leave upon my soul than to the simplicity by which they are known. Emerging from deep within the complex pleasures of possession these memories have long since afforded me, my Stick Figures animate and bring to life the dance that living impresses upon my being. 

If you carry within your mind the history of human thought and the brilliance of those who have come before, after some time their complex relations to one another begin to form enigmatic patterns. While these complexities are not readily noticeable, they are there... readily available for those who have possession of them… for we naturally see outside ourselves what we first see from within.

            These observations only serve as speculative foreground to the consideration that our lives might be foreshadowed, which is not the same as ‘planned’.  The logician in me monitors everything I think and do, but the pragmatic rebel in me refuses to write it all down (though there were years when I did do just that). Still the realization that patterns could be discovered and altered makes one question whether or not we can affect specific outcomes toward the more enjoyable side of life. 

In all reality, it feels as if we are on a cosmic roller-coaster ride swirling though the universe in what might be many types of forms, fits, and functions ~ according to our current position, momentum, and resonance ~ within some sort of atomic framework. (Check this out.)

            How would one go about uncovering an atomic scale latticework that might explain the interrelatedness of not just all energy and matter but all thought, emotion, action, existence and nonexistence that arose after the Big Bang?

            If I had the ability to dissect the atomic structure of the universe and remove one of the two-dimensional planes, I might get something that resembles a single, rolled up sheet forming a closed cylinder. Imagining a circumferential vector lying along one of the two basis vectors, I could cut that sheet and rearrange it into a Stick Figure-like formation that could hypothetically represent a physical, aesthetically pleasing, artistically rendered bond that mirrors one of the many forms and shapes found in our universe.

This Stick Figure drawing represents St. Longinus, the 1^st century Roman soldier who pierced Jesus in the side with a lance, the so-called “Holy Lance” while he was on the Cross. Longinus was then condemned to a cave where every night a lion would come and maul him, before he healed and the cycle repeated itself until the end of time.

Be the story of St. Longinus a fashionable account of religious mumbo-jumbo or just an unfortunate prophesy of martyrdom; weaknesses and strengths appear to position us according to what may indeed be an inescapable trajectory. 

I envision a world whereby our actions, thoughts, and circumstances are intricately woven between the walls of neighboring lattice-like structures found at the subatomic level. With devices to regulate the atomic structure of "life", we might someday be able to affect and define the relationship between our particulate self and the self with which we identify (i.e., the "soul", the id, ego, superego [Freud's psychic apparatus], conscious identity, etc.) leading us to continue our search for something other than the holy grail or creator... 

The Exit 

should one exist.

I do not think that the nature of the universe is something that can be reduced by our naked quest to define its physical structure, despite whether or not this undertaking ultimately results in our dominion over the earth, the heavens, and our own biological mortality. 

The mere idea that we have not yet reached this stage of evolutionary advancement causes me to suffer from a distinctively imaginative form of crisis. A crisis that once acknowledged can also lead to a deep sense of contentment for living in a place I like to call Eternity. A pleasurable state of serenity where we no longer seek to vanquish uncertainty by our own familiarity, but instead live with the only true knowledge we can have: we exist.

Comic Summa reflects on a wide range of topics that influence the making of my Stick Figures. Shakespeare is their Creator, and I start with him, moving from Shakespeare’s influence to John Milton and James Joyce. Every English writer has struggled since Shakespeare to find new heights of communication, but the High Romantics found a way to coexist with a genius that left us breathless. As with my Stick Figures, there is no need for lungs when one can breath through a heart. Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats created a truce between Shakespeare and Milton, establishing a symmetry if you will. This symmetry is visually apparent in my Stick Figures.

On a side note, I call them “my Stick Figures” when in reality the moment I create them they are no longer mine. They become independent entities that can continue to exist irrespective of whether I do or not. It is in this respect that they are not mine. Even when they appear in my mind’s eye, they are already independent from me; just like thoughts, they have their own unique identity. 

Presuming that the stuff out of which the universe is fashioned is made up of an intrinsic form of angular momentum carried by elementary particles, my Stick Figures, like my thoughts, emotions, and even ideas, could be considered independent objects; something that instead of possessing volume or mass could be ascribed as having mechanical properties such as vibration, sound, and energy; independently existing and radiating wavelengths that can be perceived by humans, animals, and perhaps even by those things we consider inanimate (furniture, artwork, complex systems).

Consider the phenomenon known as consciousness. Imagine if you will that “consciousness” is that part of us we call continuity. If this continuity, like an idea, a thought, an emotion, or a particle exists, then we can presume that it has always existed, at least since the time of the Big Bang. 

            If this universe is a closed system with enough mass and energy to create a “Big Bang” (nothing gets in nothing gets out), then that ball of energy and mass could explode outward for a very long time, resulting in the formation of stars and galaxies, and even life. However, eventually it will all come back together and create another ball of mass and energy for another Big Bang, potentially in an infinitely existing cycle. At the beginning of each cycle, the amount of total entropy could be zero or relatively close to it no matter how many cycles and Big Bangs have occurred throughout what we call time.  

Moving away from the notion of time, let us return to the universe in terms of being an open or closed system (in the thermodynamic sense of the terms). The universe is open if it is affected by something outside it. If there is no outside (i.e., if there is no space nor time outside the universe), then it is a closed system. Most people define “universe” in terms that require it to be a closed system. For the purpose of this train of thought, let us presume that the universe in which we exist is a closed system and that everything that we know of or can conceive of exists by nature of the fact that it can be created or imagined. It is in this respect that everything, every thought, idea, emotion, or object exists and while not necessarily able to communicate in the way in which humans define language, still communicates with us by some sort of intuitive communion that occurs when we are in proximity to it.

            It is for this reason that I recognize life in everything, every thought, idea, piece of artwork, inanimate objects and even in some humans, though I can’t be sure. It could be that we are nothing other than a hodgepodge of energies and frequencies coexisting together; that when we are bundled up, like software, we operate like a system, something that in turn gives rise to yet another type of existence. Like I said, these are just thoughts and from my own account of the nature of thoughts, they might not even be my own.

*Disclaimer: 

The author of this blog is a funologist, memeticist and revolutionary thinker. She can be found on Wikipedia and in locations of imminent calamity. Buckle up, there is a fast-thinking roller-coaster with built-in Wifi and an iPod set on Shuffle... (in other words, humor is subjective... this blog written for **entertainment purposes only)

*entertainment

noun

the action of providing or being provided with amusement or enjoyment: many people sit in front of the TV or computer for entertainment, some people visit humor blogs, some people like to think, some people like to mix humor and thinking, some people like to think about teleportation or transmutation or cold fusion or linguistics or biology or technology or video games or cooking or philosophy or smoking hashish or 18th Century French literature.

• an event, performance, or activity designed to entertain others: a Stick Figure drawn purely for entertainment purposes.

• the action of receiving a guest or guests and providing them with food and drink and Stick Figure drawings, which they can take home and frame and hang on their wall in a show of defiant irreverence toward "The Man" who became known to many of us in 1984.