{"id":15948,"date":"2016-01-18T16:04:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T21:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=15948"},"modified":"2016-01-18T16:04:21","modified_gmt":"2016-01-18T21:04:21","slug":"decoding-alice-in-wonderland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/decoding-alice-in-wonderland\/","title":{"rendered":"Decoding Alice in Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_15948\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"15948\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Decoding Wonderland with David Day\" width=\"805\" height=\"453\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zVUm6B7wXD4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.daviddaybooks.com\/books22.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/nebula.wsimg.com\/ba52e6acfb4b258b3bc68552435c1a87?AccessKeyId=CE8D04704C292A09CC8B&amp;disposition=0&amp;alloworigin=1\" alt=\"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Decoded\" \/><\/a><strong>It\u00a0is\u00a0tempting to suggest author David Day&#8217;s lush new book<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.daviddaybooks.com\/press2.html\" target=\"_blank\">Alice&#8217;s Adventures in Wonderland Decoded<\/a> is the final word on the mysteries and secrets behind Lewis Carroll&#8217;s iconic children&#8217;s\u00a0fantasy, but alas, it would be an over-reach. Surely others will follow, perhaps even Day himself will extend his research to a sequel.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from the difficulties of probing the motives of a man dead more than 125 years, there comes the question of interpretation, which\u00a0is more\u00a0like opinion than it is fact. Looking back 150 years at possible explanations for a reference or a character sometimes\u00a0involves guesswork.<\/p>\n<p>But even from its original publication, people knew there was more to Alice than a simple children&#8217;s tale replete with frivolous nonsense. As Day explains, Carroll himself acknowledged some of the references and metaphors.\u00a0But there remain others for be dug out of the text like opals\u00a0from the Australian bedrock. Day is a superb, if sometimes eccentric, prospector.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview in the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.nationalpost.com\/arts\/go-down-the-rabbit-hole-and-take-a-tour-of-wonderland-u\" target=\"_blank\">National Post<\/a>, it notes,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Day also argues that the book was meant to give a classical education to someone like Alice, who, as a girl, wouldn\u2019t be able to attend Oxford. Every character in Wonderland then becomes an allusion to a scholar or to a figure in Greek mythology; a reference to mathematical concept or to a famous work of art; or, quite frequently, a combination of all of the above.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It is fun, in a conspiracy-theory sort of way,\u00a0to entertain hidden\u00a0references to ancient gods, myths and mysteries, but as <a href=\"http:\/\/quoteinvestigator.com\/2011\/08\/12\/just-a-cigar\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sigmund Freud allegedly said,<\/a> &#8220;sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.&#8221; Those of you old enough to remember the Von Daniken <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chariots_of_the_Gods%3F\" target=\"_blank\">Chariots of the Gods<\/a> books know how quickly such egregious assumptions\u00a0can be discredited and ridiculed.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Day&#8217;s effort is not to be dismissed: his arguments and theories are well explained and generally compelling.\u00a0It is, to date, the most comprehensive and wide-ranging peek behind the Alice curtain, and certainly most elegantly published version (the full-colour hardcover is gorgeous). It took the author <a href=\"http:\/\/news.nationalpost.com\/arts\/go-down-the-rabbit-hole-and-take-a-tour-of-wonderland-u\" target=\"_blank\">almost two decades<\/a> to research and write.<\/p>\n<p>And it&#8217;s a good social biography of Carroll and his\u00a0milieu, although it helps if you know something about the Victorian era, the British Empire, the impact of Darwin, and the social and political attitudes of the day.<\/p>\n<p>But don&#8217;t\u00a0lose track of the prime reason Carroll wrote the book: to entertain, delight and (possibly) educate children. Let&#8217;s not rub off all the innocence and the magic by too much analysis. As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/books\/alice-in-wonderland\/alice-in-wonderland-innocent-fantasy-or-dark-and-druggy\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Telegraph<\/a> noted of the original book:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Future generations may see other hidden meanings. In a tale this rich, it seems highly likely they will. But for children the story itself, with its universal theme of an innocent youngster attempting to make sense of a strange adult world, is enough.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>If Day is to suffer any criticism it might be that he stopped with Wonderland, and did not pursue the story into <em>Through the Looking Glass<\/em> &#8211; as did his predecessor, Martin Gardner.\u00a0Gardner&#8217;s 1960 book, <em>The Annotated Alice<\/em>, was the first modern attempt to explain the Alice stories in terms of Carroll&#8217;s own life, his environment, his puns, references and related political and social history of his times.<\/p>\n<p>Day borrows liberally from Gardner, but adds more. Much more, in fact. He fills almost 300 pages of content for the one book, where Gardner&#8217; hardcover edition of similar size fills 350 for both.<\/p>\n<p>Carroll was born <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lewis_Carroll\" target=\"_blank\">Charles Lutwidge Dodgson<\/a> in January, 1832. He passed away almost exactly 66 years later, in January, 1898. His most famous work, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland\" target=\"_blank\">Alice&#8217;s Adventures in Wonderland<\/a>, was published in 1865, 150 years before Day&#8217;s analysis. The sequel, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Through_the_Looking-Glass\" target=\"_blank\">Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There<\/a>, was published in 1871.<\/p>\n<p>A piece on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bl.uk\/romantics-and-victorians\/articles\/understanding-alice\" target=\"_blank\">British Library site<\/a> notes some of the reasons authors have been drawn to the book and have tried for the past century to unravel its mysteries:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland is in many ways a compendium of puzzles and games linked by a narrative (its 1871 sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, is in fact based on a game of chess), and puzzles provide a useful way for thinking about the two sides of the author of the Alice books. It is easy to assume that Charles Dodgson fascination with the kind of logic behind puzzles was closely related to his professional life as a mathematician. Thinking again about the personal nature of Alice and Dodgson\u2019s propensity to conceal insider references behind disguises however, suggests other reasons why he would have been attracted to creating puzzles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So it&#8217;s been long seen as a puzzle to be solved. It later adds,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Many jokes and even more references to people, places, topical debates, and objects from his personal life are conveyed through images, including himself as the Dodo. His understanding of the attractions of images and the support they give to young readers is particularly apparent in The Nursery Alice (1890), for which Carroll required larger, coloured versions of Tenniel\u2019s illustrations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Wonderland is actually based on an earlier story Carroll wrote and illustrated for the young Alice Liddell in 1864, called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bl.uk\/collection-items\/alices-adventures-under-ground-the-original-manuscript-version-of-alices-adventures-in-wonderland\" target=\"_blank\">Alice&#8217;s Adventures Underground<\/a>. It was a private gift and kept by her until 1928. Then it was sold at auction to a private bidder, and did not become public until 1948.<\/p>\n<p>Liddell died in 1933, the same year the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bl.uk\/alice-in-wonderland\/articles\/anniversaries-of-alice\" target=\"_blank\">first serious analysis of the book<\/a> was published. Martin Gardner&#8217;s analysis, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Annotated_Alice\" target=\"_blank\">The Annotated Alice<\/a>, was first published in 1960 and\u00a0revised in 1999 in a definitive edition (he also\u00a0wrote\u00a0<em>The Annotated Snark,<\/em> about Carroll&#8217;s 1876 poem, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Hunting_of_the_Snark\" target=\"_blank\">The Hunting of the Snark<\/a>). In the mid-late 60s, the hippie drug culture added its own interpretations to the story. In the 1980s through to the new millennium, computer games provided a new look, as well as expansions on the story.<\/p>\n<p>A story in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/books\/alice-in-wonderland\/alice-in-wonderland-innocent-fantasy-or-dark-and-druggy\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Telegraph<\/a> offers a brief chronology of how our attitudes towards Alice and its author have changed:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Professor Will Brooker of Kingston University London, author of Alice\u2019s Adventures: Lewis Carroll in Popular Culture, says each generation has interpreted the text in ways that reflect their contemporary culture.<br \/>\n\u201cIn the 1930s it was psychoanalysis, in the 1960s it was psychedelia, and in the 1990s paedophilia,\u201d he says. \u201cThe 1930s was when people started to take what was originally conceived as a pleasant, delightful, nonsense children\u2019s story and thinking there must be something deeper than what\u2019s on the surface &#8211; a Freudian interpretation.<br \/>\nThen, in the 1960s people assumed Carroll must have been on the same drugs they were on because the story seemed to tally with their experiences of LSD and cannabis. They thought he was speaking their language.\u201d<br \/>\nListen to the words of Jefferson Airplane\u2019s White Rabbit and it\u2019s hard to disagree. \u201cOne pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small\u2026\u201d Surely Carroll had turned on, tuned in and dropped out?<br \/>\nThe 1990s then arrived, and moral panic over paedophilia gripped society. Consequently Carroll\u2019s relationship with the real-life Alice \u2013 the daughter of a friend, on whom the book was based \u2013 came under fresh scrutiny.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And today we have a different view, one that seems to blend a little of all those that went before, but also looks for new depth, new secrets, new explanations. I doubt there will ever be definitive answers to all the questions.<\/p>\n<p>A one-hour CBC special aired last year looked at Day and his subject. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/radio\/thesundayedition\/yogi-berra-medicare-on-life-support-alice-in-wonderland-at-150-1.3243374\/exposing-the-curious-world-of-alice-in-wonderland-1.3243732\" target=\"_blank\">CBC website<\/a> notes how widespread Alice has become, well outside the narrow Victorian culture where it was born:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>After the Bible and Shakespeare, Alice&#8217;s Adventures in Wonderland is the most widely-quoted book in the Western world. It has been translated into at least 174 languages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What&#8217;s important when reading Day is not just his explanations and insights, but that he revitalizes interest in the original (you get to read it as you read his decoding). Sparking interest in reading a classic is always welcome.<\/p>\n<p>Alice long seemed to have become a caricature, especially post-Disney. Tim Burton&#8217;s delightful 2010 adaptation is only one in a long line of films, theatrical and TV shows, and even ballets that <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Films_and_television_programmes_based_on_Alice_in_Wonderland\" target=\"_blank\">began production in 1903<\/a>! Entertaining as they may be, they often make us lose site of Carroll&#8217;s own work. Day helps restore the balance.<\/p>\n<p>Quoted in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/culture\/books\/curiouser-and-curiouser-150-years-of-alice-in-wonderland\/\" target=\"_blank\">Maclean&#8217;s magazine<\/a>, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, author of the recent Carroll biography, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/culture\/books\/bookreviews\/11513948\/The-Story-of-Alice-by-Robert-Douglas-Fairhurst-review.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Story of Alice<\/a><\/em>, said,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There is no one story, or even genre, that can give us all the answers about Alice and him. What we have are the books, masterpieces in their complexity, serious and funny, with a playful surface lying over a desperate yearning for logic and order. For 150 years, Alice has been a blank screen onto which we project all we want to throw at her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Day&#8217;s book is not without its critics. On the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alice-in-wonderland.net\/blog\/2015\/11\/alices-adventures-in-wonderland-decoded-david-day\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alice-in-Wonderland net,<\/a> one reviewer commented, while recommending the book,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The problem with the \u2018Alice\u2019 books is that you can link them to virtually anything. Day does not succeed in convincing me that his findings are more likely sources of inspiration than any other pieces with similarities.<br \/>\nAlso, he undermines the credibility of his theories by linking one character or event to many different sources. It is very unlikely that Carroll actually had all of them in mind when writing the story.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And I agree somewhat. Yet if Day offers what are\u00a0to me some wild notions at times, he balances them with sound insights and explanations in others. It&#8217;s well worth reading if nothing more than to get your mind working &#8211; and to remind you of just how wonderful the original book still is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_15948\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"15948\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p>It\u00a0is\u00a0tempting to suggest author David Day&#8217;s lush new book, Alice&#8217;s Adventures in Wonderland Decoded is the final word on the mysteries and secrets behind Lewis Carroll&#8217;s iconic children&#8217;s\u00a0fantasy, but alas, it would be an over-reach. Surely others will follow, perhaps even Day himself will extend his research to a sequel. Aside from the difficulties of probing the motives of a man dead more than 125 years, there comes the question of interpretation, which\u00a0is more\u00a0like opinion than it is fact. Looking back 150 years at possible explanations for a reference or a character sometimes\u00a0involves guesswork. But even from its original publication, \u2026&#8230;&#8230; click below for more \u2193<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,573,560,72],"tags":[406,562,60,147],"class_list":["post-15948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-literature","category-scifi-and-fantasy","category-books-by-the-bedside","tag-books-reviews","tag-fantasy","tag-history-2","tag-reading"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":6704,"today_views":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15948"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15956,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15948\/revisions\/15956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}