Lewis Carroll
British · 19th century
English author best known for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, which feature a mirror as a portal to an alternate world.
Connection to Taylor Swift
Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass is part of the literary tradition of mirrors as portals to other dimensions, which informs the folklore register Taylor draws on across her catalogue, particularly on the album folklore.
Notable Works
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
“At teatime, everybody agrees”
Community readers connect the "teatime" line and the music video's dining-room scene to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: the mad tea party where nonsense is agreed upon as sense, and the giant-and-tiny scale games (Taylor outsized in the house, sipping from a doll-sized glass) that echo Alice's shifts in size after eating and drinking. The Wonderland frame fits a song about a self grown monstrously large and a reality that has stopped making sense.
Through the Looking-Glass
Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass as part of the broader folklore of mirrors. Uncle Jerry notes that Alice walks into another land through the looking glass, connecting to the idea that mirrors serve as portals to other dimensions, a tradition Taylor's mirrorball metaphor draws on by placing the speaker inside a reflective object that refracts reality.