Pam Sowers

The very first thing that I voluntarily memorized was Jabberwocky. It didn't matter that it had no discernable meaning: I was eight years old, and fascinated by the idea that language could somehow manage to be both English and encoded at the same time. The words had rhythm, the verses had the structure of language, and I could say them out loud without saying ANYTHING! Over the following decades, I cherished authors who had a solid logical grasp on nonsense, like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. Through my various careers, I was storing up ideas and waiting for the chance to write and talk about the works of Lewis Carroll. I hope that at least one reader finds Jabberwocky, or Father William, or the Cheshire Cat, or (oh, dear) the Duchess, and falls in love with logic, nonsense, and language. English is a great puzzle, and in previous careers in radio and television journalism and marketing, I've had fun sticking pieces of language together to inform, entertain, or advertise. Now, I get to use language to explain the inexplicable joys of nonsense and logic as practiced by Lewis Carroll: light as a ton of feathers, and fragile as an anvil. How lucky can you get?