Charles Dodgson, better known by the pen name, Lewis Carroll is, from time to time, accused of being a drug addict, largely due to the halluncionary quality of his writing. Claims that he abused opium or cannabis are unsubstantiated by any evidence other than what is known of the culture at the time. Many people in 19th Century Europe and America used Laudanum, an opium derivitive, as a painkiller. It was the most widely available painkiller of the day, about as common as Tylenol or aspirin are today. And while it is true some people abused it to get high, there is no evidence that Dodgson ever did. In the 19th Century many people from China settled in the western world and some brought the opium habit with them. While it is true that many writers and artists of the day slummed in Chinatown opium dens there is no evidence that Dodgson, a minister and school teacher ever spent his leisure in such a place. And although it is true that cannabis, in the form of hashish, may be smoked in a hookah, the appearance of the hookah smoking catepillar in Alice in Wonderland can not be construed as evidence that Dodgson ever smoked cannabis, the hookah may simply be intended as a bit of oriental color--orientalism became fashionable in Britain with Britain's increased prescence in India and the Mideast.
And while it is true that Dodgson was friends with a girl named Alice Liddel, he denied basing the heroine of the Alice books on any real person. There is also no evidence that Alice Liddel, the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, was ever molested by any one, let alone her father.
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ladym00s
16 years ago
best. response. ever.
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liuzhou
11 years ago
Would have been even better if it were accurate.
He was not a 'minister' whatever that is . He refused holy orders and was merely a minor church official - a deacon.
He was a only 'schoolteacher' in the sense that he was an important Oxford University lecturer (in US terms a professor) in mathematics
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Blueghost
10 years ago
To add to that, most of his "humor" is seeped and stems from mathematics and loopholes in logic. He had the genius enough to assign artifacts known in popular English culture of the time to his observations in both logic and the English language.
The "creativity" stemming from abuse of THC seems to be a hallucinatory effect as well as an opiate. It's not the same thing, and a mind so afflicted with debilitating chemicals cannot perform the higher functions needed for Dodgson's writing.
Therefore, no, he was not a drug addict, much less a user of cannabis. People stating otherwise are usually pushing a pro-cannabis agenda for legalization.
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