Peekaboo !!

 
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland《愛麗絲夢遊仙境》一直是我很愛的書，充滿幻想與冒險的童書，背後有著更多發人深省的有趣對話。最近重新翻了PENGUIN CLASSIC出的愛麗絲，整理出一些我喜歡的對話。

I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is "Who in the world am I?" Ah, that's the great puzzle!" 對一個成長中的孩子(或對所有人!)，必定會面臨自我認同的問題，看著鏡子問：「我到底是誰?」在愛書的一開始Lewis Carrol就丟出了這個大問題，或許也是一切問題的根本，如同愛麗絲所說："Who in the world am I? That's the great puzzle !"   而愛麗絲的疑惑跟一些哲學家提出的問題不謀而合：如果「我」是一個集合(set)、集合內包含的元素(element)是我從出生到現在所有的經歷，那當今天結束、明天開始時，新的元素(經歷)又加入了集合，集合改變了，「我」已經不是「我」。最極端的一種說法是：「下一秒的我跟前一秒的我是不同的兩個人」。

上述對於自我概念的問題，在愛麗絲遇上毛毛蟲時再次被提起。
"Who are you?" said the Caterpillar.
"I hardly know, Sir, just at present---at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."
"Explain yourself" said the Caterpillar.
"I can't explain myself, because I'm not myself, you see."
"I don't see," said the Caterpillar.
"I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly," Alice replied, very politely, "for I can't understand it myself, to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing."
"It isn't," said the Caterpillar.
"Well, perhaps you haven't found it so yet," said Alice; "but when you have to turn into a chrysalis---you will some day, you know---and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you'll feel a little queer, won't you?"
"Not a bit," said the Caterpillar.
"Well, perhaps your feelings may be different," said Alice: "all I know is, it would feel very queer to me."
"You!" said the Caterpillar contemptuously. "Who are you?" 毛毛蟲與愛麗絲的對話，以「妳是誰?」作為開場，再次點出了這問題的根本性。愛麗絲的回答如同前段提到的哲學思考，她知道早上的愛麗絲是誰，然此時此刻她已不確定自己是不是原本的那個我。此外，第二段對話也非常有意思，愛麗絲說「我無法解釋我自己，因為我不是我」；這句話點出了一個簡單的邏輯概念，要「解釋我自己」，得要「我是我自己」這個前提成立才行，也就是說，許多問題的回答有一定的先後順序；在整段對話的最後也再次呼應這點，當愛麗絲不太高興的說出「我只知道對我而言，這感覺很奇怪」但毛毛蟲提醒了她，她還沒回答根本的問題「妳口中的我到底是誰?」。另外我也覺得 Lewis Carrol在這裡透過毛毛蟲來向孩子解釋，無須為自己的改變而擔心。當愛麗絲認為不斷的改變讓她感到困擾時，毛毛蟲肯定的回答：「It isn't」；而愛麗絲相信毛毛蟲變成蝴蝶時也多少會感到古怪，毛毛蟲傲慢的說：「Not a bit」。毛毛蟲以他輕蔑的態度「教導」愛麗絲，改變並不可怕，孩子都終會長大，如同毛毛蟲化蛹成蝶般的必然，但「我還是原本的我」。

接著我們聽聽the Lory跟the Dodo的經典名句。動物們聚集在河床邊，爭論如何弄乾身體時 the Lory 說"I'm older than you, and must know better." 看到這許多人會反駁，原因是認為年長的人不一定就知道的比較多。愛麗絲跟大部分人一樣不同意Lory的說法，但她的想法是 --- And this Alice would not allow, without knowing how old it was. 這是個有趣的想法，當我們慣於用整個句子判斷對錯時，愛麗絲點出了我沒思考過的小細節。另外同一場合在向大家說明如何比賽時，the Dodo說了句我喜歡的話："The best way to explain it is to do it."

兔子在急著找手套跟扇子時恐懼的說了很酷的話： "She'll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets!" 這個比喻實在太妙了，"As sure as ferrets are ferrets"，乍看之下這簡直是廢話...但同時誰也不能否認沒有比 ferrets are ferrets更肯定的事了!!

下面是愛麗絲試圖向Pigeon解釋她不是來偷蛋的蛇的對話:
"Serpent!"
"But I'm not a serpent, I tell you!" said Alice. "I'm a little girl."
"A likely story indeed! There's no use denying it. I suppose you'll be telling me next that you never tasted an egg!"
"I have tasted eggs, certainly," said Alice, who was a very truthful child; "but little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know."
"I don't believe it," said the Pegeon; "but if they do, why, then they're a kind of serpent: that's all I can say."
Pigeon的思考邏輯是這段對話有趣的地方，愛麗絲不是蛇，她是吃蛋的小女孩；但對Pigeon而言，如果小女孩也吃蛋，那小女孩也是蛇的一種。Lewis Carrol在這裡為孩子們提出了「多重身分」的概念，書中這麼寫著 This was such a new idea to Alice, that she was quite silent for a minute or two. 我們會因為一個單一、簡單的特色(屬性)而被歸類成到某一群體，或建立起某種關係。因為年齡的關係，我是一個孩子；因為我上學，所以我同時是一個學生；因為我在這出生，所以我是英國人。作者告訴孩子們，在社會上，我們同時扮演著許多的角色，如同書中的愛麗絲，對Pigeon而言，她是個小女孩、同時也是隻蛇。

接下來是愛麗絲夢遊仙境經典角色貓(Cheshire Cat)首次登場時的對話，或許也是這本書我最愛的對話：
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where---" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"---so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if only you walk long enough."
或許是我偏心，但總是覺得貓說的話比較有道理。「我們該往哪走、該何去何從?」這是作者透過愛麗絲，替成長中的孩子們提出的問題；而貓有智慧地告訴我們：「這得看我們想要去哪裡?」但相信許多人和同愛麗絲一樣，還沒找到自己的目標，別擔心，貓說：「那走哪條路都沒關係，只要走得夠遠，你總會到達」。我喜歡這句話，是因為他不只是給孩子，更是給失去方向的人們一種啟發。

瘋帽子先生和三月兔的瘋狂茶會是另一個重要的場景，其中也有幾段重要的對話。
"You should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.
"I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least I mean what I say---that's the same thing, you know."
"Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. "Why, you might just as well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"
"You might just as well say," added the Dormouse, "that 'I breathe when I sleep' is the same thing as 'I sleep when I breathe'!"
這段對話同樣為孩子們解釋邏輯概念，三月兔要愛麗絲說心中所想的，愛麗絲回答：「我是說我心中所想的，至少我心中想的就是我說的」但瘋帽子先生點出了錯誤，這兩者並不相同；「妳不如說我看我所吃的，跟我吃我所看的是一樣的」老鼠也說「妳不如說，我睡覺時呼吸，跟我呼吸時睡覺是一樣的」

茶會也討論到了時間的相對概念。
"What a funny watch!" Alice remarked. "It tells the day of the month, and doesn't tell what o'clock it is!"
"Why should it?" muttered the Hatter. "Does your watch tell you waht year it is?"
"Of course not," Alice replied very readily: "but that's because it stays the same year for such a long time together."
"Which is just the case with mine." said the Hatter.
作者在原書中以斜體字強調 "mine" ，讓孩子們知道時間是相對的，時間的長短和意義對每個人都不盡相同。

最後這段對話我是瘋狂茶派對中我最愛的
"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone: "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take more than nothing."
這句話有點像在玩文字遊戲，非常有意思，三月兔請愛麗絲「再多喝一點吧」但愛麗絲生氣得認為「我一口都還沒喝，所以沒辦法再喝一點」但瘋帽子說「妳的意思是不能再喝更少吧，要比甚麼都沒有還喝更多不是很容易嗎?」顯然愛麗絲認為要「先有」才能「有更多」，但瘋帽子用有趣的回答否定了「無」到「更多」之間那個「有」的步驟；也就是說，當你一無所有的時候，你是有能力去擁有「更多」的、反而是沒甚麼好失去的了。

Cheshire Cat讓自己身體消失，留下一個頭的場景也是非常有趣；紅心國王和劊子手的爭論，劊子手認為「要有身體，才能把頭砍下來」但國王卻認為，「要砍頭只需要有頭就行了」
The executioner's argument was, that you couldn't cut off a head unless there was a body to cut it off from. The King's argument was that anything that had a head could be beheaded.

口頭禪是「把他頭砍了！」的紅心皇后最經典的話大概就是在審判時說的"Sentence first, verdict afterwards." 也讓我第一次去分辨 sentence跟verdict的不同。Sentence指的是"判決、宣判"；verdict則是"裁決"。所以當皇后說「先宣判罪刑，事後再作裁決」時，愛麗絲也毫不客氣的說："Stuff and nonsense!"

最後最後，用the Duchess對愛麗絲說的話做結尾："Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it." 「只要認真尋找，所有事背後都有其寓意。」