So just after I wrote about Oysters and Pussy, possibly the same night, I saw the Secret Life of Lewis Carroll. Mainly interesting, a good background to Dodgson's life.
I was unaware of the picture of the naked Lorina Liddell but I still have questions I'd like answers to.
One - Dodgson was a keen and apparently proficient photographer. He took photos of all those writers and artists and no-one would doubt his talent. He took those photographs as Charles Dodgson.
Two - The so-called paedophile picture was examined by experts and commented on as a true rendition of Lorina Liddell. My query is why it was attributed on the reverse to Lewis Carroll and not Charles Dodgson. The expert also noted that the picture had been cropped, leaving one to assume that the attribution was written later. But why Carroll? Why not Dodgson? Does the writing look like Dodgson's? And was the picture of Alice Liddell with her left nipple coyly showing deliberate or accidental?
Three - That leads me to wonder about Dodgson's mind and how his mind saw what I believe was a seperate personality that occasionally blurred with the concrete figure of Dodgson. I'm not quite talking split personality but here's a man who has found fame because his stories have achieved world-wide recognition under an assumed name. Although it was kept secret for a while, the news came out. Surely there could have been moments when he puffed out his chest and assumed his other personality?
Opinions abound, maybe thousands, about Dodgson's state of sexual mind, but I suspect the picture is more innocent than criminal.
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