Mirror, mirror, on the wall

Had an odd synergy over the last few days. I was re-reading Stephen Donaldson's The Mirror of her Dreams (first book of Mordant's Need - the sequel is A Man Rides Through), which I hadn't read in ages. The main idea of the book is that mirrors in that world don't reflect. They are like lenses or long-distance viewers that can then be used as portals to "bring through" whatever's on the other side, which is often of a rather gruesome nature - kind of an R-rated Alice Through the Looking Glass. The heroine is one of Stephen Donaldson's typical anti-heros - this one is convinced that she has no personal substance and surrounds herself (in this world) with mirrors to prove to herself that she exists. In Mordant, she eventually discovers that she exists without reflections and the power of Imagery, which is the manipulation of mirrors. Typically complex, well-thought-out Donaldson concepts.

The odd bit came when I picked up a newish book called The Looking Glass Wars (Frank Beddor) at Wellington Library (which now lets people who work in Wellington borrow for free, yay!) - which purports to be the "true" story of Wonderland and Alyss (yes, that's how he spells it!). Alyss ends up in our world because her aunt Redd kills off her mother the Queen, and spends 13 years here trying both not to forget Wonderland and to assimilate into our world, and then returning to Wonderland as an adult. Quite a fun story, aimed probably at mid-teens, but turns the traditional Alice stories on their heads.

What is it about mirrors that fascinates people? Here's three authors saying that in the mirror is a different world that is both like and unlike ours. It's the same, but reversed, says Lewis Carroll. It can be controlled and it has power, says Donaldson. It can show reality as it truly is, says Beddor. Is it the fact that mirrors show our faces, but not what goes on behind them, or is it the fascination with the room that "looks like this one but not quite?" Is it a desire for a true reflection of who we are? The common theme in the three "mirror" books seems to be a search for truth, and they have to "travel into their reflections", how the world sees them, before they can see themselves honestly. Is it the "mirror, mirror, on the wall" thing - which always seemed to me to be a fairytale way of saying that the truth is not often what we want to hear and if we try to avoid it, things happen to make us hear.

It's obviously time for me to get some more sleep. Weird philosophy always happens when I'm tired....

Pachyderm