esprit de math geek

Have just come to the conclusion that four continuous hours of Alice cannot possibly be conducive to coherent thought. Or rather, the logic that Carroll applies to language is so inexorable that the progression of the story is almost tiresomely linear and in that sense -- superficial.

Occupational hazard, I suppose, for a mathematician (Carroll, I mean, not yours truly who couldn't dream of such presumption). I can see the attraction for readers without any formal mathematical training (which would be the vast majority of them), and it really is an excellent example of Pascal's esprit de géométrie, dont les principes sont palpables mais éloignés de l'usage commun, so that one is delighted by the novelty in Carroll's approach to language. Altogether a cautionary tale in linguistics.