Absurdity, exploration, and connection

Over at The Neverending Shelf, it's Alice In Wonderland week. I did a guest post on Through the Looking-Glass which contains my Absurdity Theory of Literature (patent pending). Here's a sample:

"In Looking-Glass, Alice encounters creatures who, in their vanity, vagueness, pettiness, or crankiness, model a slice of the bewildering world in which we live. This slice is not often encountered in literature. Rather, we hear it most often in anecdotes—say, when a friend describes trying to clear...