The Matrix in Wonderland
QUESTION Do the Matrix films contain hidden references to Alice In Wonderland?
The Wachowski brothers, directors of The Matrix trilogy, starring Keanu reeves, are fans of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, the surreal fantasy written by Lewis Carroll and published in 1865.
The Matrix films’ structure is clearly based on it.
At the beginning of Carroll’s book, young Alice follows a white rabbit into a deep hole. She leaves the real world behind and enters a strange new place where the usual laws of physics don’t apply.
In this new world, the size of her body changes from abnormally big to unusually small. After a series of adventures, her task is revealed: to end the red Queen’s reign of terror.
In The Matrix, reeves plays a young computer hacker called Neo. Like Alice, he is encouraged to enter a strange world, The Matrix, where he, too, can bend the rules of reality.
A series of clues lead him to discover a terrible truth. In the film a mirror, rather than a rabbit hole, marks the portal from one world to the next.
early on in the film, Neo is encouraged to follow a white rabbit, this being the tattoo on the arm of a nightclubber.
Via this path he meets the enigmatic Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) in an empty room in an abandoned building in the Matrix.
Morpheus gives him a choice: ‘You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.’
The blue pill will let Neo keep control over his story, but his story will have no basis in truth.
The red pill will throw Neo headlong into an alternate world he will struggle to comprehend. Neo takes the red pill, setting the trilogy in motion.
Simon Etherton, Leeds.
QUESTION Is there such a thing as ‘Class B’ cigarettes?
A CIGAreTTe’S class once denoted its size and price bracket.
Class A was small (60mm to 65mm) as typified by the brands Weights (slogan — ‘Always a pleasure to work with’), Woodbine (‘the great little cigarette’) and Park Drive (at its introduction in 1902, ‘Ten for two coppers’).
Class B were known as standard size and included Player’s Navy Cut (‘It’s the tobacco that counts’), Craven ‘A’ (‘Will not affect your throat’), Kensitas (‘Just what the doctor ordered’ — mild) and Senior Service (‘They satisfy’). The size of Class B was quoted as 70mm long and 8mm in diameter, though the size varied slightly over time.
Class C were the same size as Class B, but encompassed the brands that wished to project an upmarket image, selling at a few pence more.
These included Players Number No.3, Wills’ The Three Castles and Passing Clouds, which came in a pink packet that had a cavalier on the front, not laughing but savouring the fragrance of a cigarette.
Today, A, B and C are largely irrelevant as most cigarettes are king size at 84mm followed by superkings and 100s.
Britain’s first king-size filter was Mills by the Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation of Melson Street, Luton, in 1953, followed by Peter Stuyvesant in 1956 and rothman’s in 1957.
Hilary Humphries, Newmarket, Suffolk.
QUESTION Were there many Edward VIII stamps issued by the Royal Mail?
FUrTher to the earlier answer, another result of edward VIII’s 1936 crowning and abdication was the production and withdrawal of regimental badges with the royal cipher.
The regiments involved were Grenadier Guards, Life and horse Guards, the North Somerset, 1st County of London, and Norfolk Yeomanry and the relevant Corps regiments i.e. Service Corps. No infantry regiments were involved. I collected mainly Scottish badges, but as none of them had to change, I eventually found a pair of Life Guard Officers’ badges, one a plain undress service dress and the other a red, blue and gold enamelled full dress version with the distinctive edward VIII cipher.
having served in the Met Police, like other police forces, we changed our helmet plate badge on the crowning of a new monarch.
Since I retired in 1975, I have searched without success for a police badge with the edward VIII cipher. Thomas Proudfoot,
Alresford, Hants.