a
reference to a passage from the book Through the Looking
Glass (1871), by
English writer and mathematician Lewis Carroll (1832-1898). In the story, Alice (the
main character) travels through a mirror into a strange land where, among other odd characters, she meets the
Red Queen. While
running with the Queen, Alice notices that they never seem to
pass anything and the scenery stays exactly the same. The Queen explains this by saying, "...it takes all the
running you can do, to keep in the same
place. If you
want to get somewhere else, you must
run at least twice as
fast as that!"