Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”
- Date
- 1871
- Local voice
- Fictional character · White Queen
Meaning of “It’s a poor sort of memory that only…”
The White Queen treats remembering the future as perfectly ordinary, producing humor by applying confident logic to an impossible premise.
Where does it come from?
Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter V, “Wool and Water,” printed page 95 / scan leaf 115 in the fully validated 1872 Macmillan first-edition witness on Wikisource. The White Queen calls a memory that only works backwards “a poor sort of memory” while explaining the Looking-Glass world’s comic backwards logic. The line remains fictional character dialogue, not a claim about human memory science.
Why the local voice matters
Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 5; the White Queen explains the supposed advantage of living backwards.
