Quote 1
"Can you do Addition?" the White Queen asked. "What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?"
"I don't know," said Alice. "I lost count."
"She can't do Addition," the Red Queen interrupted. "Can you do Subtraction? Take nine from eight."
"Nine from eight I can't, you know," Alice replied very readily: "but – "
"She can't do Substraction," said the White Queen. "Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife – what's the answer to that?"
"I suppose – " Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen answered for her. "Bread-and-butter, of course." (Looking-Glass 9.20-27)
Alice's carefully learned mathematical skills are foiled by the riddles of the Red Queen. But it's not just Alice: even the White Queen, who calls subtraction "Substraction," has trouble.