Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is book number three that should be on your reading list. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Alice in Wonderland? That’s a kid’s story!” I mean, it’s a common misconception, probably caused by the 1951 children’s cartoon, but I’ll get back to the cartoon later. Alice in Wonderland may have been converted into a story acceptable for children, but in its original form,  it kind of resembles a story you would find in Grimm’s Fairy Tales, if you know what I mean. James Topham even said in a review that it is “Brilliant for children, but with enough hilarity and joy for life in it to please adults, too” (Topham). I wouldn’t be surprised if the author, Lewis Carroll, was high on sugar crack when he wrote it because the story is random and almost psychedelic. On a side note, there’s an interesting thing about the name ‘Lewis Carroll’: it’s a pseudonym. The author of Alice in Wonderland’’s real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

        The story was originally written in 1865, and to be honest, it has an Old English style of writing, similar to how Shakespeare writes. Whenever I read it, I imagine it with an English accent in my head which is quite amusing. Alice is a young girl who stumbles into a rabbit hole, and she falls right into a new dimension where if you eat a small cake you grow ten feet tall. Animals talk there, and cats can make themselves invisible. There are mad tea parties that you would expect to take place in a mental hospital, and Queens enjoy croquet and chopping off people’s heads. Oh, and there’s a white rabbit. Can’t forget the white rabbit. The story is all about Alice’s journey through Wonderland and all the new “people” she meets.

        It is an absolutely crazy story, and that’s why I like it so much. That is also why I think other people my age will like it, too. It’s all about being adventurous and curious. It’s about trying new things. It’s about a young girl trying to find her way. If it wasn’t so crazy and unrealistic, I would say it’s exactly like life. It’s about getting out there and having fun. Who wouldn’t want that? No, the story isn’t super-relatable, but it does make for a really good read. Sometimes you don’t want relatable and understandable. Sometimes I just want to read a book that’ll make me laugh because it just makes no sense at all. It’s a great story that will temporarily transport you into another world.

        The kid’s cartoon of Alice in Wonderland was actually my first exposure to the story. It’s kind of a mash-up of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the second book about Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass. It’s like the book was specifically written to be made into a cartoon; it’s all hectic and happy which makes for a great cartoon. While it is a great cartoon, like any movie, it does not do Carroll’s writing justice. “The music and production design of Alice in Wonderland is marvelous, but the film is too much of a good thing, much too frantic to do full honor to the whimsical Carroll original” (Alice in Wonderland). It’s great for kids, but as an adult, I still find it amusing. My favorite part, or character I should say, out of the cartoon is the Cheshire Cat. He is so splendidly creepy and almost alluring that I can’t help but love him. I wish my cat could make demented faces and disappear! That would be awesome.

        Then there’s the live movie that came out in 2010. The one that has yummy Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. “Mr. Depp’s strenuously flamboyant turn embodies the best and worst of Mr. Burton’s filmmaking tendencies even as the actor brings his own brand of cinematic crazy to the tea party” (Dargis). Depp is the perfect person to play that role if you ask me because he has shown time and again that he is great at playing the role of a scatterbrained, slightly demented character. The movie is actually supposed to be a sequel to Alice in Wonderland. Alice falls down the rabbit hole again, so to speak. The special effects could be better, but it was still pretty good. It had all the old, crazy characters, complete with the queen who wants to cut off everyone’s head. This story, though, has the giant monster called the Jabberwocky that Alice must slay in order to save Wonderland. It’s a good movie.

        So, take a break from the real world, and get lost in Carroll’s fantasy of crazy and impossible things. You won’t regret it.

        “What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations?”

        --Lewis Carroll