Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

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It's a hit!

There's no elegant way to sum up Alice's story: it's wacked. Not in a bad way; in fact, I mean just the opposite. Carroll has written two profound-... (show more)

There's no elegant way to sum up Alice's story: it's wacked. Not in a bad way; in fact, I mean just the opposite. Carroll has written two profound--and profoundly bizarre--novels that call into question some of our basic tenets about childhood: that children need to be taught right from wrong, that their minds dwell in fantasy rather than in logic, that youth is an idyllic period in one's life. By sending Alice on her surreal journeys, Carroll upends these beliefs and in the process exposes the utter hypocrisy and injustice in the "real world." Surrounded by Wonderland citizens and their crazy antics, Alice remains a steady voice of reason but is consistently drowned out. Along the way she literally suffers growing pains and loses her identity, pointing to all that we endure as we emerge from childhood. Ironically, like many readers who revisit these stories years later, I was shocked at how much I had missed when I first read these so-called children's books as a kid. Alas, the books haven't changed, just me, and this realization adds a layer of sadness to my deep admiration for Carroll's work. (show less)

 

 

by Paul

No, it's a flop!

"Sublime nonsense" - is the nutshell that this book is. It's not cleverness - its just randomness disquised as cleverness. It just tosses a bunc... (show more)

"Sublime nonsense" - is the nutshell that this book is. It's not cleverness - its just randomness disquised as cleverness. It just tosses a bunch of nothing together, shakes it up, mixes in a curious and rude little girl who's rudeness pales next to the characters she encounters in Wonderland. Those thousand monkeys at typewriters would produce something along these lines before getting to Shakespeare. For some reason, I never read this when I was discovering Narnia or Oz. Ormondroyd's "David & the Phoenix" has the spirit I expected to encounter in Caroll's book. Instead - this book starts nowhere and ends nowhere. And perhaps that is the nonsense that some find pleasing. For me it was simply distracting. The whole idea of the world's we create ourselves is a notion I have always been drawn to. Wonderland isn't even a world much less a persuasive daydream. Nothing there matters. And Alice just skips off at the end, leaving her sister to forecast a bit of standard drivel about the day when they will be grownups but always have their childhood inside. Meh. (show less)

 

 

by Eric

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  Surreal, unreal, and a classic tale of collapsing realities. As a work of nonsense literature, this is a very playful book, as it spouts off random poetry, imagery, and lacks a large amount of continuity. Seeking meaning in a meaningless world, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland reminds us that "we're all mad here." These books are filled with clever wordplay and pokes at logic, and feature some truly wonderful artwork. While I do not think these stories are for everyone (they are... (show more)

  Surreal, unreal, and a classic tale of collapsing realities. As a work of nonsense literature, this is a very playful book, as it spouts off random poetry, imagery, and lacks a large amount of continuity. Seeking meaning in a meaningless world, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland reminds us that "we're all mad here." These books are filled with clever wordplay and pokes at logic, and feature some truly wonderful artwork. While I do not think these stories are for everyone (they are pretty random and ridiculous, certainly testing a reader's patience), these insane journeys are packed with some truly memorable lines and images, offering a look at an unhinged imagination. (show less)

   

   

  by Alex on Dec 26, 2007 at 02:56AM

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  It's tempting to say that, on some level, this is really just a story about a young girl walking around having nonsense conversations with animals. But I guess there's an appeal to those stories that pit one seemingly sane being against an entire ludicrous world. What struck me most was how obviously so many other authors I've read have drawn inspiration from this (most recently, the Dave Eggers novelization of "Where the Wild Things Are" clearly owes a huge debt to Carroll).

  I a... (show more)

  It's tempting to say that, on some level, this is really just a story about a young girl walking around having nonsense conversations with animals. But I guess there's an appeal to those stories that pit one seemingly sane being against an entire ludicrous world. What struck me most was how obviously so many other authors I've read have drawn inspiration from this (most recently, the Dave Eggers novelization of "Where the Wild Things Are" clearly owes a huge debt to Carroll).

  I actually liked "Through the Looking Glass" better than "Alice," probably because I was a little bit fascinated by the chess game. I suspect, also, that these are the kinds of books you need to read a few times to be able to really interact with, kind of like the way every time you re-watch a Tarantino flim you notice things you hadn't seen before. Anyway. A friend kind of made me read these, and for better or worse, I suppose I'm glad she did. (show less)

   

  by Michael on Dec 07, 2009 at 05:09AM

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