Follow the White Rabbit to www.lewiscarroll.org/blog

Silence in the court! The Lewis Carroll Society of North America's newly revamped website, www.lewiscarroll.org, is up and running, and THIS BLOG will move to be fully integrated over there.

The mothballed history, up thru March 2010, will still remain at this blogspot address, but new posts will ONLY appear at www.lewiscarroll.org/blog, under a new name "Far-Flung Knight". We hope you continue to follow us at the new location!

Add this feed to your blog readers!

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Our Twitter account will now link to the new blog as well, follow us at @AliceAmerica.

And please join the conversation by commenting. This blog is an extension of the "From our Far-Flung Correspondents" section of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America's biannual magazine, the Knight Letter. To subscribe to our fine publication, membership to the society only costs $35 a year! More information about everything at www.lewiscarroll.org. Follow the white rabbit! (or, in modern parlance, click on him.)

Disney Japanese Pocket Puzzle to Enrage and Delight

And now for something completely different: drive yourself mad with a Disney-themed interlocking pocket puzzle, sold online at ThinkGeek.com.

The puzzles are based on the classic mechanical games involving two interlocking pieces which must be separated - only this time you are offered motivation from the Magic Kingdom: help Alice navigate the Red Queen's maze, extract Winnie the Pooh from Rabbit's hole, separate Minnie and Mickey (?...).

The vendors says that the puzzles are intended for adults - "kids might be pretty frustrated," by which I think they mean they will be quiet for hours (good), right until the point they pitch the thing through the passenger side window (bad).

Criticizing the Critics, & futterwacking around the Alice Movie Paradox

[Warning! Spoiler alert! It was all a dream!]

When Lewis Carroll published a few thousand copies of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, with no hype or buzz, it received some mixed reviews. That's one of the few things Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland has in common with Carroll's original stories. The critics were out this week, and occasionally perceptive. As of this morning, the "top critics" that Rotten Tomatoes tracks average at about 59% (between rotten tomato and ripe tomato), with the general masses giving it about 53%. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times, one of my favorite critics to disagree with, had some interesting insight into the Alice Paradox in movies:

Dark and sometimes grim, this isn’t your great-grandmother’s Alice or that of Uncle Walt, who was disappointed with the 1951 Disney version of “Alice in Wonderland.” “Alice has no character,” said a writer who worked on that project. “She merely plays straight man to a cast of screwball comics.” Of course the character of Carroll’s original Alice is evident in each outrageous creation she dreams up in “Wonderland” and in the sequel, “Through the Looking-Glass,” which means that she’s a straight man to her own imagination. (She is Wonderland.) Here she mostly serves as a foil for the top biller Johnny Depp, who (yes, yes) plays the Mad Hatter, and Mr. Burton’s bright and leaden whimsies.

Her conclusion, however, is vague and baffling:

This isn’t an impossible story to translate to the screen, as the Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer showed with “Alice” (1988), where the divide between reality and fantasy blurs as it does in dreams. It’s just hard to know why Mr. Burton, who doesn’t seem much interested in Alice, bothered.

The great Roger Ebert, at the Chicago Sun-Times, admits he didn't care for the books growing up, which possibly explains some of his strange tangents:

This has never been a children's story. There's even a little sadism embedded in Carroll's fantasy. It reminds me of uncles who tickle their nieces until they scream. "Alice" plays better as an adult hallucination, which is how Burton rather brilliantly interprets it until a pointless third act flies off the rails. It was a wise idea by Burton and his screenwriter, Linda Woolverton, to devise a reason that Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is now a grown girl in her late teens, revisiting a Wonderland that remains much the same, as fantasy worlds must always do.

[...]

Burton shows us Wonderland as a perturbing place where the inhabitants exist for little apparent reason other than to be peculiar and obnoxious. Do they reproduce? Most species seem to have only one member, as if nature quit while she was ahead.

How could he not develop that shocking exposée? Who was the Duchess's baby daddy? Is there a Mrs. Mock Turtle!? I wish Carroll was around to explain the laws of dream procreation.
One more quote, I'll give Elizabeth Weizman of New York Daily News my highly coveted Saying Nothing Award:

"Frabjous" may be a word Carroll invented, but Burton knows just what it means, at least in his own mind. He's clearly excited to invite us inside, and as long as you're open to so much muchness, you'll be very glad he did.

This parsing of critics possibly to be continued... In the meantime, I have several questions:

-How come no one has discussed the influence of Miranda Richardson's Queen Elizabeth I from BBC's "Blackadder II" (1986) on Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen?

-Why was the Dodgson-esque figure named Charles at the beginning Alice's dead father? What?

-Did the bizarre Chinese trade-route plot-line at the finale, which was guided on by the blue butterfly (née Caterpillar), have anything to do with opium (i.e., the possible contents of the Caterpillar's pipe)? I know it was 2am and I had a headache from two hours of drinking wine in an IMAX with 3D glasses, but I think I may be onto a possible explanation for the otherwise unexplainable China thing.

Just the day to see Alice in Wonderland... (1903)

At 12.01am this morning the curtain rose on Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. If the last five months of hype have left you cold, how about being truly perverse and making today the day you watched the first Alice movie ever made?

Alice in Wonderand (1903), carefully restored by the British Film Institute's National Archive, is now available online. In fact you can watch it right now, right here:



A fascinating article about the restoration project appears on the British Film Institute's website. Apparently, the film featured the first British actor ever to be named in the credits of a film: it was the collie dog glimpsed at 3:16 minutes in, later to star in Rescued by Rover (1905). Now you know.

From the March 5th - 15th, the BFI will be hosting a "brief rabbit-hole retro," with a selection of the most notable Alice films, from Paramount's 1933 star-studded oddity, through to Jan Svankmajer’s 1988 masterpiece of taxidermy. All films will be shown at the London Southbank Centre. For a full schedule and ticket information, see the BFI website.

Alice Around Town

The New York website Woman Around Town has a series of articles about Alice this week, two quoting Lewis Carroll Society of North America president Andrew Sellon. From Charlene Giannetti's obligatory round-up of Alice movies, "Lewis Carroll’s Alice—A Favorite for Film Makers":

When Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland opens on Friday, March 5, the film will join many others that have sought to bring Lewis Carroll’s tales to the screen. “In terms of adapting [these books], it’s tricky,” says Andrew Sellon, President, Lewis Carroll Society of North America. “As written, they are not right for the medium.” Sellon explains that Carroll’s characters don’t encounter enough conflict to create the action necessary for a production on stage or in a film.

And from the same author's "Alice in Wonderland—Timeless as the White Rabbit’s Watch", which delves deeper into artistic and cultural influence:

The visual imagery as well as a cast of quirky, colorful characters, makes Alice’s story an attractive takeoff point for artists. The basic story is a familiar one: a young girl is lost far away from home and must find her way back. Along the way, Alice, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, meets some interesting personalities, uses her wits to survive, and, in the process, learns a lot about herself and what she holds dear. There’s a timelessness to that story that continues to draw people in, generation after generation.”This child enters these adult realms and sees adults behaving badly, handles herself quite well, and gains some measure of control over her life,” says Andrew Sellon, President, the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. “At some time we’ve all felt like Alice. What is this place we’re in and why are people doing this and who is making the rules? You can apply that almost anywhere.”

Mark Richards, Chairman of the Lewis Carroll Society, agrees. “Although it is easy to see [Alice in Wonderland] as a Victorian story, the conversations and characters are timeless and we can easily see them as being of our own time.” Richards adds that people are captivated by “the way in which Alice observes her surroundings and feels emotions throughout the book. The sense of wonder is very strong in the books and is felt by the reader.”

It continues with Sellon's observations about reading the book to children and the perennial drug question. (Continue Reading...)

AudioFile Magazine presents a Listeners' Guide to Alice In Wonderland and Free Audiobook Download

AudioFile, the magazine and website devoted to audiobooks, has announced that for two weeks only it is going "mad about Alice!" - a remarkable instance of infectious disease control and an example to Hollywood.

In its madness, Audiofile is offering a free download of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as narrated by Michael York, courtesy of Blackstone Audio.

This download is only part of an Audiofile Listeners’ Guide to Alice in Wonderland, "an online multimedia event where visitors can listen to exclusive conversations with Alice narrators, read audiobook reviews and recommendations, and discover more online resources about Alice in Wonderland." Fans are also invited to discuss their favorite audiobook versions of Alice on AudioFile's Facebook page.

Items in the the Listeners’ Guide include conversations with narrators Michael York and Jim Dale, and with Gabrielle de Cuir, the audio producer of York’s reading of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and of the recently released audiobook, Alice I Have Been.

One feature that sounds particulary interesting is "Three Mad Cups of Tea," the Mad Tea-Party, read in turn by three different narrators. I hope some English teachers stumble across this one. The lesson plan practically writes itself.

Alice's Kitchen Sink Released on March 2nd, 2010

Paramount's Alice in Wonderland (1933), directed by Norman Z. McLeod, has been mentioned a lot in the past few weeks, as the first big Hollywood all-star blow-out adaptation of Lewis Carroll's books (with such stars as Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and W.C. Fields.) Slightly lost amongst the thousands of other Alices being released this month was the fact that this film, which was never released on VHS or DVD, is finally available (list price $19.99). Why is it being released as Universal Homes Entertainment? Our source from inside Paramount answers that question:

Back in 1957, Paramount sold most (but not all) of its pre-1948 film library to Universal for some quick cash (at the time, Paramount was ailing, financially). Thus, a number of Paramount films are now distributed by Universal, under their corporate and home video label [...] Paramount no longer owns the rights to these films.

There's a review from the New York Times here.

Also released on DVD on March 2nd is the SyFy miniseries Alice (list price $19.99), which originally aired last December. Jonathan Miller's 1966 adaptation was issued on DVD (featuring John Gielgud, Peter Cook, Peter Sellers; list price $14.98). I noticed that Amazon has a deal selling all three for $38.97, the price of which won't even get a family of three into the IMAX to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in 3D.

There's more: Hallmark's "overblown" 1999 television special of Alice in Wonderland (with Whoopi Goldberg, Martin Short and Christopher Lloyd) is being reissued on DVD (list price, $19.99) along with its companion Through the Looking Glass (with Geoffrey Palmer and Ian Holm; list price only $9.98!)

Now, several tie-ins to the Disney movie were also released March 2nd: several hot new video games for Nintendo Wii (list price $39.99), Nintendo DS (list price $29.99), and a Disney Interactive computer game for PC ($19.99). The movie soundtrack by Danny Elfman was released on March 2nd (list price $18.98). And merchandise, merchandise, merchandise, too much to mention here.

Did you know Alice stories can also be purchased in a book form? Many editions of this "book" were released in conjunction with the big movie premiere, but the only book rolled out on March 2nd (to keep true to the theme of this post), was one called "The Real Alice in Wonderland: A Role Model for the Ages" by C.M. Rubin and Gabriela Rubin (list price, $29.95), from AuthorHouse. A day after it was released, it appears to already be out of stock. From the product description:

In 2006, award-winning author C.M. Rubin and her daughter, Gabriella Rubin (who are related to the Liddell family), began an incredible journey to create the ultimate book about the original Alice in Wonderland's life. Their grand pictorial, biographic vision for the book involved collecting photographs spanning two centuries, reaching out to many celebrated Alice in Wonderland artists (including Vik Muniz, Annie Liebovitz, Mark Steele, Lizzy Rockwell, Helen Oxenbury, Frances Broomfield, Jeanne Argent, David Cooper, Bruce Fuller, Tatiana Ianovskaia, Jewel, and Tom Otterness), and connecting with museums, libraries and schools around the world. The Real Alice in Wonderland book is told using never before seen pictures along with prominent voices from Alice’s lifetime and from the present day. C.M. Rubin and her daughter Gabriella explore the theme of inspiration. Behind every great person there is the person who inspires and believes in him or her. The person who motivates them to realize their dreams. This magnificent cross-atlantic epic will fascinate you -- it will make you think again: what does it mean to inspire?
The Real Alice In Wonderland book is dedicated to all those who inspire the minds and souls of human beings.

However, don't miss Simply Read Books edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, no longer out of print, with Iassen Ghiuselev's unique and beautiful illustrations, reissued in hardcover on March 1st (list price, $24.95).

Mad Tea Party and Guided Tours at the Rosenbach, PA

Alice considered a little, and then said, "Wash your hands. Cover your cough. Stay home if you are sick. Get vaccinated."

Now that the Alice pandemic has reached the WHO-defined Phase 6, "increased and sustained transmission in general population," the last few weeks have felt a bit like blogging through the looking-glass: it seems to take all the blogging we can do to keep in the same place. To actually inform our readers of events in advance, well, we would have to blog at least twice as fast as that.

With that excuse, it's time for a mention of tomorrow's Mad Tea Party at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philidelphia. Registration is now closed, but attendees have been promised a look at the library's first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and lots and lots of tea (we hope proper saucer usage will be observed).

Over the next few weeks the library will be offering a tour of Carrollian items in their collection:

This tour will explore both the man and the author, drawing on letters from Dodgson to his publishers, original drawings by John Tenniel (the illustrator of the Alice books) photographs of children taken by Carroll, and, of course, copies of his books.

The tour promises to be "hands on," but mind the marmalade please. LCSNA members who discover sticky fingerprints on the museum collection during the Spring Meeting on April 24th will take the matter very seriously.

Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodsgon Hands-On Tours

Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia PA

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 3:00pm
Sunday, March 14, 2010 - 3:00pm
Friday, March 19, 2010 - 3:00pm

Around the blogosphere: Burstein's Alice Film Roundup & Hero Complex's Countdown

The LCSNA's very own Mark Burstein has written a concise list of "all those awful Alice movies" (a theme that many in the media have been attempting, as reported here) for Lucas Films' Blockbusting blog. An excerpt:

The groovy Sixties found a resurgence of interest in Carroll's otherworld of mushrooms and hookah-smoking caterpillars. Hanna-Barbera's Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This, voiced by Sammy Davis, Jr., Zsa Zsa Gabor, etc. was shown on television in 1966. Later that year, Alice Through the Looking Glass, a musical version with Jimmy Durante, The Smothers Brothers, etc., ran on television as well. Meanwhile, in Britain, the BBC produced a low-key, black-and-white Alice in Wonderland that is arguably the best, certainly the most faithful to the spirit, of all cinematic or televisual adaptations. It was directed by Jonathan Miller, and starred Sir John Gielgud, Peter Sellers, etc.

The spirit of the Sixties lasted at least until 1972, when a lavish British musical version ofWonderland starring Fiona Fullerton (later a Bond girl) as Alice, and with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore, and so on came to the big screen.

A soft-core porno-slash-musical comedy Alice in Wonderland spewed forth in 1976, produced by Bill Osco, directed by Bud Townsend, and distributed by General National Enterprises. Ah, me. It's very nearly watchable, but was the first of many subsequent erotic films "based" on the books, all of which lack even the marginal charm of this original one, and are not subject matter for this brief overview.

The whole round-up, once again, is here. Elsewhere on the blogosphere, we've been following the LA Times' Hero Complex (which still hasn't corrected their mistake, in their list of awful Alice movies, that the 1903 silent version was "just 68 years after Lewis Carroll first published his fantasy Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland." Mr. Burstein prefers to note that 1903 is "just five years after Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)'s death in 1898.") Anyway, they are doing a daily countdown to the movie premiere, and today's entrée is about John Tenniel:

"If you go back to Tenniel, so much of his work is what stays in your mind about Alice and about Wonderland," Burton said. "Alice and the characters have been done so many times and in so many ways. but Tenniel's art really lasts there in your memory."

Tenniel was already a major name in political cartooning (and, unfortunately, blinded in one eye from a fencing wound) when he took on the illustrations for Carroll's strange fantasy. The job was a frustrating one due to the intense detail work and specifications that came from Carroll (whose real name, by the way, was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), but Tenniel had a passion for drawing animals, and Wonderland gave him a singular opportunity for creatures of the fantastic. Tenniel was also a meticulous soul and a demanding artist -- the first run of 2,000 copies of "Alice" in 1865, for instance, did not meet his standards and were pulled back. The project was well worth the trouble, however, when the book became an instant literary sensation.

It's nice of them to quote Burton discussing Tenniel, because, earlier when they had quoted him discussing his Red Queen's huge head, it struck me as odd that he didn't acknowledge Tenniel as the origin of that phenomenon. ("In lots of illustrations and incarnations of Carroll’s work through the years, it always seems like she had a big head," he noted vaguely.)

Tenniel family menu cards up for auction

Menu cards (porcelain plaques), created by John Tenniel for family dinners, based on his illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice books, are up for auction at PBA Galleries (133 Kearny St, San Francisco) - low estimate $20k, high estimate $30k. The product description from their website:

Six small hand-painted porcelain plaques by John Tenniel, each with its own wrought-iron miniature easel. Each has a character from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking-Glass taking up about a quarter of the plaque, with the remainder blank, and "Menu" written at the top of each. The plaques measure 5x3½; the easels are about 7½" high.
Marvelous and unique group of original hand-painted plaques used as menu cards for the Tenniel family dinners, descended in the family over the years. The night's fare was evidently written in the blank spaces with a crayon or grease pencil, then wiped off after the meal was completed. The characters pictured are The White Rabbit (with his pocket-watch), the Mock Turtle (crying away), the Frog Footman (delivering a letter), the Walrus (without the Oysters and the Carpenter), the Leg of Mutton (taking a bow), and a frog with a rake. The plaques have a small wooden case with a removable top, on which is a label with writing "China (Delicate)". The case top has two sides missing, some other wear.

Rated PG for Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar

I just noticed that Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland is rated PG "for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar." Wonderful! Disney's 1951 version, which also contains a smoking caterpillar, is rated simply G. Therefore, since All Scotchmen are Non-Dragons, and a fish with three rows of teeth is not to be despised, it would follow that it was not that hookah-smoking caterpillar which increased the rating from G to PG.

Smoking in movies is of course a contentious issue, with many organizations and websites tracking Hollywood for how it portrays tobacco use. (There's something called the "Hackadamy Awards", presented by the Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails, for smoke-free movies. Nine, for instance, got the year's biggest Thumbs Down for providing "a depressingly perfect example by lavishly promoting cigarette and cigar smoking as emblems of sexiness, wealth, power, coolness and relaxation.) Shisha is not something they come across very often, so I'm curious to see how this goes down.

Alan Rickman (the great actor famous for his Professor Severus Snape) is playing the voice of the Caterpillar in the new film!

"Alice's Theme": Music & Lyrics by Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman's soundtrack to Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland will be released on CD (an ancient kind of optical disc used to store digital audio) next Tuesday, March 2nd, and there's some short clips at the Amazon store if you desire a teaser. I couldn't help noticing the opening song - with children's voices singing "Oh, Alice, dear where have you been?" - and I found the complete lyrics at a blog called cinemusic.net. I'll include them with that website's charming introduction:

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, starring Johnny Depp as Elijah Wood The Mad Hatter begins pissing off prickly Lewis Carroll purists on March 5, 2010 in theaters everywhere in eye-popping 3D. Lending musical support is Burton’s constant composer Danny Elfman, AKA film music’s most awesome red head.

Threaded throughout the score is an original song penned by Elfman, called “Alice’s Theme”, and it opens up the Disney Records score album due in stores on March 2 (obligatory Amazon link). Here’s a sneak peek at the song’s lyrics (thanks to the supremely talented LD for these)…

“Alice’s Theme”

Music and Lyrics by Danny Elfman

Oh, Alice, dear where have you been?

So near, so far or in between?

What have you heard what have you seen?

Alice, Alice, please, Alice!

Oh, tell us are you big or small

To try this one or try them all

It’s such a long, long way to fall

Alice, Alice, oh, Alice

How can you know this way not that?

You choose the door you choose the path

Perhaps you should be coming back

Another day, another day

And nothing is quite what is seems

You’re dreaming are you dreaming, oh, Alice?

(Oh, how will you find your way? Oh, how will you find your way?)

(There’s not time for tears today. There’s no time for tears today.)

So many doors – how did you choose

So much to gain so much to lose

So many things got in your way

No time today, no time today

Be careful not to lose your head

Just think of what the doormouse [sic] said…Alice!

Did someone pull you by the hand?

How many miles to Wonderland?

Please tell us so we’ll understand

Alice…Alice…Oh, Alice

(Oh how will you find you way? … Oh, how will you find you way?)

Sing along!

I've never met a prickly Lewis Carroll purist, let alone a pissed-off one, but I would presume they're easily decapitated with a vorpal sword. Or defenestrated with a defibrillator.

Anyway, if you are not familiar with Mr. Elfman, he is the film composer and long-time collaborator with Mr. Burton, the man wrote the iconic music for Batman, The Simpsons theme, and those wonderful songs for The Nightmare Before Christmas. He has done less-than-stellar work for some of Mr. Burton's more recent mediocrities. Elfman is often mocked in the classical world for basically having a team of composers do his work for him, although I sometimes feel this criticism is harsh. (After all, Renaissance painters employed whole crews of apprentices, Dale Chihuly has a studio to manifest his glass-art masterpieces, and George Gershwin didn't do the orchestrations for Rhapsody in Blue (free round of drinks if you can name the composer who did!) Art is not always the product of an agonized solo genius, sometimes she can be more of an architectural designer, et cetera, especially in the film music world. Thus ends this parenthetical rant.)

As dear to my adolescent heart as Elfman's music for The Nightmare Before Christmas is, there's many cringeworthy lyrics (e.g., "I wish my cohorts weren't so dumb / I'm not the dumb one / You're no fun / Shut up! / Make me!") I would pay a large sum of money to hire William Shatner to read the lyrics to "Alice's Theme" as a beat poem accompanied by bongos and upright bass (as he did for Sarah Palin's verbiage). In conclusion, Mr. Elfman should hire a real librettist.

Beautiful Carroll books online at rarebookroom.org

Twenty-seven beautifully rendered hi-resolution facsimiles of old Lewis Carroll books (and hundreds from other authors) can be read online at rarebookroom.org. From Mark Burstein's collection, there are translations "in Dutch, Esperanto (ill: LeFanu), Farsi, French (Rackham, Tenniel), German (Birnbaum, Tenniel), Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili," and English editions with illustrations by Maybank, McManus (pictured above), Pease, Pogany, Rackham, Charles Robinson, Rountree, and Winter.

Movie Anti-Hype: The Onion's A.V. dreading another Alice movie

In regards to what we wrote below, that many writers have taken on the theme of "all those awful Alice movies" in anticipation of the imminent Tim Burton 3D one (in seven days!), The Onion's A.V. Club lists Lewis Carroll's Alice books in a series on movies that have been adapted to death. Allow me to quote liberally from "Put the book back on the shelf: Literary works that should never be adapted to film or TV again" (February 17th, 2010):

[...] The world doesn’t need a fifth Indiana Jones movie, or any more big-screen retreads of ’80s cartoons that weren’t that great to begin with. And it especially doesn’t need yet another weak reconceptualization of Romeo And Juliet, or yet another stuffy screen version of Pride And Prejudice to join the wave of them that started back in 1938. In fact, here’s a list of just a few of the literary works that have officially been done to death—and some recommendations for where to find newer, fresher stories just waiting on the page.

Book: Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland and Through The Looking-Glass

Adaptations to date: More than three dozen, notably including the 1951 animated Disney musical version and big-event 1985 and 1999 TV miniseries. Other countries have released their own versions as well; there’s a 24-episode Japanese animated adaptation, an Argentinean mime version, and nationalist versions like 1966’s Alice Of Wonderland In Paris and 1979’sAlice In Spanish Wonderland. Plus, of course, the upcoming Tim Burton sequel to Carroll’s original stories.

Definitive version: The Disney version is probably best known. While it has its own charms, though, it liberally diverges from Carroll’s text, like most Disney adaptations.

Why steer clear? The Alice books are simultaneously two of the most-adapted novels in history, and among the most habitually worst-adapted. Film and TV versions necessarily tend to elide over the original books’ densely packed puns and references, and instead concentrate on spectacle or on drearily plodding through a series of events that should be sprightly and disorienting, yet somehow not manic. It’s a difficult balance, and one that directors rarely seem to get right. What’s left behind is a bunch of creative, fun ideas that have had the creativity and fun leached out through repetition. How many times can we watch Alice grow, shrink, and boggle at it all?

What to adapt instead? Other Carroll works, including his novel Sylvie And Bruno and his poem “The Hunting Of The Snark,” bring in as much clever nonsense, wordplay, and episodic adventure, but are less line-by-line familiar.

Sylvie & Bruno!! How about that? The list continues with A Christmas Carol, The Bible, and other books that will by no means stop inspiring filmmakers in our lifetimes.

New edition of Through the Looking-Glass, illustrated by Gavin L. O'Keefe

A new edition of Through the Looking-Glass, illustrated by Gavin L. O'Keefe, was released this month by Ramble House.

O'Keefe is an Australian artist who has already illustrated Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Hunting of the Snark. His gently surreal black and white illustrations for Through the Looking-Glass can be previewed in the form of selected greetings cards available for purchase from RedBubble.com.

A hardcover edition is available at Lulu.com for $24.99.

A trade paperback edition is available at CreateSpace.com for $15.99.

"Curiouser and Curiouser" at the Nucleus Gallery, Alhambra CA

Next Saturday will be the opening night of "Curiouser and Curiouser: Inspired by 'Alice in Wonderland,'" an exhibition of new artwork at the Nucleus Gallery in downtown Alhambra CA.

In addition to work from a remarkably long list of exhibiting artists, opening night will feature a number of artifacts and stills from the impending Disney movie.

... Opening Night only, glimpse into the creative brilliance of Disney Studios as exclusive concept art, production, and film stills will be shown from the upcoming Alice In Wonderland!

Exhibition Features:

• Never-before seen concept art, production and film stills for Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' courtesy of Disney Studios.
• Maquettes for 'Alice in Wonderland' on exhibit courtesy of Gentle Giant Studios.
• Dress up in your best 'Alice' inspired attire for a chance to win prizes.
• Cha for Tea serving up tasty teas.
• Music by DJ Ronicus.

Curiouser and Curiouser: Inspired by "Alice in Wonderland"

February 27 until March 29, 2010

Opening Reception February 27, 7pm - 11pm

Nucleus Gallery, 210 East Main Street, Alhambra CA 91801

Phone: 626-458-7482

Alice at the British Library

Tickets for next Wednesday evening's Alice celebrations at the British Library are now sold out. Congratulations to our London-dwelling friends who managed to secure one. They will be enjoying readings by members of Tim Burton's cast, conversations with the producer and co-producer of the movie, "an appreciation of Alice" by Will Self, and a viewing of a Cecil Hepworth's 1903 "Alice In Wonderland" with live piano accompaniment. I wonder if there are ever scalpers outside British Library events? Bonus points and a special mention on this blog to anyone who procures last minute admission through irregular means.

For those who fail to locate either a scalper or an untended fire escape, there is still the opportunity to view a special exhibition of "Alice's Adventures Under Ground" and related pieces from the Library's collection during regular library opening hours.

Furthermore, tickets are still available for an illustrated talk on March 6 entitled "Lewis Carroll and Photography: Exposing the Truth" in which Carroll scholar Edward Wakeling "examines the impressive reality of Carroll’s photography, including his studies of children, and tackles the myths surrounding his work." Book now to avoid disappointment!

"Lewis Carroll and Photograph: Exposing the Truth"

Saturday, March 6, 2010, 14:30 - 16:00

Conference Centre, The British Library

96 Euston Road, London, UK

£6 / £4 concessions

"Lewis Carroll as the White Rabbit" oil painting by Steven Kenny

This fresh vision of Lewis Carroll is by artist Steven Kenny. There is something about the blend of strangeness and comedy that seems just right.

The 24" by 18" oil painting is currently on display at the Glass Garage Gallery in West Hollywood.

More of Steven Kenny's work can be viewed on his website.

More Tim Burton movie hype at the LA Times blog Hero Complex

It's now only two weeks from opening night of the Tim Burton Disney 3D Spectacular. There's posters all over bus stops in the East Bay Area, California. The LCSNA is preparing for the plunge (in lieu of the macropsiacal interest in Carroll) by revamping its website, which will integrate this blog (that's right, we're moving! so watch for a White Rabbit), all of this pretty soon.

The Winter 2009 edition of the Knight Letter (no. 83) featured an article by Daniel Singer called "Off With Their Heads! Those Awful Alice Movies." (The Knight Letter is the LCSNA's magazine, sent to subscribers for the membership fee of $35.) Of course, this theme is being taken up now all over, retrospectives of the century-plus of mediocre Alice in Wonderland movies. Susan King at the Los Angeles Times blog Hero Complex took a stab at the topic, beginning her article: "The first known 'Alice in Wonderland' film ... was made in 1903, just 68 years after Lewis Carroll first published his fantasy 'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.'" Perhaps she's onto advanced rabbithole mathematics, and that works in base 17 or something. We recommend the Daniel Singer article if you can dig up a Knight Letter.

Elsewhere at Hero Complex, they quote Tim Burton discussing his Red Queen (played by his partner Helena Bonham Carter):

"In lots of illustrations and incarnations of Carroll's work through the years, it always seems like she had a big head. It was an interesting challenge for us to find the right size and weight and proportions. One of the things we wanted to do was to use the actors and their performances -- to use the real them -- and then make them different. It's still their performance but it's just made weird. We wanted to achieve this blend. That was an important dynamic."

"In a lot of children's literature and other literature it's kind of the same thing over and over -- there's good queens and bad queens, and here you have that but the elements are a bit blurred," Burton said. "Everybody's weird and has weird qualities to them. She's kind of a mixture. When I look at her now, she reminds me of pictures I've seen of Leona Helmsley. There's a tiny bit of elements of my mother in there too, for some strange reason. And Helena brings her own things to it too."

Carroll Concordances at the Victorian Literary Studies Archive

Wondering exactly how many times the mysterious word "Boojum" appears in The Hunting of the Snark? (3). There's a pretty user-friendly and accessible concordance of seven of Lewis Carroll's most important works - Both Alices + "Under Ground", Snark, Slyvie & Bruno, The Game of Logic, and Phantasmagoria and Other Poems - at the Victorian Literary Studies Archive (in addition to searchable texts of dozens of other authors.) Thank you to the VLSA for making a useful website, and thanks to LCSNA member Lester Dickey for the tip.

http://victorian.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/concordance/carroll/

Honorable Mention for LCSNA-member Tatiana Ianovskaia

Two weeks ago we reported that paintings by LCSNA-member Tatiana Ianovskaia were appearing in "Down the Rabbit Hole," a juried art exhibition in Bakersfield, California. The good news has now reached us that her oil painting "Court" received an honorable mention, one of only three awards given out at the show. "Best in Show" went to artist Nancy Sharp for a mixed media piece entitled "A Very Cheesy Cheshire."

More of Tatiana's Alice-inspired work, including her illustrated Alice in Wonderland, can be viewed from her website.

"Down the Rabbit Hole," featuring many other interpretations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, will remain on display until March 25th at the Younger Gallery, 1440 Truxtun Ave, downtown Bakersfield, CA.

The Mystery of Lewis Carroll book giveaway at Alice 2010 Fan Club website

You could win a free copy of Jenny Woolf's excellent new biography, The Mystery of Lewis Carroll, by leaving a comment on this post at alice2010.blogspot.com. This Alice fan club blog centers around the Tim Burton movie but also chronicles many other Carroll-related products and things-of-interest.

Tiny Tea Set for Tiny Tea-Parties

Sugar with your tea? One grain or two? Bas Bleu, online retailer of gifts and accessories for readers, is selling this miniature tea set decorated with quotes and illustrations from Disney's Alice in Wonderland ($55).

The teapot is 2 1/2 inches high, which is perhaps a little undersized for a truly mad tea-party, but may yet appeal to a small friend or caffeine-loving teddy bear.

Exposure Time, a play about Dodgson the Photographer, at New Jersey Rep

Tonight is the world premiere of Exposure Time by Kim Merrill at the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, New Jersey. Is this the first time a work of drama has centered on Charles Dodgson the photographer? Merrill's play won the 2009 Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. Here is some of the blurb from the press release, "Alice Through the Camera Lens":

While Johnny Depp portrays the Mad Hatter on movie screens around the world this winter, Lewis Carroll, the conflicted creator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, will be on stage at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, fighting passionately to be known not as a

children’s author but as Charles Dodgson, the greatest portrait photographer in the British Empire. Standing in his way is the larger-than-life and now tragically forgotten Julia Margaret Cameron, who was the Annie Leibovitz of her day and a constant thorn in Dodgson’s side. The real Alice will be there as well, trying to sort out her complex relationship with Dodgson, along with Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the Victorian Idol of a society that worshiped its poets like rock stars. The world premiere of Exposure Time runs from February 11 through March 21, with an Opening Night performance and High Tea on Saturday, February 13.

[...]

A magical journey into the literary heart of Victorian England, Exposure Time is a perfect play for young teens and above. Schools are invited to contact NJ Rep to discuss booking special discounted matinee performances that include lesson plans and post-show discussions with the actors.

Discounted previews are Thursday and Friday, February 11 and 12 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Regular performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m., with selected Sundays performances at 7 p.m. as well as Thursday and Friday matinees by prior arrangement for students and other groups. Tickets are $40; $35 for previews; $60, opening night; $36 for seniors and students (except opening night); with discounts for groups of ten or more.

There is a review and interview with Ms. Merrill in the Red Bank Orbit here. Tickets can be purchased online here.

Alice in the Boston Globe's daily bridge column today

Harlan Ellison's reading of Through the Looking-Glass nominated for Grammy

If you were previously unaware, there is a grammy award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children. The 2009 recording of Lewis Carroll's Though the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, read by writer Harlan Ellison, was nominated for that grammy, but lost out to Buck Howdy reading Aaaaah! Spooky, Scary Stories & Songs. Well, Mr. Ellison, a prolific and sometimes irreverent writer, has already won hundreds of awards (according to his website) including the San Francisco Chronicle's 1984 Most Attractive Male Writer, so he can afford to spread the wealth. The Blackstone Audiobooks TTLG is available on iTunes here, and where all fine Children's Spoken Word Albums are sold (list price for the audio CDs $33).

Kristian Scheiblecker's Lewis Carroll songs

A musician named Kristian Scheiblecker has written very pretty songs set to some of Lewis Carroll's 'non-nonsense' poetry. I do not know if they are to be released for sale in any format, but you can listen to a thirteen-track playlist of them (some labeled 'unfinished'), at his website journeys.se - which, even if it continues to evolve, already plays together nicely as an album. According to Jenny Woolf, he performed at the (UK) Lewis Carroll Society's December party at the Art Workers Guild in London. She reports:

This year, a couple of Swedish guys called Kristian Scheiblecker and Pontus Nilsson came specially to perform some songs based on Carroll's so-called "serious poems". They have been classically trained but the music was more like early Leonard Cohen to my ear. You could certainly imagine Kristian sitting there in his Victorian cottage in Sweden and composing the music in the dark winter nights.

To my surprise I found that Carroll's poems made terrific lyrics. Read purely as poetry, they are mostly rather banal. I was particularly impressed with "Only A Woman's Hair" which makes a most touching ballad.


"...and, as I touch that lock, strange visions throng
Upon my soul with dreamy grace-
Of woman's hair, the theme of poet's song
In every time and place. -

A child's bright tresses, by the breezes kissed
To sweet disorder as she flies,
Veiling, beneath a cloud of golden mist,
Flushed cheek and laughing eyes- -

Or fringing, like a shadow, raven-black,
The glory of a queen-like face-
Or from a gipsy's sunny brow tossed back
In wild and wanton grace...

...The eyes that loved it once no longer wake:
So lay it by with reverent care-
Touching it tenderly for sorrow's sake-
It is a woman's hair."

-quoted at length from jabberwock.co.uk/blog

Ms. Woolf compares his voice to Leonard Cohen, but it reminds me more of the Scottish Bard Robin Williamson, with fewer mordents. Scheibecker quotes Carroll scholar Edward Wakeling below the songs for an introduction to Carroll's non-nonsense poetry:

Camille Rose Garcia's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Camille Rose Garcia, an artist from L.A.'s lowbrow art movement, has illustrated Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Surely one of the most punk Alices to go underground, it was released on Groundhog Day, 2010. Below is a sketch posted on the blog Arrested Motion, but we look forward to seeing the finished product in beautiful hardcover, from Collins Design (list price $16).

Anyone for Lanrick?

"Curiouser and Curiouser: The Games and Mind Games of Lewis Carroll," an interactive exhibition of Lewis Carroll's games and puzzles opens today at The Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library.

From the Library:

The exhibition is drawn largely from the Flodden Heron Collection of Lewis Carroll materials in The Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Flodden W. Heron was an American bibliographer and collector of rare materials on Lewis Carroll. While this exhibition primarily coheres around Carroll's fascination with puzzles and games, the items also reflect Heron's own interests in the author, particularly Carroll's penchant for play and the nature of his relationship with Alice Liddell Hargreaves, the little girl for whom "Alice in Wonderland/"was first written and dedicated.

The University of Illinois owns Carroll's own chess and backgammon board--two pastimes he combined into an entirely original game called "Lanrick." Carroll preferred games of skill and logic over those of chance. His games sought to instruct, but never at the expense of amusement.

The Curiouser and Curiouser exhibition includes special "game tables" where visitors can try some of Carroll's puzzles and games, including Lanrick. Exhibition visitors can also try "mirror writing"--one of Carroll's favorite forms of correspondence. Children are encouraged to attend the five-week exhibition.

The exhibition concludes on March 5 with a Mad Hatter Tea Party for Young People.

"Curiouser and Curiouser: The Games and Mind Games of Lewis Carroll" at The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Library, 1408 W. Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL. from 2 February to March 5, 2010

Neat Alice Dust Jacket + Bookmark Design from Icoeye

A designer who specializes in icons, Igor “Rogix” Udushlivy, has a concept for dust jackets with matching bookmarks. "I wonder that it would be great if we can use dust jackets and bookmarks together to create a unique image of a paper book," he writes. "This idea can help to expand book’s space." The elegant design for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is pictured above, and there's dozens more at icoeye.com.

Alice in Dingleland - The Panto

Given plenty of money and a reliable seat cushion, I am relatively certain that a keen fan could see 365 different community theater productions of "Alice in Wonderland" this year. Amongst the ever-popular homages to the Disney film, it is always nice to hear of a production that takes a more local angle. "Alice In Dingleland" promises just that.


Dingle is a neighborhood of the English city of Liverpool. Liverpudlians, also known as Scousers, have a strong regional identity and an even stronger accent (think early Beatles).

Following on the success of their first pantomime "Cinderella and her American Fella," the Dingle Community Theatre, have created a "scousalized pantomime" version of Alice in Wonderland:

"Alice In Dingleland" follows the journey of ‘posh’ Alice as she is transformed into a true Scouser after following the white rabbit into the Williamson Tunnels.

Using local settings as our inspirations… Dickinson’s Dingle beauty spot, the Tunnels and Princes Park, we have encountered many characters such as the Scouse Mouse, Dave the Knave “I’m innocent, it’s a stitch up”, the militant gardeners, “you’re a name not a number”. The White Rabbit of course, and the double act that is the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, “Mad, Mad I’m fuming!”

"Alice In Dingleland" will be at the Unity Theatre, 1 Hope Place, Liverpool, L1 9BG, United Kingdom on the 16 and 17 February, 2010.

"Down the Rabbit Hole": Juried art exhibition in Bakersfield, California

Central Californian Carrollians and other art lovers should direct their GPS towards Bakersfield, California, for a juried exhibit of art inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice books. The Arts Council of Kern invite members and guests ($5) to the opening tonight (Friday, January 29th, 5:30 to 7:30pm) at the Younger Gallery, 1440 Truxtun Ave., Suite 105, in charming downtown Bakersfield. LCSNA member Tatiana Ianovskaia has had two of her paintings, "Court" (30"x 40", oil,canvas, $1850, ) and "Antipathies" ( 30"x24", acrylic, canvas , $1000 - pictured below and on her website here) chosen by the judge to be included. Also on display is Outside in Wonderland: "Artworks created by the members of the Outside In Visual Arts Workshop, a workshop for artists with developmental disabilities."

Chronological List of the Meetings of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America

Messrs. August A. Imholtz, Jr., and Mark Burstein, bigwigs of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, have prepared a useful digital book of the Chronological List of the Meetings of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, with details about Who Spoke About What and What Else Happened, from the inaugural meeting in Princeton, New Jersey, January 1974, thru the forthcoming April 2010 meeting at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia (that's right! where the Marianne Moore / Lewis Carroll installation by Sue Johnson is, blogged about here.)

The pdf of the Chronological List of the Meetings of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America is available here.

"Mad Hatter Card Party", painting by Leonard Filgate

This is a new painting (acrylic on canvas) by California-based artist Leonard Filgate, one of the creators of Rip Squeak. On his fineartamerica.com page, there are several ways to purchase the piece (and there's also a higher-quality image).

-A Giclée Print on either photo paper or canvas (upwards from $32)

-A 5"-by-7" customizable greeting card from $5.75

For a limited edition signed print ($500 plus shipping), or to purchase the original painting (36"-by-24", for $7,500) contact the artist thru his website filgateart.com.

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

I've seen some Alice-themed display tables at various bookstores recently (for instance, in the U.C. San Diego bookstore), and this new book Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin (mentioned in our post below about the USA Today article) is being prominently hawked. Whilst Disney revs up for 3-D Tim Burton spectacular, appealing to the ADD demographic, this new historical novel is marketed squarely at the book-club crowd. Narrated by Alice Hargreaves née Liddell in her octogenarian dotage, she remembers her life using a stylized semicolonoholic phony-Victorian voice:

So yes, I do get tired; tired of pretending to be Alice in Wonderland still, always. Although, it has been no easier being Alice Pleasance Hargreaves. Truly, I wonder; I have always wondered-----

Which is the real Alice, and which pretend?

Oh dear! I'm sounding like one of Mr. Dodgson's nonsense poems now. He was so clever at that sort of thing; much cleverer than I, who never had the patience, not then, not now.

Kudos for using the correct personal pronoun after the conjunction "than", but the result is sounding more British than the British. Apparently the book continues on long past her and her sisters' relationship with the strange, wonderful and affectionate Mr. Dodgson: thru Alice's relationship with Queen Victoria's hemophiliac son Prince Leopold, and into the lives of her own sons (one of whom is named Caryl.) The cover price is $25, available where all handsome new hardcover books are sold.

William Morris Society Calls for Papers

William Morris was a contemporary of Charles Dodgson, and a colleague in his fascination with medieval aesthetics in literature, art and design.

The William Morris Society has recently issued two calls for papers, which Carrollians may find of interest:

Useful & Beautiful: The Transatlantic Arts of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites
Conference at the Univesity of Delaware, Winterthur Museum and Delaware Art Museum
7–9 October 2010

"This conference will focus on the multitude of transatlantic exchanges that involved Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic movements of the late nineteenth century. We will invite papers that explore relationships and influences—whether personal, intellectual, political, or aesthetic—that connect William Morris, his friends, associates, and followers in Britain and Europe with their contemporaries and successors in the Americas..."

Call for Papers (PDF)
Proposals due 15 March 2010

"Morris and the Arts" and "Pre-Raphaleite Use of History"
William Morris Society sessions at the 2011 Modern Language Annual Convention, Los Angeles
5–9 January 2011

On the "Pre-Raphaleite Use of History": "This proposed collaborative session will examine aspects of Victorian historicism, especially neo-medievalism in painting, book design, poetry, romance narrative, translation and other genres. Papers might consider ways in which the Pre-Raphaelites and their associates and successors reshaped the works of Dante, Chaucer, Boccaccio, Froissart, the Icelandic sagas, Malory and other Arthurian sources for a middle-class Victorian audience..."

Call for Papers (website)
Proposals due 20 March 2010

Submission requirements for both events can be found on the William Morris Society website.

Alice Eats Wonderland: A Cookbook

Alice Eats Wonderland, "An Irreverent Annotated Cookbook Adventure," is available now. Authored by by LCSNA members August A. Imholtz, Jr. and Alison Tannenbaum - aka Baumholtz (we like portmanteau names) - the cookbook follows the twelve chapter format of AAIW, but this time Alice gets a bit more to eat than cake and biscuits.

Menu items include Stuffed Dormouse, Jugged Hare and Iguana Tamales, but fear not for your favorite animal characters! (or at least, fear less!), the publisher, Applewood Books, reassures us: "Although many of the characters seem, alas, to be transformed into edible dishes during the adventure, the story has a surprisingly happy ending."

We hear that Alice Eats Wonderland combines excerpts from the original text, scholarly notes and original illustrations with recipes to challenge, intrigue, and possibly upset, the most adventurous gastronome. Has anyone had a chance to sample the book? Has anyone jugged a hare? Please post your reviews and experiences in the comments below!

Alice Eats Wonderland is available at $14.95 per copy, plus shipping, from Applewood Books, 1 River Road, Carlisle, MA, 01741. Phone: 781-271-0055; e-mail: applewood@awb.com