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As I mentioned in my last post, I just spent two weeks in England, and of course on the top of my list of places to see was Oxford, birthplace of Alice in Wonderland. Right off the bat when we arrived in the city, we started seeing Alice references:
Then we began our Alice tour in earnest. We visited Folly Bridge, where Lewis Carroll and the Liddell girls set off on their boat ride down the Isis that fateful day, and Carroll began spinning the tale of Wonderland.
We stopped at Alice’s Shop, a wonderland of souvenirs set in the very same shop that Alice used to visit when she lived there, the inspiration for the Sheep Shop in Through the Looking Glass.
And then we went across the street to Christchurch College, where Lewis Carroll (under his real name, Charles Dodgson) studied and taught, and where he first met Alice, the daughter of the dean, Henry Liddell. Guided by a booklet we picked up at Alice’s Shop, we toured the campus and found many Alice-related things.
a very Alice-looking door in the garden wall
Tom Quad – Alice walked through this frequently
door to the Deanery
statue of Henry Liddell
Christchurch Cathedral, stained glass designed by Edward Burne-Jones, the Binsey Treacle Well (a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, inspiration for the treacle well in the book)
Christchurch Cathedral, stained glass designed by Burne-Jones and made by William Morris, memorial for Alice’s sister Edith who died tragically on the day of her engagement announcement – the central figure is St. Catherine, but is said to resemble Edith
The dining hall at Christchurch College (also the inspiration for the dining hall in the Harry Potter movies) – setting for the rest of the following photos
portrait of Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll
these strange figures in the fireplace are said to be the inspiration for the scene in the book when Alice’s neck grows very long (and the bird cries “Serpent!”)
stained glass in the dining hall featuring Wonderland characters
stained glass with portraits of Carroll and Alice
The next day, I got my long-awaited Alice-themed tattoo. After mulling over many possibilities in the months beforehand – including some of the Tenniel illustrations of my favorite scenes, and even some of Carroll’s own illustrations of the characters – I finally decided on just a simple bit of text (as I’ve got text tattoos for my other favorite stories). To encapsulate the Girls Underground theme, I chose “Down, down, down” – obviously from Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole – written in Lewis Carroll’s own handwriting from the original Alice’s Adventures Under Ground manuscript, along the curve of my ankle.
The tattoo shop I chose just happened to be across the street from Christchurch College, and the studio was on the second floor, so as I had his words tattooed on me forever, I got to look out over the buildings Lewis Carroll himself lived and worked in. It was pretty amazing. Here it is:
And a scan of the original text:
And thus completes my Alice adventure in Oxford.
While I came up with the concept of Girls Underground, I certainly am not the first person to notice similarities between some of these stories. Especially between any of them and Alice in Wonderland (which may account for the high number of Alice references in GU books – consciously or unconsciously, the authors know what type of story they’re telling). Here’s a great visual examination of some of the parallels between the movie Labyrinth and Disney’s Alice (via Fuck Yeah, Labyrinth). It’s quite remarkable.
I’ve talked about Alice Days several times here before – my annual festival of all things Alice in Wonderland. Just wanted to note that I have now put all the information about celebrating this holiday on the Girls Underground site right here (and linked to on the left sidebar), for those who might want to take up the tradition. You won’t regret it!
Alice Day is almost here again! To celebrate the day Alice went down the rabbit hole, I always set aside a few days to watch Alice movies, dress up, make Alice-related culinary concoctions, and live in a state of non-stop intoxication. The association between Alice and altered states of consciousness is pretty old, for obvious reasons (DRINK ME). Many people associate the fly agaric mushroom with the stories, but it was never actually depicted specifically in the original illustrations of the caterpillar. In any case, here are a few animated gifs which mash up Disney Alice frames with popular intoxicants (attribution unknown).
As long-time readers know, for ten years now I’ve been celebrating my self-invented holiday extravaganza, Alice Days. But while I may sometimes take it to a level of insanity few others would dare, there are many other people having Alice-themed parties – especially now that the Tim Burton movie has renewed general interest in Alice. To view some of these creative events, see this post from A Fanciful Twist – in the comments, readers are invited to share links to their own mad tea parties, and many do! Some of my favorite photos:
From “Tea in Wonderland” at Ms. Misantropia
From “Down the Rabbit Hole” at Life is a Beautiful Place to Be
From “Welcome to the Mad Tea Party” at The Doll and the Pea
From “The Mad Tea Party! – My Wonderland Wedding” at Pabkins’ Attention Deficit Crafting
And finally, from the original post at A Fanciful Twist
While neither Carroll’s or Tenniel’s original illustrations depict it as such, it has often been imagined that the caterpillar’s mushroom from Alice in Wonderland was an Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric.
I’ve been personally very interested in A. muscaria for years, and have just started up a side project documenting its many appearances in modern Western culture. Go have a look.
It’s November 4, the day that Alice stepped through the looking glass (exactly six months after she went down the rabbit hole). To celebrate, a quick round-up of all the Alice-related posts on this blog so far:
Alice Days – a recap of my annual Alice holiday
Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland – a review of the movie upon its premiere
Alice Miscellany – random stuff related to Alice
Other Alice Books – “sequels” and other literary nods
Television Episodes – with Alice themes
Alice Tattoos – still plotting my own…
Alice Attractions – places to go, things to do
Alice Art – from a variety of artists
Movies – all the film versions of the stories
Music – inspired by the books
My original post on the books as a Girls Underground example – the second post ever on this blog
Perhaps, just maybe, I’m a wee bit obsessed.
I just discovered a clever, entertaining webcomic called Cheshire Crossing. It tells the story of Alice, Dorothy and Wendy meeting in what they think is yet another mental institution (they’ve all been diagnosed with dissociative disorders), getting to know each other and their powers (because the ability to visit places like Oz and Neverland isn’t just an accident, it’s a special gift). They end up crossing between their respective otherworlds several times, encountering each other’s adversaries and companions.
Unfortunately, it seems to be on hold for now, but there are four issues to read for free on the website.
(Interestingly, this isn’t the only comic-style meeting of these three characters, as they are the stars of Alan Moore’s Lost Girls graphic novel, although that is perhaps aimed at a more, ahem, mature audience.)
As an aside, I found this via the tvtropes page for “Down the Rabbit Hole” which not only covers many GU plot points and examples, but links to my Girls Underground website!
Last night I ventured out for the midnight premiere showing of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland movie. I dressed up a little – nothing over-the-top, just all my subtle Alice accoutrements – but there were a lot of people there in full costume, as well as a local vintage shop doing a whole production including an amazing White Rabbit suit. They even led a raffle based on our ticket stubs and I won an Alice wristwatch!
Well I didn’t get home until around 3am so I’m a little groggy right now, but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this movie. Don’t get me wrong, I expected to enjoy myself, considering that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman were involved, among others, and it is Alice after all. And I knew the special effects and 3D would be great. But I wasn’t getting my hopes up about anything else.
I will start with the caveat that there were a few things I could have lived without in this movie, the foremost of which was the “real world” set up and conclusion. It was a bit heavy-handed about its message (know who you are, live your life for yourself, etc.) when that same message was conveyed perfectly well in the Wonderland part of the movie. I just didn’t feel that it added anything. However, that’s a fairly negligible percentage of the entire film, and I’ll just focus on the good parts.
First of all, they did a great job with the effects, as expected, and the tumble down the rabbit hole was instantly one of my all-time favorites. I wish he’d taken it a little slower overall, but it was still a great ride, with lots of detail and a real feeling of being underground, roots and all. The transitional effects when Alice grows and shrinks were done seamlessly, and I like how they addressed the issue of her constantly growing too small or large for her clothes.
But the best part for me came when we arrived at the mad tea party. A combination of great writing and excellent comedic timing and inflection on the part of the actors (most of whom were voice actors) made for one of the best tea party scenes I’ve ever scene. It managed to be silly, menacing, bizarre, hilarious and creepy all at once, which is no small feat, but a perfect mixture for that tableau. Depp’s Mad Hatter had these wild eyes with differently-sized pupils that added an extra touch of insanity to his entire demeanor. I also appreciated that Burton had him occasionally go into a very dark place with his moods and behavior, and then bounce back to silliness again.
The acting really stood out in this. I’ve seen a lot of Alice movies, and sometimes it feels that the actors are just going through the motions, given such familiar material, but this cast really made the characters their own. Rickman as the Caterpillar, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat (which was extremely well voiced and animated), Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, all very impressive.
I find it interesting that it often happens that someone will adapt a classic Girls Underground story like Alice or Oz, and in the process of changing and adding things to make it their own, will actually end up with even more Girls Underground elements than the original. This was definitely the case here. The constant questioning of her identity (and if she was “the right Alice”), the way she had to battle the monster to save the kingdom, the rescue of the imprisoned Hatter, these are all more in line with Girls Underground than the actual book, which doesn’t have nearly as much dramatic tension and action. I know there were a few lines in particular that really resonated with me at the time, but I guess I’m going to have to go see it again (soon!) to jot those down, as this time I was too fully engrossed and then too tired to recall.
Overall, I’d say this registers as one of my top five Alice movies so far, the others being those by Jan Svankmajer, Jonathan Miller, John Henderson and Lou Bunin (if Henson studios had done an entire feature film rather than just a few scenes for Dreamchild, I’m sure that would have been included in the list too). I’m sure it will be fantastic on regular film too, but go see it in 3D at least once in the theatre to get the full intended effect. You can even make a mini Alice Day out of it – we certainly did!
I know, I know, I said seven days, but I still have the rest of today to wait to see the new movie (I’ll be going at midnight!), so I thought I’d put together a post of all the things that didn’t fit anywhere else. So without further ado, a bunch of neat Alice links…
Courtesy of Youtube:
Low-budget short film by Davies Films with a fantastic night-time tea party scene
Another short film by “Women in Motion” with Alice and friends in the subway
Vintage commercial featuring Alice selling Jell-O
Alice montage made with Sims
American McGee’s Alice videogame intro
1970′s anti-drug Alice-themed after school special
Stuff!
Alice in Wonderland Yahtzee
Alice in Wonderland 500-piece puzzle
Alice in Wonderland playing cards with different quotes and illustrations on each card, making them an ideal impromptu oracular system (which I use during Alice Days)!
Alice tea set by Cardew (I have this whole set, it’s gorgeous)
Alice clocks that run backwards!
Eat Me Drink Me salt and pepper shakers (I have these)
Alice in Wonderland chess set
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland miniature dollhouse book
Alice pillowcases from Urban Outfitters (they also have a nice line of glasses)
Cheshire Cat mug – the cat, minus his smile, disappears when you fill it with hot water (I bought one of these recently, but I actually owned one as a child too – I remember these types of mugs being popular back then)
Alice in Wonderland: An Interactive Adventure – this website provides hours of fun
Lenny’s Alice in Wonderland site – one of the best out there
I’ll report back tomorrow on the Burton film. So excited!
