Some newer visitors may not realize that this blog is named after my favorite book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’ve been a Carrollian (yeah, that is what we obsessed call ourselves) for a long, long time. I teach the book yearly (am reading it aloud to my class right now, it so happens.) And so I am getting quite a kick out of the current Alice frenzy due to the Tim Burton film opening tomorrow. My Lewis Carroll Society pals are getting quoted all over the place, Barnes & Noble’s got big displays of various editions, and now I see the 1903 film is getting some welcome attention. So let me contribute to this mini-frenzy with a few tidbits of my own:
- TextArc is described on their website as “a visual representation of a text — the entire text (twice!) on a single page. A funny combination of an index, concordance, and summary; it uses the viewer’s eyes to help undercover meaning.” I should add their Alice is also mesmerizing and very, very pretty.
- A man of his time, Lewis Carroll wrote letters. Loads of them. And some of them are very clever. Say this one. (Click it for a larger and clearer image.)
- Alice is like catnip for illustrators; they all seem to want to try their hand at it. One of the latest to try his hand at it is Robert Ingpen. And does so very well, I think.
- As for film, there are all sorts of adaptations and variations. Here’s favorite of mine, and possibly not as familiar as some:
educating alice 