The more I learn about Lewis Carroll, the more I am amazed by his wonderful creativity and coupled with his extremely logical, math-oriented mind. One does not often see these two opposite characteristics in one person. For example, I knew that Carroll liked to make up his own words and definitions as part of his quest to add logic to the world, but I just recently learned that he coined “chortle” and “galumphing” which are now standard English words. Even more fascinating, is that Lewis Carroll coined the term “portmanteau”, as in portmanteau words, meaning words that are made from two or more other words. Carroll wrote the words “slithy” meaning lithe and slimy, as well as “mimsy” meaning flimsy and miserable, seen in the poem Jabberwocky. These words were so-called because of how Humpty Dumpty described them as being like the piece of furniture the portmanteau, which is two pieces in one. Although he didn’t coin them himself, Lewis Carroll is responsible for words like smog, spork, and sexting!

This website has some amazing ceramics with John Tenniel’s illustrations from the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland printed on them. I loved the illustrations that Tenniel created for the story, and I think that they look absolutely beautiful on these dishes too! I was surprised to find these, as I feel like the original illustrations, along with the original story, have really become lost to the modern world with so many recreations and adaptations. It is lovely to see the beautiful artwork available in this timeless fashion.

When I was in middle school I had a friend with an older sister who would often play a computer game called “American McGee’s Alice”, and I remember thinking it was the scariest and coolest thing I had ever seen. This game from the early 2000’s is based on Alice in Wonderland, but it is really a completely backwards version of the already backwards Wonderland of Lewis Carroll’s imagination. In this corrupt version of Alice, she has grown up and has spent several years in an insane asylum following the death of her parents in a house fire, and has subsequently become twisted and deranged. After leaving the asylum she finds herself back in Wonderland, which is now just as dark and demented as she is being that it is her own dream manifestation. The player of the game has to navigate many obstacles involving killing Wonderland creatures in the macabre version of Alice in Wonderland. As a preteen I thought that this game was extremely cool, and I somehow thought that it must be more like the original story than the Disney version, not having read the original story. Now I just think that this game is a very strange perversion of a wonderful story that doesn’t need to be manipulated to be made more interesting or provocative. Also, I read that this game was the predominant inspiration for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” from 2010 rather than the original story. Here is a trailer for the “backwards Wonderland”:

This popular song from the 1960’s has an interesting take on Lewis Carroll’s classic story. Because of the popularity of drug culture in the sixties and the video’s definite psychedelic feel, Jefferson Airplane appeared to be using imagery from Alice in Wonderland to create a song and video that simulated an acid trip. I like this song very much, but now that I know the “real” Alice I know that the lyrics of this song are a manipulation of the original story from the 1800’s, long before the invention of such psychedelic drugs as acid. These are the lyrics:

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall
Tell ’em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “off with her head!”
Remember what the dormouse said;
“Keep your head”

It is very interesting to see the use of the events in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a vignette of drug use. Jefferson Airplane talks about taking pills, which Alice does not do, and they allude to taking “some kind of mushroom”, both of which are drug references that were not in the original Alice. Basically, the lyrics of this song are saying, if you’ve taken drugs and are experiencing a trip in which you chase rabbits and encounter hookah-smoking caterpillars, then go talk to Alice, because she’s done those drugs before and knows all about that trip.

One of the things that stood out to me as I worked on my final paper was the way Wilde comes full circle in regards to the painting of Dorian.  When Basil first finishes the painting, Dorian grows despondent after realizing that, while the Dorian in the painting will remain young and beautiful forever, he will not.  Basil, upon seeing his friend’s sadness, decides that the painting, though his finest work, is not worth as much as his friendship, and takes up a knife, planning to destroy the painting.  Dorian stops him, crying, “‘It would be murder!'” (Wilde 30).  Basil stops, and eventually, the painting ends up in Dorian’s hands.

By the end of the novel, Dorian is again despondent, because he realizes what a terrible person he’s been.  He goes to the room with the painting, and using the knife he used to murder Basil, stabs the painting.  In doing so, the painting is restored to its original beauty, and Dorian is transformed into the person that was depicted in the painting.  As it was the image of the aged Dorian that was stabbed, the living Dorian is now dead, by his own hand.  It is ironic, because, had Dorian let Basil destroy the painting, it would not have been actual murder, and both of them would have probably lived.