The 'Wonderfully Weird' Tales of 'Alice'

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Posted on May 26, 2016

Alice Jackson

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Millions of 鈥淎lice in Wonderland鈥� fans are expected to jam movie theaters this weekend after Friday鈥檚 premiere of Disney鈥檚 鈥淎lice Through the Looking Glass,鈥� the latest of almost 40 鈥淎lice鈥� movies and cartoons made for either the big screen or television. According to a University of South Alabama expert on the Victorian trilogy, fan interest may result from more than beloved memories of a childhood favorite.

In the second book of the series, Alice steps through the Looking Glass to check up on her friends in the Wonderland of her first adventure, but she finds a very different and topsy-turvy world from her first journey.

鈥淭he excitement of Lewis Carroll鈥檚 eccentric fairy tales lies in their inexhaustible ability to surprise,鈥� said Dr. Cris Hollingsworth, an associate professor of English and expert on 19th century British literature, who has published extensively on aspects of both Carroll and his "Alice" trilogy. His research has produced 鈥淚mprovising Spaces: Victorian Photography, Carrollian Narrative, and Modern Collage,鈥� 鈥淭he World as Wonderland: A Spatial Perspective on Lewis Carroll鈥檚 Alice Books鈥� and 鈥淗.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, and Scientific Wonderland,鈥� among others.

Hollingsworth talked recently about Carroll, the trilogy and how Hollywood鈥檚 portrayal may differ from our childhood memories:

What was there about Lewis Carroll and the Alice trilogy that drew you to study them?

I have a childhood memory of looking at the Alice books and liking the illustrations, but not much more. It wasn鈥檛 until graduate school that I can say I finally discovered Carroll, finding his Alice books wonderfully weird and puzzling. The books simply demand attention. To me at least, they are among the most unique, interesting and influential short works written in modern English. The Victorians enjoyed literary fairy tales, and writers such as John Ruskin, William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens admired and wrote them. But, Carroll鈥檚 are different because they are more like scrapbooks or collections of fragments than coherent narratives. And, I became interested in the myth of Carroll too. In his lifetime, and for several generations after, he was viewed as an eccentric, but harmless and lovable, figure. It鈥檚 interesting and instructive to observe how, over the course of the 20th century, Carroll鈥檚 reputation and his invented worlds progressively darken, in some respects becoming sexualized.

Have you seen any of the previous 鈥淎lice in Wonderland鈥� movies? If so, what was your opinion of Hollywood鈥檚 take on these stories? 

 

I鈥檝e seen some of the earlier Alice movies, but not the newest ones. From the previews of the latest, I gather that these new "Alice" films are visually impressive but deviate considerably from the books. In order to make his 1951 animated "Alice" movie, Walt Disney, too, had to strike a path away from Carroll鈥檚 tales. I don鈥檛 think Carroll鈥檚 books lend themselves to the plot-driven adventures many viewers are used to. Despite all the wonderful contingencies and chance and coincidences and mysteries and unknowns of everyday life, most people insist that movies follow a formula, usually some sort of moral equation. Carroll felt that such moralism in children鈥檚 books is boring, the opposite of the fun that children should be having.          

The first 鈥淎lice in Wonderland鈥� movie, a silent film that ran eight minutes, was released in 1903. Since then, Hollywood has churned out almost 40 versions, either for the big screen or television. In 2010, producer Tim Burton鈥檚 version was so successful it made more than $1 billion worldwide. What is the public鈥檚 ongoing fascination with the 鈥淎lice in Wonderland鈥� trilogy?

I鈥檝e taught Carroll off and on for much of my professional life, and it鈥檚 my impression that particular features of the "Alice" stories are well known, but that the books are not much read anymore. For one thing, Carroll鈥檚 a difficult writer. Most children don鈥檛 wish to puzzle over complex parodies and paradoxes. But enjoying the "Alice" books or, for that matter, any other book, for its best moments is quite human. And when culture absorbs a story 鈥� especially a complex story 鈥� it simplifies and cherry picks. Look at Cervantes鈥檚 鈥淒on Quixote鈥� and Defoe鈥檚 鈥淩obinson Crusoe.鈥� Like the sea and its storms working on a wreck, culture and time break up and wear down to a few defining episodes the grandest monuments of literature. A perfectly natural process! And some of this work is done when a literary classic is translated into the terms of a different medium, as when a book is made into a film.

James Bobin, producer of the new 鈥淎lice Through the Looking Glass,鈥� has said Carroll 鈥渨asn鈥檛 really interested in telling an exciting story,鈥� and admitted in a recent interview that he took tremendous liberties with this film鈥檚 script. For example, there鈥檚 a new character called 鈥淭ime,鈥� and Alice gets into trouble when she 鈥渂orrows鈥� his spinning globe, the Chronosphere. What role, if any, did 鈥渢ime鈥� play in Carroll鈥檚 original story?

Bobin must have a pretty conventional notion of what an 鈥渆xciting story is鈥� because to this day Carroll鈥檚 Alice challenges us with a type of narrative that singularly violates rules, customs and expectations. For me, the excitement of Carroll鈥檚 eccentric fairy tales lies in their inexhaustible ability to surprise. Carroll uses the power of episodic narrative to break up and make something new 鈥� a kind of a collage 鈥� of a number of genres, including but not limited to the fairy tale, the dream journey and Menippean satire. (Menippean satire, usually in prose, has a length and structure similar to a novel and is characterized by attacking mental attitudes rather than specific individuals or entities.) Time in the "Alice" books? If one understands the books to be imitations of dreams, then Wonderland time is distinct from real time, and dream-time is inconsistent, potentially variable even within episodes. Like space and causation, time in the "Alice" books is the servant of surprise. At times, Carroll can be opaque or bookish or even tedious. But before you know it, all of a sudden, quite by surprise, the totally unexpected happens!

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