Leaving Wonderland

Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.

-The Duchess to Alice

Tonight, I completed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. My head hurts. HAHA. I feel as though this is about the craziest book I have ever read. Of course it is easy to understand, but at the same time it is not. I cannot imagine a child trying to swim through the pages of this classic. The above quote is a good representation of a lot of the text. The book is full of rhymes, riddles, tongue-twisters and odd (I mean ODD) poems. Obviously, if you have seen the movie, nothing does make sense. In fact, one of the most used words in the book by Alice is 'nonsense;' she also says 'queer' a lot. hmm.

The book needs a companion guide and about a thousand accompanying notes and that is what it came with. So many sentences have a superscripted number for plenty of explanation. It is nice to read those annotated notes to understand what Carroll was envisioning whilst writing this absolutely intriguing piece of literature. Normally, I think such absurd grammatical and syntactical conventions (as used by Carroll) in the text would turn me away from a book. But, the fact that I know this book is supposed to be poking fun at Victorian writing, it does not bother me. Plus, I understand. Everything is quirky. Alice is confused as Hell just as the reader.

In the second half of the book, Alice comes across an array of talking animals, most famous the hookah (but we really know it is MJ) smoking caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat. Of course we are introduced to the March Hare, the Mad Hatter and the sleepy doormouse. Her last encounter with the crazies is the Queen of Hearts. What a ridiculous woman. "Off with her/his/its/their head(s)!" She knows no other speech than this and everyone be damned if they do something off kilter in front of her...which seems to defy the whole book because everything is wacky.

Alice spends most of her time shrinking and growing and shrinking and growing, etc. She also pisses off a lot of uber sensative animals and creatures. Everyone is menopausal, especially the Queen. The Cheshire Cat is about the only sensible creature in this nonsensical world (even though he disappears).

Favorite quote: "Really, now you ask me," said Alice, very much confused, "I don't think-"
"Then you shouldn't talk," said the Hatter."
Everyone is so hateful. SCHADENFREUDE.

My favorite moment is when the Queen's executioner is told to chop off the head of the Cheshire Cat. They cannot decide how they are going to behead a disembodied head. The Queen says that if they cannot figure something out, the entire court will be beheaded. The Queen's bitchiness reminds me of a former co-worker.


So, there you have it. Alice is finished for now. Through the Looking-Glass is the next installment, but I am not going to read it right now. I need to go to therapy first and then I can read it.

Overall, it was enjoyable. It was definitely an escape from reality. I don't know how many people I would recommend this book to, though...not because it was bad but because it was schizophrenic. It was nice listening to Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretal while reading it today at the gym. I feel like the fairy tale music went well with the nonsense.

Since I am finished reading the first Alice, I am going to read a "C" Newbery Award Medal winner. The book I am going to start tomorrow is Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. Details will follow and will be on tomorrow night's blog. You will get book and author info. Sorry for the short notice!

I did join goodreads.com tonight. You should definitely check it out. I hope I can get it attached to my blog as a widget. Ok! Off to bed! :) Gap at 7AM.