(Written by Lewis Carroll.) A curious little girl sees a white rabbit with a waistcoat and watch hurry by her and promptly decides to follow him. She tumbles down an amazing rabbit hole with bookshelves and all sorts of things lining the sides, taking absolute ages to get the bottom. Then, well, you know the rest...
Considering that this book or its sequel are mentioned in dozens of movies and books from The Matrix to Regina Doman's Black as Night, I was rather surprised at its simplicity. Though many people have read all sorts of double meanings and dark underlying themes into this book, I found it to be a children's story at heart.
The biggest connection I made was one that Lewis Carroll may or may not have intended: Alice's conversations with the different animals and other creatures in Wonderland are remarkably similar to conversations in academia. No one will give a straight answer, and many people tend to change the courses of conversations so that they don't actually lose even when they're in the wrong. What started out as a debate about one thing can very often (I might even say almost always) morph into a debate about something else - a distraction. When the losing person realizes that he or she is even losing the distracting argument, the subject is changed once again. That can be every bit as frustrating as Alice's attempts to have intelligent conversations with the creatures in Wonderland.
I realize that people have written miles and miles of words about this book and its sequel (complete with distracting arguments), but I don't really see that it contains a meaning much deeper than any other coming of age story. However, like many other surreal or fantastic (as in fantasy) classic books, people have felt the need to dissect it over and over again. I say they should just curl up with a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in one hand and a cup of hot chocolate in the other and leave their dissecting tools in the cupboard for a little while. Alice needs no deeper meanings to be enjoyed.
My Rating: AGC
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