Clara in Blunderland

From Wikipedia:

Clara in Blunderland is a novel by Caroline Lewis (pseudonym for Edward Harold Begbie, J. Stafford Ransome, and M. H. Temple), written in 1902 and published by William Heinemann of London. It is a political parody of Lewis Carroll's two books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The book was followed a year later with a sequel, Lost in Blunderland.

It is critical of the Second Boer War in which Clara represents Leader of the House of Commons Arthur Balfour. A number of other notable British politicians are identified in the book. The Red Queen is Joseph Chamberlain, the Duchess is Robert Cecil, Crumpty-Bumpty is Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Walrus is William Vernon Harcourt, the Dalmeny Cat is Archibald Philip Primrose, and the Caterpillar is a young Winston Churchill.

The book features 40 drawings after the originals by John Tenniel which were drawn by journalist J. Stafford Ransome, credited as "S.R.".

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The full text of the book is available on Google Books.

Alice Tattoos

Inspired by contrariwise.org (itself a Lewis Carroll reference!), here are a few pictures of Alice-in-Wonderland-themed tattoos!

From contrariwise.org

From contrariwise.org

 From tattoootto.com

From hollyazzara.com

To see more Alice-themed tattoos, check out contrariwise.com's Lewis Carroll tag!

Record Tripping

A fun flash game uses a record of the first few chapters of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a predominant component of the game.  It also features many cute storybook animals!  Play it at Recordtripping.com.

Frame Game

This one is pretty easy, but one of our favorite books was featured in USA Weekend's frame game this week!

There is another children's book featured this week, check out their site.

 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Stickfiguratively Speaking) by Jamison Odone

I just heard about this new book that came out in March, haven't gotten my hands on it, but would be interested to know what other think.  It looks really fun, maybe a bit sassier than Carroll's, but from the Amazon preview, Alice's speech seems to be the same.  Here are some pictures via the web and screen shots from the preview, I like the composition of the text and images on the page, less of a separation between picture and book!

You can read the author/illustrator's blog at Jamison Odone's Wordpress.

Alice in Vogue

In the December 2003 issue of Vogue magazine, Annie Leibovitz shot an editorial featuring Natalia Vodianova as Alice with various designers as Wonderland characters.

 

The designers are: Nicolas Ghesquiere, Olivier Theyskens, Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, John Paul Gaultier, Viktor and Rolf, Christian Lacroix, John Galliano, Donatella Versace.

I particularly like the black and white image with Alice and Dodgson!

Futterwack or Futterwacken, Mad Hatter's Dance

Spoiler alert!

There is a high quality version of the Mad Hatter's dance from Burton's film available on YouTube. It seemed to be a highlight among the children in the audience when I went to see it.

Photographs of the "real" Alice

With the Disney and now Tim Burton films, and even the colored Tenniel drawings, it can be surprising to know that the "real" Alice -- Alice Liddell -- was a brunette.  She is the girl child friend of Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll who asked for the story that told the tale of Wonderland. 

She has a Wikipedia page if you are interested in a introductory biography!

The first few are by Charles Dodgson himself, who was an avid photographer (I will post more on this later).

Dodgson was keen on making narrative photos, and here Alice posed as a beggar child:

Dodgson was also fond of Alice's two sisters, who are referenced in the All in the Golden Afternoon poem as Prima and Tertia (Alice being Secunda).  He photographer the three together:

Julia Margaret Cameron, a contemporary photographer, also photographed Alice, though now she is in her early 20s.  This photograph is entitled "Pomona":

This photograph is titled "Alethea":

By this photograph, Alice is married to Reginald Hargreaves, whom she married at 28 years of age:

And here is a newspaper clipping with accompanying photograph announcing Alice's death:

The Original Alice in Wonderland film

 Watch the film via theauteurs

Alice in Wonderland (1903), the first-ever film version of Lewis Carroll’s tale, has recently been restored by the BFI National Archive and premiered at a celebration of the history of the classic story at the British Library.

Made just 37 years after the novel’s publication and eight years after the birth of cinema, the first film adaptation was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, and was based on Sir John Tenniel’s original illustrations. Hepworth cast his wife as the Red Queen, and he himself appears as the Frog Footman. His production secretary May Clark played Alice, and even the family cat and dog got in on the act. The cat played the Cheshire Cat, and the dog would go on to become the first authentic British film star (canine or otherwise) to have his name in the credit of a film when he headlined the pioneering chase film Rescued By Rover in 1905.

Although originally running just 12 minutes, Alice in Wonderland was the longest film produced in England at that time and represented a major investment for the pioneering Hepworth Studios. However, despite its historical importance, it was almost lost for good, and just one incomplete print is known to survive. —BFI National Archive

How To Do Things With Words And Other Materials

On Thursday, I participated in at art exhibit here in New York, "How To Do Things With Words And Other Materials," in conjunction with a conference on Eve Sedgwick titled Spanking and Poetry.

My art book was influenced largely by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, as well as some other texts, language study and New York City. Here is an image of the installed piece (click pictures to enlarge):

You can see my entire book at Mirawunder.com.

I was not the only piece inspired by Alice, though! Annie Cranstoun showed "Climb Me," An Alice in Wonderland Jacob's Ladder. Here are images of her piece:

 

 

I really liked her use of an actual mirror!

Also of interest was this altered The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe book: