Week 11 Essay

Alice in Wonderland and Drugs

Alice in Wonderland poster. Image Information.

A lot of people I know like to say that Alice in Wonderland is all about drugs or at least that Lewis Carroll was on a lot of drugs when he wrote it. Personally, I think that is taking a great piece of work and reducing it to something lesser. It is a shame when someone takes something that an artist has worked on very hard and they say, "well I could've done that too if I was that high." It is said so much that a lot of people think you need drugs to "expand your mind," or to be truly creative. 

The book was written about 150 years ago, but that does not mean there were not drugs. However, the drugs then were opiates and were not generally hallucinogens. I know that everything in this story is like you are "trippin," at least from what I have been told, but the intention of the book was to recreate the overactive imagination of a child. I think I get overly protective of the story because when I was little, the stories and places that I came up with while playing were way weirder than Wonderland.

My favorite game was one called mirror land and I would jump through this old, rusty frame of a large mirror to be transported there. Basically everything was backwards there, so I had a different name, a different family, and there were different rules of physics. The rules of physics were broken via trampoline. At some point, I decided you must also talk backwards, and to this day, I can say entire sentences completely backwards almost as fast as I can say them forward. Of course there are different rules of pronunciation when talking backward, but they can be learned.

I understand that it may be a possibility that the author was high. And I know that the candy makes her grow or shrink. In fact, after changing shapes so many different times, she has an identity crisis because she says that there is no way she can be the same person she was before she changed size so many times. The part about the mushrooms also having weird effects, like making her neck so long that she is basically a snake and gets attacked by birds in the air, definitely points to something weird going on. If you wanted to make this into a story about the consequences of drugs, it would not be difficult. But to me, you are taking a very innocent piece of art and making it into something very bad. 

So, the fact that kids can actually think of awesome worlds and stories on their own means that everyone is creative at some point in their life, and I believe that saying things like, "he must've been so high when he wrote that," limits your own creativity.

Full Story.

Storytelling Week 11

A Mad Starbucks Chai Tea Latte Party
Alice was sure she was lost in the forest, but the Cheshire Cat told her that this was the right way to get to a party. Suddenly, she heard an outburst of intense laughter that simultaneously reminded her of a wild dog and a squeaking mouse. When the source of the noise came into view, she discovered a mouse, a rabbit, and a man with a very large hat. She assumed the man to be "The Mad Hatter," and the rabbit to be "The Mad Hare," but no one had mentioned the giant mouse. It did not seem very important at the moment, considering he was asleep.
She waited for a lull in the laughter to politely ask if she may take a seat at the table, but the cackling remained constant. Finally, she decided to sit down and talk over the laughter, saying "Hello, how do you do? May I join your tea party?" Much to her surprise, the laughter quickly came to a halt and the hatter stared at her with a surprised look in his eye. Just as quickly as the laughter had stopped, it started again. Alice could not help but chuckle a little herself, being in such an odd situation.
"My dear," said the hatter, "this is not a tea party. No no no no no, this is so much more than just tea! This is a Starbucks, and we have every drink imaginable and there are endless combinations to the extras you can put into your drink!" Alice just looked at the man, knowing that his nickname had been know joke and that he was indeed quite mad. "But what else is there to drink, sir?" asked Alice so very politely. "WHAT ELSE? WHAT ELSE? this young woman must be educated! Hare, go get the specialty!" The hatter yelled out some more orders to the hare, but Alice did not understand a single word of it.
After a presentation on the different categories of drinks that the hatter could make, including cappuccinos, lattes, coffees, iced coffees, frappuccinos, espressos, and about ten types of tea, he asked Alice what she would like to drink. She hesitated and responded, "hmm, I believe I will just have some plain, English tea, sir." Quickly, the hatter snapped back at her, "Nope. See, I have spent all my days trying to find the perfect drink for girls like you, and I have finally perfected it. HARE, bring in the orangey gooey one!"
The hare quickly ran over to Alice with a large cup filled with a frothy liquid that had an odd, orange tint but a very sweet smell. With the hatter watching intently, she took a sip. Then, she took another sip, and a gulp, and another and another until the entire cup was gone. "Wow!" proclaimed Alice, "that was the best drink I have ever tasted! What do you call it?"
The Mad Hatter leaned over to the hare and then said, "well, we were debating on the final name, but we have decided to call it 'The Pumpkin Spice Latte.'"

Official Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks website. Info here.

Author's Note: This is clearly based off of the Mad Tea Party section of Alice in Wonderland, but I decided that if Alice heard the hatter and the hare talking about all the different things on a Starbucks menu, she would assume it was gibberish and that they were crazy. The pumpkin spice latte also needed an origin story.


Bibliography: Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. "The Mad Tea-Party." 1865.


Read the original.

Week 11 Reading Diary: Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

Down the Rabbit Hole
-Everyone is quite familiar with these stories from the movies and because the books are so popular.
-As she falls to Wonderland, she takes time to ponder things like being polite to people walking on their heads and how to tell if she is in Australia without rudely asking.
-Her thinking about politeness and the length to the center of the earth at the same time is to point out how some of the stuff she is learning about she finds silly.
-The ridiculous height of the fall and the gentle way she lands shows that this is fantasy, and now would just be accepted in a children's book, but Carroll was the first to create this "nonsensical" kind of plot.
-"very few things were really impossible."

Advice from a Caterpillar
-The caterpillar may be my favorite character.
-People always try to say that this is about drugs and this is one of the parts that they say the characters do drugs. People are dumb.
-He is smoking and contradicting everything she says or is thinking about
-"Father William"
-She ponders whether she is the same or if her experiences have changed who she is as a person

Pig and Pepper
-Frog butlers and THE Cheshire cat
-Baby pig
-Cat in the tree
-"you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

A Mad Tea Party
-Pretty ridiculous conversations
-They're the kind of mad that is amusing and not harmful
-Alice seems not to understand when to ignore what they say and when to take them seriously

The Queen's Croquet Grounds
-Off with her head!
-Flamingos and Hedgehogs
-The king and queen are some of the most memorable characters from these stories.
-They may be how many of the public thought of many of the nobles: dumb and quick to kill.
-She may be bloody mary but I think she is just a generic, bad queen

Who Stole the Tarts?
-Court of law, wonderland style.
-basically, nothing works
-And then it's all a dream


Read the story here.