June '10 Reading: Alice in Wonderland

[Scheherazade]

In June, we will be reading Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Please post comments and questions in this thread.

[Nightshade]

Hey Im reading this now anyway!! :D :banana:

[victorianfan]

I must say I'm completely in love with this story. I can't remember the last time I read something as interesting and amusing as this. I'm completely enchanted with:

The Caterpillar


The Cheshire Cat

and finally The Hatter (my favorite) and his companion The March Hare

I love the language, the absurdity.

As for the Queen of Hearts, my favorite remark these days when I'm annoyed with or about something is: OFF WITH YOUR/HIS/HER/THEIR HEAD!!!

I take my hat off to the author. :thumbsup:

[rabid reader]

Easily my favourite part:


'Really, now you ask me,' said Alice, very much confused, 'I don't think - '

'Then you shouldn't talk,' said the Hatter.

[Janine]

Oh wow, I have to find the book and would love to read it with you. Maybe my library has it. I am going there today. This should be fun!

Edit: actually I forgot to look for it at my library, but found it in Librivox; the audio recording is quite good. I will enjoy listening to it. I downloaded it right to my iTunes file....easy. You can get the text on the site as well.

[Sirkka]

Oh wow, I have to find the book and would love to read it with you. Maybe my library has it. I am going there today. This should be fun!

Edit: actually I forgot to look for it at my library, but found it in Librivox; the audio recording is quite good. I will enjoy listening to it. I downloaded it right to my iTunes file....easy. You can get the text on the site as well.

Look at Project Gutenberg.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11


Did I mention, that I love that crazy cat?
http://www.funcoast.com/files/story/images/cheshire-cat-4.jpg

[Janine]

Look at Project Gutenberg.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11


Actually, Sirkka, I think the two sites are connected. I was happy to find the audio version since I am a bit summer lazy right now. I will put it on an MP3 device and listen to it chapter by chapter. Project Guttenberg site is an excellent site with much to offer.

Cool think is on Librivox it gives you choices and one was to have it directly added to my iTunes library as a subscription.

[dfloyd]

'Through the Looking Glass'. Sometimes these two are bound together, sometimes as two volumes, but they should be read one after the other. Also, the 1933 movie (b&W) with a host of 30s stars is soon to be available on dvd. Be sure the copy you're reading has the original John Tenniel illustrations which are a classics unto themselves.

Here's some trivia: The Limited Editions Club published both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass with the Tenniel illustrations redrawn. these were published in the 30s with Wonderland bound in red morrocan leather and Looking Glass in Blue. Subscribers were offered to have the books signed by the original Alice for whom Lewis Carroll wrote them. By this time Alice was an old lady. She wasn't up to the task of signing all the publication of 1500 copies. An extremely low fee was charged for the signature, less than $10.00 I believe. I don't think any of the sequel 'Looking Glass' was signed. In 1933, the book with signature was about $20 A copy recently sold for over $5,000.

[Sirkka]

Actually, Sirkka, I think the two sites are connected. I was happy to find the audio version since I am a bit summer lazy right now. I will put it on an MP3 device and listen to it chapter by chapter. Project Guttenberg site is an excellent site with much to offer.

Cool think is on Librivox it gives you choices and one was to have it directly added to my iTunes library as a subscription.

You are right, Librivox uses the texts of Project Gutenberg. They have a partnership. I like Project Gutenberg, because you can find a lot of free texts there, if you need them quickly, you can get them instantly and also for your mobile phone.

edit: I have a few audiobooks by Librivox, but Alice is missing, I think, I should download it. =)

[springsteen]

Oh I've just bought this to add to my ever-expanding "to read" pile, I will bump it up to top priority for this! (: I got the Penguin Classics version with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, plus illustrations!

[Tarvaa]

I am reading this in Japanese, as I try to improve my ability of the language. I have an elementary school level book. I hope I can add to the conversation despite the language difference.

[dfloyd]

Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did Gyre and Gimble in the wabe ....

[stlukesguild]

Oooh! Another book I would love to read again as part of an online discussion. The Alice books have long been favorites and I have toyed for some time with the idea of finding a way of building upon this theme in my own artwork. Of course I'm also involved with Dante at the same time... which might make for some interesting crossovers... down the rabbit hole into... the Inferno!:reddevil::yikes:

[Nikhar]

Ok.. I'm just into the third chapter and I'm already finding it hilllaaarious. :D

The mouse reciting a dry story to dry their wet bodies!:lol:

edit:-


‘Mine is a long and a sad tale!’ said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and
sighing.
‘It IS a long tail, certainly,’ said Alice, looking down with wonder at the
Mouse’s tail; ‘but why do you call it sad?’


‘Then you should say what you mean,’ the March Hare went on.
‘I do,’ Alice hastily replied; ‘at least–at least I mean what I say–that’s
the same thing, you know.’
‘Not the same thing a bit!’ said the Hatter. ‘You might just as well say
that “I see what I eat” is the same thing as “I eat what I see”!’

Oh man...what nonsense... and yet so awesumm!

:lol:


‘That’s the reason they’re called lessons,’ the Gryphon remarked: ‘because
they lessen from day to day.’ :goof:

[Nikhar]

Just finished it. It was small and sweet and fun and nonsense. :p

And the last paragraph is so beautiful. :)

[Shakira]

Last time I read Alice in Wonderland was in school. I recently saw the movie and was thinking to put it in my to-read-next list. I guess now would be a good time to start reading it and probably will discuss it here.

[MUMUKSHA]

Loved it

[TurquoiseSunset]

Ah man, there's so much to read!!!

I'm currently busy with Inferno and The Shadow of the Wind...the moment I finish Inferno I'll move on to this!

[TurquoiseSunset]

I'm starting it today!!

[StreetStyleCat]

Just lately have read both Alice-books (also "Through The Looking Glass And What Alice Found There"). As a fan of british humour I loved them, I mean Carroll's absurd and sarcasm are actually pretty similar to "Big Train" or "Little Britain", only more stylish and decent!

Some people actually do have such style conversations:

„There might be some sense of knocking,” the Footman went on without attending to her, „if we had the door between us. For instance, if you were inside, you might knock, and I could let you out, you know.”

[applepie]

Still reading away on Alice. I was trying to read it with my kids, but I think I'll have to finish it myself and work through it more slowly with my little ones. They seem to like it, but it is pretty long for them and we can't finish it in one night of bed time stories.

[TurquoiseSunset]

I finished it last night and, well, I think I was expecting more than I got... Not that it was bad, but it I remember it being much better when I was younger :)

I'd recommend it though!

[applepie]

I have to agree Turquoise :) It was much better when I was a kid, but there are still parts that made me laugh. I love the idea of the mouse telling a dry story to get them all dry after being in the water.

[kasie]

Has anyone on the Forum ever studied formal Logic, either in Philosophy or as a branch of Mathematics? I ask because 'Lewis Carroll' in real life as Charles Dodgson was an eminent mathematician - I feel, reading Alice as an adult that many of the surrealistic situations are examples of problems in Logic (the incident quoted above with the footman being just one) and I was wondering if anyone had any expertise in reading Alice and Through the Looking Glass in this light. Has anyone come across any critical works written in this light? I'm not sure I would understand all the formal Logic but I'm sure there is an unexplored element here.

[TurquoiseSunset]

Has anyone on the Forum ever studied formal Logic, either in Philosophy or as a branch of Mathematics? I ask because 'Lewis Carroll' in real life as Charles Dodgson was an eminent mathematician - I feel, reading Alice as an adult that many of the surrealistic situations are examples of problems in Logic (the incident quoted above with the footman being just one) and I was wondering if anyone had any expertise in reading Alice and Through the Looking Glass in this light. Has anyone come across any critical works written in this light? I'm not sure I would understand all the formal Logic but I'm sure there is an unexplored element here.

Well, actually if you go look on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland) alone you'll find a few examples of how he incorporated mathematics and riddles, etc. I don't know/remember similar works although there probably are :)

[kasie]

Thanks for the link, Turquoise S - I belong to the generation that turns automatically to the printed page so I rarely, if ever, think of looking at Wikipedia. The entry was in line with the sort of thing I had been thinking. The thought of Carroll/Dodgson going around playing with these ideas in his head makes me think he must have been rather good company: I've met engineers with a quirky sense of humour based on their main area of expertise but the mathematicians I've met have been rather serious. I wonder if part of the appeal of the company of children for Dodgson was their acceptance of his bizarre humour which was perhaps regarded as somewhat infra dig for a professor by adults? Just a speculation.

[TurquoiseSunset]

Thanks for the link, Turquoise S - I belong to the generation that turns automatically to the printed page so I rarely, if ever, think of looking at Wikipedia. The entry was in line with the sort of thing I had been thinking. The thought of Carroll/Dodgson going around playing with these ideas in his head makes me think he must have been rather good company: I've met engineers with a quirky sense of humour based on their main area of expertise but the mathematicians I've met have been rather serious. I wonder if part of the appeal of the company of children for Dodgson was their acceptance of his bizarre humour which was perhaps regarded as somewhat infra dig for a professor by adults? Just a speculation.

Well, I don't know any mathematicians, but the engineers I know are quite sharp :) As for Carroll, well there's always been a bit of a debate as to why he liked children, etc. (click on his name in the Wiki article I gave you, it's all there) Who knows... Either way I think he understood the way kids think and children's stories were the perfect medium for him to work in his riddles, logic and hidden jokes.