Lord Macbeth
12-31-2010, 06:12 AM
This time, after we've had that initial Dante/Milton Battle of Hell and then a three-way battle between Faulkner, Proust, and Joyce for period supremacy, I'm returning to to textual theme and tone as the subject of our bout...
Namley: Caricaturized Social Commentary.
New Years Eve, a time for lots of fun and excitement, and also a time when all the social classes and kinds of people mingle.
It's ALSO a time of craziness. ;)
And what better purveyours of crazy worlds and social commentary than Lewis Carroll and his Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (most versions of Caroll's work features both works together as they are really companion pieces, so I've decided to follow that example and keep them together), Jonathan Swift and Gulliver's Travels, and Norton Juster and one of the first books I ever truly loved as a little kid, The Phantom Tollbooth?
All three utilized caricatures-as-characters and strange locales to give social commentary about the world around them, from the Mad Hatter, Liliputians, and the Humbug to Dictionopolis, Brobdingnag, and Wonderland.
So:
Which characters, locales, text and author win the title this time?
(And is it worth noting that I'm suddenly in the mood for tea?) ;)
Namley: Caricaturized Social Commentary.
New Years Eve, a time for lots of fun and excitement, and also a time when all the social classes and kinds of people mingle.
It's ALSO a time of craziness. ;)
And what better purveyours of crazy worlds and social commentary than Lewis Carroll and his Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (most versions of Caroll's work features both works together as they are really companion pieces, so I've decided to follow that example and keep them together), Jonathan Swift and Gulliver's Travels, and Norton Juster and one of the first books I ever truly loved as a little kid, The Phantom Tollbooth?
All three utilized caricatures-as-characters and strange locales to give social commentary about the world around them, from the Mad Hatter, Liliputians, and the Humbug to Dictionopolis, Brobdingnag, and Wonderland.
So:
Which characters, locales, text and author win the title this time?
(And is it worth noting that I'm suddenly in the mood for tea?) ;)