Intro #
Who hasn’t heard Alice in Wonderland and the adventures she had there? It feels as if everyone has heard of her if I go off of the references to the book in our culture. I haven’t read the sequel, “Through the Looking Glass”, but I will.
I had always thought of reading this story but motivation was always lacking, until I was in the town of and Gloucester, MA and found an amazing bookstore with friendly staff that made my friends and I enjoy our time there. If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend it. Gloucester, MA is also known for it’s whale watching. I recommend that as well. Make sure to take friends with you! It’ll be a great time.
Favorite Quotes #
I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night?
Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning?
…
But if I’m not the same, the next question is,
‘Who in the world am I?’
…
I’ll try if I know all the things I used to know.
Sometimes, even without going to bed I change all at once!
Have you ever had that? Suddenly the power of knowledge and understanding strikes me and I wonder who I have been all that time until that point. So much so, that I have to go back and revisit all that I thought I knew and rebuild myself all over again.
Whether it is painful or fun when this happens is entirely up to circumstance. The fun version is preferable, but the pain version is unavoidable.
“Would you tell me please which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t care much where–” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“–so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
Oh wow! Isn’t that the truth. If I don’t know what I’m aiming at in life, then what does it matter what I do? These are two very hard questions I try to answer:
- What is it that I want to achieve?
- What kind of person must I be to get there?
And finally, will I look down on myself for what I’ve done once I get there?
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
This is a quote that my late Sensei Steve Gottwirt would enjoy. All of us that studied martial arts and stayed in the practice even after the hurt and pain must have been at least a little mad.
Well, dear reader, what mad spaces are you inhabiting?
“You’re thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can’t tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in a bit.”
A funny enough quote coming from the Duchess in the book. She spouts off odd wise sounding adages but always forgets the moral of each one. That is probably for the best, we can take what she says to mean whatever we want.
For me, it reminds me that to stay silent for too long means to risk those around you not knowing what you hold inside.
Coincidences in Culture #
I’m not that attentive to culture and that makes me positive that references to Wonderland abound even though I could not perceive them before. Here are references I’ve noticed both before reading the book and after reading it.
Going Down The Rabbit Hole #
Let’s not go down a rabbit hole.
I went into a rabbit hole.
That’s the top one that comes to mind that I hear most often, primarily at work. In the beginning of the book Alice falls into a rabbit hole. She falls for so long down this rabbit hole that she has time to take a nap and time enough for more besides the nap.
Movie: The Matrix #
The matrix references the rabbit hole when Neo is given the pills by Morpheus.
Anime: Sword Art Online - Alicization #
Sword Art Online is on Netflix and I highly recommend it. The 3rd season is the Alicization arc and it involves a character named Alice that becomes a knight. The intrigue about this one is that there are those that want to pull Alice out of the rabbit hole she is in.
Anime: Fate/EXTRA Last Encore #
I’m definitely a fan of the Fate series and in Fate/EXTRA Last Encore there is a character based off of Alice, albeit a disfigured anime version.
Adventure: Alice in Wonderland Escape Room #
Whether it’s due to coincidence or to the nefarious spying of the internet matters very little to me. After finishing the book this escape room experience popped up into my Facebook feed almost immediately.
I will definitely be participating in it. Good job internet. You keep winning.
Movie: Sucker Punch by Zack Snyder #
This whole movie seems like a trip into Wonderland that is undertaken by the main character and her supporting cast. In the movie there are scenes where she is dressed in what is culturally identified as Alice’s sky blue dress.
Song: White Rabbit by Emiliana Torrini #
One pill makes you larger
One pill makes you small
This song, aside from being featured during the Sucker Punch film mentioned above, also has lyrics that directly reference different parts of the book. The lyrics above reference how Alice changes in size many times throughout the book.
Listen to it #
- Youtube Video of when it plays in the movie
- Amazon Music
- Spotify
Song: ¿Quién soy? by Alice Wonder (Spanish) #
I was listening to a randomized playlist on Amazon and heard this come up in my stream of music. My ears perked up from the get go.
¿Quién soy? Otra vez igual
Lo sabía de pequeña, creo que ya no sé na'
Who am I? Same question again.
I knew when I was little but now I’m not sure
It reminds me of part of the first favorite quote I put up.
Listen to it #
Song: Alice by Matthew Parker #
I heard this song years ago and now it has added depth to it even though I knew when I first heard it that it was tied to the book in some way.
Listen to it #
Bar: The Mad Hatter #
I visited Washington, D.C. to visit a friend not more than 1 month after I finished the book. He told me he’d take me to a bar and that I should just go with the flow. I didn’t want to go initially but once there I was glad to have gone.
Smiling Like A Cheshire-Cat #
The iconic disappearing Cheshire-Cat has a smile that can appear out of thin air without a body. It’s a wide grin indeed and I’ve heard it used to cheesily describe the way someone might smile with glee.
According to Wikipedia, though the book popularized the Cheshire-Cat in general, the association between the cat and grinning was around before the book.
