Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
"But it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."
I never knew literary nonsense could be a genre.
I couldn't tell whether I like this book or not because I did not develop any particular feelings when I was reading it. I read the comment published in the book before I started reading the story.
"It is considered to be one of the most characteristic examples of the genre of literary nonsense."
I shouldn't have read the comment because after I knew it is a great pile of nonsense I have prejudiced views against the book!
I enjoyed the first half of the book until I reached the part where the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon were singing about a stupid game.
Well, of course, I like some of the adventures Alice had, especially the tea party and the garden; I don't think it was horrible, but a bit too bizarre for my liking. Moreover, I thought to myself, Lewis Carroll might be on drugs when he was writing this book.
In fact, the big pile of nonsense (92 pages of nonsense) was quite difficult for me to get through because nothing makes sense. No conflicts, no climax. Half the time I didn't understand the dialogues the characters shared. Either this novel is complete brilliance or my reading experience isn't as sophisticated as other reader to grasp the utter nonsense (or brilliance).
I tried to imagine and found myself re-reading paragraphs to search for underlying meaning (isn't this what everyone does when it comes to reading classic?), only to discover there wasn't one.
Most of all, Alice was so annoying. *haha* But I like her nonetheless. I know it's ridiculous to say this but she was quite adorable when she was annoyed, frustrated and when she was showing off her 'knowledge' (ignorance, in fact).
However, I realise that, the characters in the 'wonderland', for example, the Queen, the Duchess, the Caterpillar etc were quite cruel and mean, or of no use, like the Mad Hatter.
I did some research online and I was astonished when I found out some readers suggested that the scene where the Caterpillar smoking a hookah and talking to Alice indicated pedophiliac obsession with young girls.
HOW?!?! How can this scene be suggesting such obsession when it was Alice who talked to the Caterpillar first?!?! I understand it might have hinted drug addiction but pedophiliac obsession?!
No way Jose. I think these readers might have gotten too far to suggest such a reference. At the end of the day, it's a children storybook. Stop making in-depth yet useless or pretentious analysis over the story.
The animated film of Alice in Wonderland is my all-time favourite. I watched the movie before I read the book. For once, I choose the film adaptation over its original book.
Thanks to the movie, as I felt like I was being reunited with my old friends when I was reading the book, though the movie is very different from the book. For example, the scene where the flowers singing for Alice (favourite scene of all) was created only in the movie.
After all, I will not stop anyone from reading this book even though I'm not particularly fond of this book. Perhaps, you will see this story in a different way than mine.
Rating: ★
Comments