Alice in Wonderland

Without the pressure of having to have a new scene ready for the Richmond Writers' Circle for the next couple of weeks, while I'm in Australia, I am letting my tendency to procrastination take hold. In the meantime here are some thought of one of my main characters. It will be clear, early in the story, that my Alice has much to do with Lewis Carroll's. I didn't want to base her on Alice Liddell - undoubtedly the ordinal Alice. Notwithstanding Alice Liddell's appearance in Phillip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series, she would have been too restrictive a character for my purposes. In point of fact there were at least three Alice's among Carroll's child friends. To be candid I haven't fully worked out how my Alice fits in yet. Tidying up such things may well have to wait until a rewrite.

In the meantime, here are some versions of Alice that have influenced my thinking.

Let's start with Alice from the story. Here she is, blonde fair, blue dress, as we all have thought of her from the Tenniel drawings or Disney. Someone once said that ,to make her story sound Freudian, you merely had to tell it. She comes across to me as candid and direct - qualities that I have tried to preserve in my story. It is she who will ask the innocent but penetrating question. She is also quite fearless.






I could fill up pages of this blog with Tenniel drawings but I'll restrict myself to just this one. Playing cards are a recurrent these in my story so this seems appropriate











Here is the Disney version. Already Alice seems to be getting a bit older. I saw this movie as a child and must have been captivated by it because it never left my head.

If a little girl wants to be Alice on her birthday, this is the costume.

To prove that the dress does not always have to be blue, here is the 1985 American movie. I don't doubt that it will be reviled by Alice purists. I quite enjoyed it though. Certainly it didn't give me the heebie jeebies nearly as much as the recent Tim Burton film - of which more later. In this scene, by the way, Alice is a queen, having made it to the eighth rank of the chess board. This is something that will get a reference in my story.,

Here by contrast to all of the about is the original Alice - Alice Liddell. You can see why this pic inevitably raises an eyebrow, Nevertheless, it seems that this would not have be en the case from the viewpoint of Victorian sensibilities. In any event, anything that cause THAT kind of raised eyebrow is omitted from my story.

It has always stuck in my mind that Alice Liddell, who grew up to marry a cricketer of some renown, had two sons. They were both killed in the first world war. That is part of how I see the Edwardian era ripped apart. That will perhaps be another story although I shall have to finish this one first.

I hope I make it clear in the first chapter that it is not Alice |Liddell I am writing about.

Of course, there are now a vast number of illustrations of Alice. I chap I knew who had a stall at a Sydney Saturday market specialised in versions of Alice. There are many many of them.  The illustration here is one of a countless number.

Here, so I can dismiss it quickly, is the Tim Burton Alice. Its good points were simply overwhelmed by its total lack of empathy with its subject.

 Here, of far more interest to me is the Alice from Jonathan Miller's 1966 television play. This had a profound impact on me. It envisages Carroll's book as a satire on Victorian Society. This is a completely different Alice figure - close to but no quite reaching womanhood. This what Miller said -
 "Once you take the animal heads off, you begin to see what it's all about. A small child, surrounded by hurrying, worried people, thinking 'Is that what being grown up is like?'" Miller's 'child' is of course not small. She is much more a rather sulky teenager. She is a hub around which eccentrics revolve.



Here is another shot from the same play.  I strongly advise anyone to see it.

Aside from its own virtues I think this Alice is closer to what I want than others. I still don't have a clear picture of my Alice in my mind. I don't really yet have a completely clear character as I would want it to be.  I still have much work to do on that. It is always fun to play the game of which actress would I like to be playing the part. More of that in another post.