Alice Lutwidge in the Gentleman Rankers

In my story, Alice is in her late teens and an orphan. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lutwidge, his mother's maiden name) was her guardian but has been dead for six years at the beginning of the story. His self portrait is to the left.

 Alice is one of the four members of the Kensington Gore Croquet Club. She has a small private income, She lives with Gwendolyn Darling (who is fabulously wealthy) in a large mansion in South Kensington. She has occasional flashbacks to the events of the two Alice stories but can never quite be sure how real they were - if at all.

My present thinking of how she might look is coloured by how Reese Witherspoon looked in the movie of The Importance of Being Ernest.

I think she makes a good Alice.

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.

Chapter 1 Scene 2

I've put Chapter 1 Scene 2 onto Google drive. It should be found here

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17-XrUibuA5vdcrasfd6eTw8omYcyF3ACl1p_xTvEsVk/edit

Bear in mind that is the one I read to the Richmond Writers' Circle back in February  All these drafts will probably get substantial revision come the rewrites. (If |I manage to stick with it, of course.)

Story plot structure

As I plough on I become more conscious that it will become harder and harder to harness all the various plot elements. (As Roger at the Richmond Writers' Circle predicted.) I can't say I am too worried at this stage. My first rewrite will aim to tie up all the loose ends. Nevertheless I don't want too many of them. 

Inevitably, the way I started meant that problems would arise. I started writing mostly because Yvonne suggested I should join a writers' group and I thought that if I were going to, I should try and write something. At the time I was reading 'Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art' by Lewis Hyde and I wanted to do something with this and so Ludens was born in my mind. At the same time I have always been fascinated by 1904 as so much that was to change the world seem to occur then. Also the words 'gentlemen rankers' had been in my mind for many years and I thought it might make a good story along the lines of MacDonald Fraser's Flashman. (The former, if not the latter, being a hero of mine. 

By contrast origin of the Ladies of the Kensington Gore Croquet Club totally baffles me. It seem to start with the bicycle and after that they lust elbowed their way into the story. There was nothing I could do. So trying to harness all these elements poses a problem or two. I believe yet that I can manage it. Mind you, I'm not sure how.

A pen name

Perhaps I should have a pen name.  Favourite would be something beginning with Q. That should get placed on the Sci-Fi and fantasy shelves somewhere between and close to JK Rowling and Terry Pratchett. :).  Ok I know there soon won't be any more shelves.

The Master of Dover Castle / Oneshovel

I often think of this character as Charles Laughton or Alastair Sim. The wheelchair is there partially because it offered some steampunk opportunities and partially to emphasise his infirmity. But more truthfully a big influence was the wicked town mayor in Rango which I had recently seen.

Too long a sleeper

Absolute disaster! I thought I'd arrived at my keyboard at 7.30, after a half hour  struggle to get out of bed. Then I realised it was past nine and two hours writing were lost forever, Hell! I bet that never happened to terry Pratchett,