Alice's Adventures in Wonderland-part 3

"Cheshire-Puss," she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. "Come, it's pleased so far," thought Alice, and she went on. "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 much care 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."

So true! If you don't have an ending goal or desired result in mind, there is no way you can choose the wrong path. In this part of the book, at the very least, I feel like the cat is the only source of reason. And that is what I like the most about the Cheshire cat--the character who is a talking animal that can appear and disappear at will, relocate to other locations in a flash, and make only parts of his body appear in thin air is the only character in the book worth listening to.

...replied Alice; "and I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy!"

"All right," said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.

So, I finished Alice in Wonderland. I really was interested in the details from the book that contributed to continuity among film versions. One example I noticed was the queen's croquet game. In both the Tim Burton version as well as Disney's animated version, the mallets were flamingos and the balls were hedgehogs. This detail did indeed show up in the book. Another detail that I thought Disney may have taken liberties with, but was actually in the book was the painting the roses red part. Being unfamiliar with Carroll's story until this point, I wasn't sure how much of these films were people's interpretations influencing each other vs. how much was actually included in Carroll's writing. However, I was confused when I got to the end of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and I had not yet met Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They do show up in "Through the Looking Glass," which I am currently reading.

Burton's version, although it uses many characters from Carroll's two books, does not follow the storyline much at all, save for the key-table-eat me-drink me part from chapter 1. However, the plot in the Burton version seemed much more cohesive than Disney's animated version. Before reading the book, I though that perhaps Disney was in a strange stage with its movies and perhaps having disjointed scenes was part of the style. However, each chapter in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" as well as "Through the Looking Glass" tells about a new place or person that Alice met. However, there is not really much of a story in "Wonderland" besides Alice looking for a white rabbit and exploring. I was interested in the book because I wanted to see what would happen to Alice next, or who she would meet, but as far as a plot driving the story forward, there is not one that stands out in my mind.

I am not enjoying "Through the Looking Glass" as much as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" although it is answering my questions about characters I did not encounter in the first book (the Tweedles, the singing flowers) and things I knew were coming (Walrus and the Carpenter, the Jabberwocky). I'm on chapter 5 of that one now, with about 70 pages to go.

One last quote from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

"Every thing's got a moral, if only you can find it"
-spoken by the Duchess

I love this quote as well because if you really look for it, you can find a moral or reason for everything. I guess there is a lot of truth in this book that is embedded and spoken by mad people and thus disregarded by the reader due to the character's mental state.

Next up: THE HOBBIT