Still She Haunts Me, Phantomwise
Nov. 28th, 2023 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo It's my considered opinion that Alice in Wonderland is the greatest novel of the 19th century.
I've just read the Alice books back to back. I used to prefer Looking-Glass and now I prefer Wonderland. For all it's melacholy, Wonderland is a sunny book, free-flowing, the work of a creator who isn't having to think too hard about what's coming next, whereas Looking- Glass is choppier, more structured, more philosophical. Of course I still like both of them very much. I think the shift has come about because I'm a less serious person now than I used to be.
Wonderland is summer. Looking-glass is winter.
More precisely, Wonderland is July, Looking-Glass is November. We know it's November because Alice has looked out the window and seen the boys building a bonfire. Rather surprisingly there's snow on the ground. Snow in Oxford in early November- is that still something that could happen?
One thing I'd forgotten is how chatty and teasing the narrator's voice is in Wonderland- as if still interacting with those three children in that boat on the river. This is reined back in Looking-Glass, now that the children have grown up and are less vivdly present to the writer's imagination....
I've just read the Alice books back to back. I used to prefer Looking-Glass and now I prefer Wonderland. For all it's melacholy, Wonderland is a sunny book, free-flowing, the work of a creator who isn't having to think too hard about what's coming next, whereas Looking- Glass is choppier, more structured, more philosophical. Of course I still like both of them very much. I think the shift has come about because I'm a less serious person now than I used to be.
Wonderland is summer. Looking-glass is winter.
More precisely, Wonderland is July, Looking-Glass is November. We know it's November because Alice has looked out the window and seen the boys building a bonfire. Rather surprisingly there's snow on the ground. Snow in Oxford in early November- is that still something that could happen?
One thing I'd forgotten is how chatty and teasing the narrator's voice is in Wonderland- as if still interacting with those three children in that boat on the river. This is reined back in Looking-Glass, now that the children have grown up and are less vivdly present to the writer's imagination....
