I love Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland but I loathe how edgy subcultures have turned it into some one dimensional thing associated with psychedelics and other drugs.
Like, I wanna talk about the recurring presence of logic and mathematics, the cross language (primarily French) puns, I want to talk to people about their interpretations and thoughts but everyone’s so stuck on “haha yeah she’s on shrooms” like come on there’s so much going on don’t let it just be the easiest, weakest response, you’re smarter than that
It’s probably one of my favourite books and I have the exact same problem
My favourite take: Alice in Wonderland adaptations all all dysfunctional because both stories are a hellishamalgamation of victorian pop culture.
Turns of phrase, tourism in-jokes, children’s songs, academia at the time, popular figures in media, all of these are huge contributing factors to the characters and world of alice in wonderland/the looking glass. Reading the Annotated Alice is a trip and a half. Most of it isn’t actually nonsense, it’s an out-of-the-box joke on things most people when the book came out would have instantly recognized. They’re comedy pieces. Even as a modern reader it can get me to laugh, and the more I learn about what the time period was like when the book was released, the funnier it is. Caroll’s vicious deconstruction of mathematics was simply him cracking one one amongst many.
AiW adaptations are always going to be empty products unless you’re entirely willing to either double down on the time period or update it for modern times with commentary on things instantly recognizable to the modern audience.
AiW adaptations with modern settings are like “what if it’s a DYSTOPIA and the animals are all HUMAN and it’s DARK and FOR ADULTS” like…we still have animated movies starring animals? Kid media is more identifiable for the whole family than ever?? There’s a better way????? Turn the dancing mock turtle into a ninja turtle who paints masterpieces you cowards
I like this take.
So what you’re saying is that Alice in Wonderland is basically Victorian Shrek
Actually, yeah, kinda. There’s no real way to say, it’s never been fully explained by Charles Dodgson, it’s all truly interpretation. But in the way it’s written, I’d be willing to call it a literary version of Shrek. It has layers.
Contrariwise…imagine a Shrek remake, 100 years in the future, made dark and edgy and about drugs because of course the story is just about Shrek tripping his balls off on yttirbiumial, a space drug popular with young yttirbuists. Like, it’s soooo obviously about
yttirbiumial, like damn lmao. People back then really had no clue!
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters came out today, people would make human versions of ickis and krumm and ship them. Then Gábor Csupó would make a tweet calling krickis shippers weird and tumblr would tear him down for being a homophobe.
A not as popular ship would be Ickis/The Gromble, and the shippers would be accused of pedophilia and abuse apologism. Further complicating its status as a problematic ship would the the raging debate over whether The Gromble was positive queer representation who should be adored, or an evil stereotype who should be shunned, along with all the The Gromble stans.
when i was 12 i got banned from yahoo answers and when i emailed support to be like “what did i do??” i got a really vague answer that just said “you know what you did” and it still haunts me to this day
When I was 10 I was in a AOL chatroom for kids and we were all making this Homer Simpson face (8^(|) but this one girl Crystal forgot to put the nose in the face so I said “You forgot the nose crystal” and I immediately got booted offline and no one in my family could log on. My Mom talked to someone from AOL and they said I was trying to sell drugs to minors because I said “nose crystal”
When I was like 10 I roleplayed with people on Neopets, completely innocent stuff like ‘high school AU’ or ‘wolf AU’ and the like. I made a thread called ‘See the Sea Hotel’ and it went on for a few replies until I randomly got my account frozen and after explaining to my mom for a good 30 minutes that ‘frozen’ didn’t mean the computer wouldn’t respond, she got on to try and send an email to Neopets’ staff and they said that ‘hotel’ was a restricted word because it included ‘ho’ in it
I had a similar experience around that age with an online music game called Audition.
I said something like “Can I get the speed to 2x speed?” and it automatically changed my message to “Can I get the **** to **** ****?”, and a moderator saw that modified message and suspended my account for offensive language.
It turned out that I couldn’t say ‘speed’ because it had ‘pee’ in it, and I when I contacted support to say it was a mistake on their part and asked if I could be unsuspended, they said that I was also writing numbers, and writing numbers was strictly forbidden just in case they were a phone number.
I remember playing Phantasy Star Online back in like 2001 – it was one of the first console MMOs, if I remember correctly – and you didn’t get banned for saying “bad words”, but they did get censored. their list of inappropriate words was….extensive, and one in particular created a real problem for people trying to make plans to play together. because of course the most common day of the week to do that would be Saturday, right? but. that has the word “turd” in it. so. every time. you tried to say “do you want to play Saturday”. it would say. “do you want to play $%&@%#+%”. and the other person is just. sitting there. wondering. what the fuck did you just ask them to play
This is the greatest progression of events I have ever read, where’s my historical gay romance novel about this
KING JAMES, CAN YOU CHILL?
Local King Cannot Stop Promoting His Boyfriend
where’s the lush period drama about this series of events?
fun thing about king James, this guy was fairly public about his bf (more public than what was acceptable). He threw lots of extravagant parties with his man on his arm. It pissed off the church obviously so to get them off his back, he’s the one that ordered the third translation of the Bible from Hebrew to English (the King James Version aka the Authorized Version) so the Bible every hot blooded all American Christian reads today was literally just written so a very gay king could fuck his boyfriend in peace.
oh my god this is hilarious
“guys, guys. I know this looks kinda gay, and i promise i have a good explanation for all this, but have you considered… that jesus… is also gay? checkmate, heteros.”
Roses are red, that much is true, but violets are purple, not fucking blue.
I have been waiting for this post all my life.
They are indeed purple, But one thing you’ve missed: The concept of “purple” Didn’t always exist.
Some cultures lack names For a color, you see. Hence good old Homer And his “wine-dark sea.”
A usage so quaint, A phrasing so old, For verses of romance Is sheer fucking gold.
So roses are red. Violets once were called blue. I’m hugely pedantic But what else is new?
My friend you’re not wrong
About Homer’s wine-ey sea!
Colours are a matter
Of cultural contingency;
Words are in flux
And meanings they drift
But the word purple
You’ve given short shrift.
The concept of purple,
My friends, is old
And refers to a pigment
once precious as gold.
By crushing up molluscs
From the wine-dark sea
You make a dye:
Imperial decree
Meant that in Rome,
to wear purpura
was a privilege reserved
For only the emperor!
The word ‘purple’,
for clothes so fancy,
Entered English
By the ninth century
.
Why then are voilets
Not purple in song?
The dye from this mollusc,
known for so long
Is almost magenta;
More red than blue.
The concept of purple
is old, and yet new.
The dye is red,
So this might be true:
Roses are purple
And violets are blue
.
While this song makes me merry, Tyrian purple dyes many a hue From magenta to berry And a true purple too.
But fun as it is to watch this poetic race The answer is staring you right in the face: Roses are red and violets are blue Because nothing fucking rhymes with purple.
Hirple – To limp or walk awkwardly
Cirple – An old Scots word for the hindquarters of a horse
callanswall 