Carroll always on the cutting edge of technology

While putting together my recent book, The Place of Lewis Carroll in Children's Literature, it became from Tim Burton's 2010 Alice in Wonderlandinteresting to note how Carroll was fascinated with new technologies as well as how often his works were adapted to new technologies as well.  So it's not surprising that Tim Burton's upcoming film, Alice in Wonderland, is also at the heart  of controversy with latest of film technology -- 3-D.  Alice's imaginative appeal often dovetails with new technology.

Many Hollywood observers are wondering if 3D Alice will kick out 3D Avatar, the runaway 3D success? In addition, film distributors in the U.K., and now the U.S. are upset that Disney is planning to release the Alice DVD releatively quickly after the film release.  Disney is trying to figure out how to capitalize on the success of the film by shortening the theatrical release.  But owners of theaters want their projection window to be as big as it can be.  Again, it's the very current issue of watching films in theaters (expensive) or at home (not quite as expensive).  Lewis Carroll holding a camera lens. He was one of the earliest amateur photographers in England.

Carroll, of course, was an amazing photographer at a time when photography was just beginning to become popular.  Carroll must have liked that it required lots of equipment, experimenting with chemicals and formulas, and the knowledge of know how to work it all together.  But he must have appreciated the theatricality of it as well -- look at how he staged many of the people in his photographs.  Staging photographs would have particularly helped the children focus but it also is a way to imitate theater, which he liked.  Photography was developed in 1839 and by the 1850s Carroll was an accomplished amateur photographer.  He is considered, with Julia Margaret Cameron, one of the best nineteeth-century photographers of children.

When Carroll published the Alice books, he pushed the envelope for printing and publishing. He wanted a book that would fit the size of children's hands.  He was very specific on the size and color of the binding to appeal to children.  He wanted the words and text to work together because, as he wrote, "What is the use of a book without pictures?"  And in later editions, he asked for the book to have paper covers (a book jacket) and to advertise his other works.  He was one of three people who independently came up with the concept of a book jacket.White Rabbit in a video game from Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland

Carroll often had characters in his books who were tinkers, people who experimented with different technologies to see what would happen.  Subsequently, tinkers have liked Carroll's books and re-imagined them in new media.  Alice has appeared in films since nearly the beginning, was early to be animated and has appeared in numerous video games and new media re-adaptions.  There's a whole chapter about these adapations in my book.  And Alice just keeps adapting.  Still, I think the original is the best.

Lewis Carroll's annotator

While teaching Alice's Adventures in Wonderland this week in ENG 370: History of Children's Literature, I am Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition (Norton, 1999)encouraging the students to read an interview I did with Martin Gardner (link is to .pdf).  Gardner is, in many ways, a modern twin to Lewis Carroll.  He's a mathematician, puzzle-maker as well as a story teller and magician.  The interview that I wrote for Five Owls, a periodical on children's literature, focused on Gardner's classic books: The Annotated Alice, More Annotated Alice, and Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition.

In the interview, Gardner revealed that he didn't initially like the Alice books because when he was young he found them scary.  When he was in his 20s and a mathematician, he picked up Alice's Adventures because he was familiar with Carroll as a mathematician.  Curiously, Gardner, like Carroll, also became famous for writing puzzles and math games for children.  Gardner also wrote a famous, long-running column for Scientific American and is the author of more than 70 books, including some fantasies for children.  And was a genuinely nice person to interview.

Added March 2:  Entertainment Weekly as a piece about Alice references in Lost.

Gazing into the Looking-Glass behind high fashion

Alice in Wonderland is inspiring high fashion designers as they pick up on trends from the upcoming film, the Victorian Alice novels and its upper-class, very proper British sensibility. 

Stella McCartney is creating Alice-themed jewelry for Disney that's scheduled to appear in stores in January.  Stella's certainly been steeped in Alice culture through simply being an upper-class girl in England and through her dad's band The Beatles.  John Lennon had numerous references in songs to Lewis Carroll and his world.  Carroll, of course, is pictured on the cover of Sgt. Pepper.Tom Binns' Alice jewelry

Tom Binns, high-end jewelry collaborator with Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, has a collection of chunky, opulent jewelry with keys and trinkets that are inspired by Alice in Wonderland. These are also in collaboration with Disney and will sell for $100 to $2,000.  Michelle Obama, by the way, has worn Binns' creations.

OPI has a special edition of colors linked to the upcoming Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film. The glittery, over-the-top colors include: Absolutely Aice, Mad as a Hatter, Off With her Red!, and Thanks So Muchness! 

OPI's display for Alice in Wonderland nail polishFashion has always been an important part of the Alice novels.  Of course, she does spend a great deal of time looking into a Looking-Glass. Carroll, too, was a devotee to fashion.

According to Alice Liddell, Carroll "always wore black clergyman's clothes in Oxford, but when he took us out on the river, he used to wear white flannel trousers.  He also replaced his black top-hat with a hard white straw hat on those occassions, but of course retained his black boots, because in those days white tennis shoes had not yet been heard of."  Carroll favored black, always a fashion statement, and tended to wear his hair longer than others.  He was decidedly class conscious in his clothes.  He almost always wore gloves in public.

In the novels, Alice is a bit of a snob, a proper upper-middle-class child who longs toStella McCartney's jewelry inspired by Alice in Wonderland play croquet with royalty.  When she falls down the rabbit hole and wonders who she is she is afraid she might be Mabel and be forced to live in that "poky little house" and "have next to no toys to play with."

More fashion designers teaming with Disney include Sue Wong for Walt Disney Signature. "I have long been mesmerized by the fantastical tales of Alice and her surrealistic adventures in Wonderland and am thrilled to be collaborating with Disney on this project," explains designer Sue Wong whose Alice clothes will be sold in Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom's, Lord and Taylor and Macy's, as well as on www.SueWong.com.

Alice Is The New Black. Here's a video of how Disney promoted its high-end fashion last year at the MAGIC Convention in Las Vegas.

Can you pass the Alice test?*

As they said in San Francisco a few years ago, "Can you pass the Alice test?"  Check out this test about Alice in one of many covers for Alice's Adventures in WonderlandWonderland and Lewis Carroll in USA Today.  I helped with some of the questions and am listed as a contributor.

Thanks to Mike Cadden, a professor at Missouri Western State University and an ISU graduate in children's literature, for connecting me with the reporter at USA Today.  It was lots of fun to put together references to Alice in pop culture. 

Here's a .pdf of reference points to Alice, Wonderland and Lewis Carroll in popular culture, which I sent to the reporter.

*By the way, what they said in the 60s was "Can you pass the acid test?" and that reference should not be considered a way to connect Charles Dodgson to drug use.  There's no real evidence that he used any kind of substance altho he did seem to occasionally drink red wine, or at least order it for his house in Oxford. There's more about incorrect ideas about Carroll in the introductory chapter in The Place of Lewis Carroll in Children's Literature.

A complicated press kit for new Alice film

The press kit for Tim Burton's new Alice film is a series of boxes within boxes.  The last box is a key.  But it's also a USB flash drive that contains material about the new film.  Quite clever.  Here's a link to more info about it and some photos from that site. And a link to MTV on the press kit. If anyone has an extra one that they'd like to send to me, please email...!

Tim Burton in press kit book for his new film, Alice in Wonderland

Clever USB flashdrive key for Alice in Wonderland press kit