Begin At the Beginning — The Timeless Nature of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
“I could tell you my adventures–beginning from this morning,” said Alice a little timidly: “but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”
—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 10
What is it about the fantastical story of Alice and her adventures in Wonderland that made it an instant classic, one that’s endured to capture the fancies of generation after generation for more than 150 years?
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, often referred to by its abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland, has been continuously in print since it first rolled off the presses in 1865. Even though it was written for readers in Victorian England, there is something special about the story that transcends time and language. Each translation, and there have been more than 80, changes the story just enough that it isn’t the same as it was before. Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita and the author of a Russian translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is said to have remarked that his was “not the first translation, but the best.” Like Alice, the story continues to evolve with each new incarnation.
The origin of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland began on a summer day in 1862 as a story spun by the shy, eccentric bachelor Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to entertain the three little sisters of Dodgson’s good friend Harry Liddell—Edith (age 8), Alice (age 10), and Lorina (age 13). On July 4, 1862, Dodgson and his friend Reverend Robinson Duckworth took the three girls on a rowing expedition up the Thames and picnicked on the banks village of Godstow before returning to Oxford. Delighted with the mathematic professor’s nonsensical adventure story, Alice Liddell asked him to pen the fairy tale, which he began that very night.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson worked as a scholar and mathematician at Christ Church in Oxford, but wrote his Alice books under the pen name Lewis Carroll, a derivative of his first and middle names loosely translated and set in reverse order. The first version, titled Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, was hand-written and illustrated by Dodgson and presented to his muse Alice Liddell in 1864, even though he was estranged from the Liddell family at the time.
Dodgson’s identity as Lewis Carroll was an open secret and, after the success of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, he published a sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, in 1871 and a long-form nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark” in 1876.
Since its inception, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has inspired numerous television and film interpretations, collections of academic criticism, and original literary treatments. Some of these first attempts at parody and imitations were even collected by Carroll, who had a keen interest in the effect of his work on others. The influence of the Alice books waned in the 1920s, but picked back up with the interest in psychoanalysis in the 1930s and it has stayed in the mainstream ever since.
In 1951, Walt Disney Productions released Alice in Wonderland as their 13th animated feature. Fifty-nine years later, Tim Burton directed a live-action version of the story released in 2010, once again proving the timelessness of this classic tale. Graphic novels, role-playing games, television series, video games, and popular songs have all come from the roots planted in Carroll’s nonsensical Wonderland. In recent years, there’s also been a renewed interest in re-imaginings of the classic tale by such modern authors as Frank Beddor, A.G. Howard, and Marissa Meyer.
But the story isn’t just popular with writers; it has also inspired generations of artists seduced by the story’s eternal allure. Sir John Tenniel was the first artist to illustrate this beloved tale, but his work was just the beginning of what would become one of the most popular subjects in literary history. Over the course of the last hundred and fifty years, nearly 100 famous artists have taken on Alice’s challenge: “What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations!” Just a few of the famous artists who have attempted to bring Alice to life include Arthur Rackham (1907), Leonard Weisgard (1949), Salvador Dalí (1969), Ralph Steadman (1973), and Helen Oxenbury (1999).
But what is it that keeps this particular piece of Victorian literature in the forefront of modern literature?
Professor Will Brooker of Kingston University London, author of Alice’s Adventures: Lewis Carroll in Popular Culture, claims that each generation has interpreted the text in ways that reflect contemporary culture relevant to current times.
“In the 1930s it was psychoanalysis, in the 1960s it was psychedelia, and in the 1990s paedophilia,” writes Professor Brooker. “The 1930s was when people started to take what was originally conceived as a pleasant, delightful, nonsense children’s story and—thinking there must be something deeper than what’s on the surface — a Freudian interpretation. Then, in the 1960s people assumed Carroll must have been on the same drugs they were on because the story seemed to tally with their experiences of LSD and cannabis. They thought he was speaking their language.”
And perhaps he was. Perhaps he has found meaning through nonsense, speaking a language that reflects the depths of individual desires and the complexities of an ever-changing society.
“I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 5
Carina Bissett

Alice in Wonderland cover
MANDEM is the art name shared by Maize Arendsee (MFA, Studio Art) and their life-partner, Moco. MANDEM’s work has been widely exhibited and published. In 2016, Maize taught art at a university in Florence, Italy, where MANDEM had a concurrent artist residency at the Associazione Culturale Il Palmerino and multiple European art exhibitions in the works.

Coup de Tart: A Literary Trifle
Morris has been a biochemist, an activist, and a lawyer, and now works as a foreign aid consultant. When he’s not roaming foreign countries fighting corruption, he works on his own speculative stories of love and disaster.

Malice, Golden Afternoon
Maggie is the editor of The Compulsive Reader, former poetry editor for Thylazine Journal, the author of Black Cow. A new book of poetry titled Unmaking Atoms is due for release by Ginninderra Press in late 2016.

Alice Versus the Curiosities of Nostalgia and Reality
Brian writes comic books, novels, and short stories. He has been published in NonBinaryReview and New Realm Magazine. His novel, Carolina Daemonic, is available from J. Ellington Ashton Press.

Several Pretty Histories
Tantra teaches fiction writing. She has books out, and 200 flashes, short stories, and novelettes and a novella in journals and in anthologies.

Neeru’s New World
Jenny’s writing can be seen in Femina India, Wallpaper, Storyacious, The Ladies Finger, LitBreak, York Literary Review, The Indian Quarterly, Eleven Eleven Journal, and an anthology, Sulekha Select: The Indian Experience in a Connected World.

Foreword
Carina spends her time crafting twisted fairy tales and cross-pollinated mythic fiction. Her short fiction and poetry can be found at the Journal of Mythic Arts, NonBinary Review, and Timeless Tales.

Butterfly
Laurie writes short fiction and is working on a novel, when she isn’t on her mat or chasing butterflies through Golden Gate Park.

Pig and Pepper
Philip was a community newspaper reporter, whose fiction credits include: Daily Science Fiction webzine, Apex, Weirdbook, NonBinary Review, and Prose ‘n’ Cons Mystery magazines.

The Hatter’s Daughter
Brittney is the author of the poetry collection Navigation and the chapbook 40 Weeks. She is the poetry editor for the online journal Hyperlexia: poetry and prose about the autism spectrum.

Alice Erasures Suite
Erin is a writer based in Minnesota. Her work has been published in Hobart, Paper Darts, Witch Craft Mag, The Found Poetry Review, The Pinch, and Birdfeast, among other publications.

Caterpillar Redux
Sandy has published poems evoking Hamlet and Twelfth Night in A Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare. In Caduceus she plays with Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowles.

Où est ma chatte?
Emma is Noble / Gas Qtrly’s EIC and a writer of all trades. She has been referred to as “fucking multimedia,” which is probably the greatest compliment she’s ever received.

The Lion, the Unicorn, and the Dragon
Jeff is an author, journalist and editor. His fiction has appeared in the Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row literary journal, Shenandoah, Steam Ticket–A Third Coast Review, Pioneertown, Crossborder Journal, NonBinary Review, The Saturday Evening Post, Chicago Literati, and Indiana Voice Journal.

Panning Wizards and Wonderland
Jennifer’s prose poetry and flash fiction have appeared in Apollo’s Lyre, Bacopa Literary Review, Flashquake, Mixitini Matrix and will be included this fall in Good Form from Negative Capability Press.

Strange Verses
Trish has two chapbooks, Emissions and Pieced Into Treetops, and has been published in The Found Poetry Review, Chagrin River Review, and The Fem. Trish is co-founder of a local poetry group, Rock Canyon Poets.

Alice Choked
A.J.’s poetry, fiction, haiku, and photography have appeared in Labletter, The James Dickey Review, and Offerta Speciale, in which her work appeared in English and Italian translation. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press.

Inverted
Bethanie is a writer, editor, mixed media visual artist, and curator for the Sacramento Poetry Center Art Gallery. Her poetry and short fiction have been published in several literary magazines, and her artwork has been in several juried and group shows.

White Rabbit Card
Anessa has been teaching high school art for 11 years. She has expanded into a Sculpture and 3D Studio AP program, and is finishing a Master’s of Secondary Education degree this summer through Texas A&M – Commerce.

Chapter VIII and a Half
Christina is a novelist, television writer and professor of English. She teaches at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California, and her story “A Study in Scarlet, CA” was published in a previous issue of NonBinary Review.

At a Waffle House, Alice Simply Wanted Grits
John, three-time Pushcart nominee, has work in Inscape Literary Journal, Artemis, Town Creek Poetry and others. He has two literary collections, including Disabled Monsters. He edits poetry for Silver Blade and Abyss & Apex. “At a Waffle House, Alice Simply Wanted Grits” originally appeared in Abbreviate Journal.

Muchness
Tanaka is a playwright, poet and performer based in London. He has written a number of works for page and stage, and has work recently published or forthcoming in Black Heart Magazine, the delinquent, and Rogue Agent Journal.

A Dip Into the Lapis Lazuli
Soumya lives in India where she is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, and a Diploma in Creative Writing. She specialises in poetry and speculative fiction.

Become a Deadly Weapon Now
Sarah is a writer, editor, animal lover, videogamer, queer Latina. Her chapbook Evergreen was released this summer from Weasel Press. She is Editor/Founder of Yellow Chair Review.

Don’t Come Around Here No More
T. A. is the author of four sparks fall: a novella and, with Erin Elizabeth Smith, Skate or Die. Her work has appeared in Lunch Ticket, Reunion: The Dallas Review, West Wind Review, Hobart, Ninth Letter, and Phoebe, among others.

Alice Past the Mirror
Toti’s mixed media have been exhibited in group and solo shows, in Europe and the US, since 1995. Her artwork has appeared in The Adroit, Speechless, Maudlin, and Rogue Agent, among many other journals and magazines.

Alice-Ecila
Steph is the author of A Tree Born Crooked and the forthcoming novel Lightwood. She lives, writes and teaches writing in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Boys Will Be Boys But Girls Will Be Queens
Julie has been published in NonBinary Review: Frankenstein, Black Denim Lit, Grendel-Song and Timeless Tales Magazine.

Auto-Cento of Looking Glass Shards
Lorraine’s work has appeared in New Letters, Hotel Amerika, Vallum, Mad Scientist Journal, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Semiotexte, and Gargoyle and in the anthologies Gigantic Worlds, Phantom Drift, and Aphrodite Terra.

The Carroll Illustrations
Erin is the author of The Fear of Being Found and The Naming of Strays. Erin teaches in the English Department at the University of Tennessee and serves as the managing editor of Sundress Publications and Stirring.

Twin Speech & Forest Fires
Gretchen’s work has appeared in literary journals in both the US and UK, including North American Review, New Welsh Review and 100 Word Story (forthcoming).

The Knave of Hearts’ Innocence
Casey has been featured in several online and in print magazines, most recently, her short story “The Urchin” was published in Smashed Cat Magazine.

The Hatter’s Last Visitor
Pablo’s stories have been published, among others at Thirteen O’Clock Press and Imagine.

$20 Taxi Ride
Olivia’s work has been featured in Literary Orphans, Stepping Stones Magazine, Poetry Space U.K., and Canvas literary magazine. Olivia is an intern at Tupelo Press Teen Writing Center, where she is co-editor of the Crossroads Anthology.

Expeditionary Force
Edd’s stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Baen’s Universe, and Analog, and the anthologies First Contact Cafe, Fundamentally Challenged, and Northwest Passages.

The Thing
Alex is a poet and storyteller from Washington State with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. He is the fiction editor for Dirty Chai Magazine and hopes to have a collection of his work out soon.

The Red Queen
Alia’s writing appears in Tin House, Threepenny Review, The New York Times, New England Review, Utne Reader, ZYZZYVA, Narratively, The Rumpus, Huizache, The Writing Disorder’s Best Nonfiction of 2012 anthology and elsewhere.

Hiding in My Dream
Lynn lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality.

Ghosting
Wendy has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Her writing has appeared in Barrelhouse, Drunken Boat, Per Contra, Blackbird and other great literary journals.

Sailing Alone Around the World
Olivia writing has appeared in Ninth Letter, The Common, Flyway, Fourth Genre, and elsewhere. Her fiction has been longlisted for Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Alice’s Appetite
Theodora’s work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Prairie Schooner, Arts & Letters, and Short FICTION (England), anthologies, and exhibits. A chapbook of her prose, Mother Tongues, won The Cupboard’s 2015 contest.

Issue #10: Alice in Wonderland

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Issue #10: Alice in Wonderland

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