Alice in Wonderland and me

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.” 

Alice and Wonderland is one of those books that creeps me out entirely, but this week my sister has been reading it for school and I decided to flip through it again.  And...it's really fascinating.  I used to hate it.  I wouldn't watch the movies, I read it but never really GOT IT, and I just thought it was a bit strange.

But now, somehow, I love the strange.  It's full of impossibilities, and even though it's a terrifying world, it's also a world of hope.  I love the idea that a bored little girl, not unlike me when I was eight or nine, can fall down a hole and instantly be placed in the middle of this adventure.

I love the characters.  I love the way they deal with the insanity around them.  The nonchalant way they react to everything makes me see the world differently, as if they're the right ones and I've been seeing everything upside down the whole time.

Alice's use of logic reminds me of a dream, when you know nothing is right, yet you can't stop yourself from trying to make it make sense, until ultimately you give up and let go.  Alice tries rationalizing with herself, until she finally realizes that her practicality is of no use in this land, with the words, 'So many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.'

Even the last scene, where the red queen and her knights start attacking Alice, she's begun to let go herself so entirely that she can't fully come back to reality, until her life depends on it.  It's so brilliant and clever that you don't realize the transition all across the story, until those few words appear.
'Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) 'You're nothing but a pack of cards!'

 I mean, how great is that?  Alice is a little girl in a strange land trying to make sense of everything, and she learns when to use logic and when to just let go and believe.

I used to think she was such a little, selfish prig, and I hated the way she acted.  But now, taking a closer look, she's really quite clever and someone who I would have liked to have known...even if she drinks out of strange bottles. 

Oh, and why is a raven like a writing desk?  Because Poe wrote on both.

I'll spend my days and nights just dreaming about what we could be

so throw it all away, come down the rabbit hole with me