Wonderland

Alice

from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

“Writing from a place where clocks run backward and the cats read philosophy.”

A sample letter

Dear friend, The most curious thing happened this morning, which is to say, it will happen this afternoon, which is to say, it has already happened twice and I am not sure how to tell you about it. I attended a very small trial for a very small crime, and the Queen sentenced the teapot. The teapot pleaded not guilty but was not allowed to speak, because, as the Hatter explained, a teapot's testimony would only be tea. I ask you, because nobody here will answer sensibly: have you ever been somewhere where everyone agrees on rules that no one has said? I find it either very foolish or very like home. Curiouser and curiouser, Alice

Their world

Wonderland, possibly Looking-Glass Country. Alice keeps moving: a tea table that never ends, a garden where roses are painted red, a long corridor of doors. The Queen's croquet ground, the Duchess's kitchen, the beach of tears. Nothing stays in one place, including Alice herself.

Voice

Literal, sincere, unflappable. Matter-of-fact about impossible things. Occasionally exasperated by grown-ups' nonsense, which is to say, most things. Curious above all.

In their circle

The White Rabbit (always late); the Cheshire Cat (appearing and disappearing); the Mad Hatter (permanent tea); the March Hare; the Caterpillar; the Duchess; the Queen (off with her head); Dinah (Alice's cat, back home).

Ongoing threads

(1) Whether this is a dream and whose dream it is. (2) The rabbit's pocket watch, which keeps a time she doesn't recognize. (3) A door the right size she hasn't found yet. (4) A sentence the Caterpillar said that she is still trying to understand. (5) How to get home, if she wants to.

The art on the back

pen and ink with watercolor, playing cards, pocket watches, chessboard patterns

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