There is a stark difference between these two books. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" felt like a good, solid dream. There was a nice progression of travel in it. You could easily envision the path Alice was taking through Wonderland. In "Alice Through the Looking-Glass," it is much harder to do that. It seems more like a fever dream where scenes suddenly change with no explanation.
Oddly, Alice's actual path is that of a pawn on a Chess board, a straight line. Despite this, the scenes are all laid out with hard cuts from one to the next. It is very disorienting, and in some moments rather dizzying. Most of the dialog is based on literal humor and a few puns. Alice's frustrations in conversation come from people taking her words too literally. This is a theme which plays out from beginning to end.
Only a few characters in the book are really all that endearing. Most of them are throw-a-way characters. I was especially fond of the White Knight who felt like an extremely uncoordinated Don Quixote. Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum were a lot of fun. I also enjoyed Humpty Dumpty who bothered to explained part of the Jabberwocky poem to her.
Other than this, the book is kind of meh. It's not bad. I even recommend it! Lewis Carroll was a brilliant mathematician, and he used this book to show off his skills in that area, and it does show. But at the end of the day, the first book is just better. I would like to say, however, that the Disney film incorporated both books into one movie, and honestly made it all much more coherent. I think it is the best manner at which to enjoy the two books together.
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I have read both books. They are very distinct from one another. The first was nonsense for its own sake, to be silly. The second was logic in the guise of nonsense, hence, the chess game being played out. The silliness of the second book was like the color text and illustrations on MAGIC: The Gathering cards.
ReplyDeleteWell said. The books are not the same. I don't think they even take place in the same world. One is Wonderland, and the other is some place on the other side of the mirror.
DeleteInteresting that Disney took the two books and made one movie that was more coherent. The only thing I really remember from this one was the Jabberwocky poem. I guess the strangeness of it really stuck with me.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they did it the way they did. The Disney movie ultimately proves the best version of the two.
DeleteThis book seems like an attempt to recapture what was delightful about the first one. However, the results are more intentional than whimsical. So, some of the enjoyment is lost.
ReplyDeleteYeah unfortunately. But it was still worth reading, I'd say.
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