Internet Highlighter

Last night, December 1st, I commented on a blog post written by Darcy: Even Authors Get Lazy… Or Do They? I commented on her blog using a new device introduced to me by this project. I used a web tool called Diigo.

Diigo is a very nifty tool. It is a highlighter for the Internet. You can highlight sentences and make them change color and then you are capable of leaving a post it on the highlighted phrase or sentence. Other people can also respond to your comment if they too have Diigo.

It seemed appropriate at the time to use Diigo, because one sentence really stuck out to me. So I was able to post my thoughts directly to the sentence that tickled my fancy. Darcy talked about whether or not Carroll was creative or not. I said that one can only have so much creativity.

You can see the rest of the comment by making your own Diigo account. Directions:

1. Go to http://www.diigo.com/.
2. Create an account.
3. Watch the tutorial video if you would like.
4. Go to this link: Even Authors Get Lazy… Or Do They
5. Feel free to comment back.

***

I will also leave a written comment at the end of the Even Authors Get Lazy… Or Do They post for those who are too busy to make a Diigo.

Childish Shows and Habits

This blog post will be a continuation of another one of my blogs, that I actually had no intention on continuing. Due to a very interesting, exciting, and critical comment thread, I would like to continue that blog. You may be confused by this blog unless you read the first blog and all of the comments: Childish Minds, Lewis Carroll’s childish mind to be exact.

Today I had an incident about “Childish Minds.” I woke up this morning extra early to fumble around with AP European History. Upon finishing I went to eat breakfast. I started flipping through the channels and came upon an old show. I watched Arthur. Now I won’t say that is embarrassing, because I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I was reminded of my young age when I watched it. I did not think about “Childish Minds” until the end of school today.

I was in chemistry class doing my binary ionic compounds worksheet, when I blurted out I watched Arthur this morning. Now I do not remember what prompted me to say it, I believe it was something about her saying her husband was childish. As soon as I said it my teacher looked at me with a confused face. “The children’s show?” she asked. I  said, “Yes.” I proceeded to tell her about my blog post: Childish Minds. I gave her the link to read the blog. Hopefully she will read it.

It is so interesting her first words about the show, was that it was a children’s show. She is an adult and she automatically assumes that it is a children’s book. Responding to Hadass Eviator who said that adults can read children’s book because they are firmly established as adults. Then why is an adult puzzled by me watching a children’s show? An example of her truth being told would be Lewis Carroll himself. He is an adult so he can feel comfortable with writing a children’s book. A teenager would not write a book about such “childish” things.

The same pure pressure happened when I was a kid. I used to drink out of what I dubbed a “juice bottle.” It was the only thing I would drink out of, but my parents would always want me to drink from a regular cup. It was as if they did not want me being too childish. What is wrong with being a little bit childish about a few things?

This brings me to an infamous phrase by Mr. Long,

“Children’s books are written for adults.”

He said that a children’s book has to appeal to the adults to keep them reading and amused. An adult would only watch Sesame Street if it had bits that appealed to them. Was Arthur an exception?

To the chemistry teacher, thank you, you are an amazing teacher, and I do not blame you for telling me I watched a children’s show. You may just have helped me pass this project.

It’s Time to Wake Up

Well (sigh), 5 weeks has come by fast. I have read a book that I have never read before. It surprised, intrigued, and confused me. I know the truth behind Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I mean I now know why he wrote the quirky story. The book was meant for a special someone, Alice Lidell. I have done my best to talk about why Carroll wrote this book. Is Wonderland heaven or a haven?

I am fortunate to have read The Annotated Alice because it explained all of the little poems and funky phrases. I have now written my own annotations via a web blog. A first for most of us in my grade. It was a great experience. I can’t wait to see a professionals opinion of our blog.

For the past 5 weeks we have had to fall asleep to enjoy this quirky story because it is almost impossible to enjoy without losing all sense of reality. It is time to wake up from our adventure with Alice.

Wonderland a Heaven?

Is Wonderland a heaven?

I can’t help but wonder, but I realize it is probably not. Let us think of Alice Lidell as a dying girl. This book would be an amazing story of heaven. Carroll could have been illustrating a nice heaven that Alice would enjoy. Alice is able to do things not humanly possible, such as growing and shrinking. She meets talking animals that she interacts with and has fun with, adventures with.

On the other hand all of this may have been ONLY Alice’s heaven. This is not every one’s heaven, just hers. I’m sure some of us wouldn’t want talking rabbits and playing cards to be in their heaven. I would want my loved ones, and in a way Alice’s loved ones are in her heaven. A cat is there to guide her throughout her adventures. What would you want in your heaven/afterlife?

He includes cats, Alice’s favorite animal. The Cheshire cat is her guardian, which Rachel M. elaborately stated in her blog entry: A Game of Cat and Mouse. Carroll makes heaven sound amazingly fun. If you were dying, would you enjoy Carroll’s heaven? Its a whole new world full of adventures.

Wonderland a Haven?

Or is Wonderland a Haven?

For those of you can not see Wonderland as a heaven then maybe Wonderland is a haven. A haven may be an easier world to visualize. Now we imagine that Alice Lidell is not dying but maybe depressed. I know strange for a 10 year old, but we can put ourselves in her shoes and pretend we have been given this book when we were depressed. Would you enjoy a book that was written for you when you were depressed?

Alice is reminded of all the fun adventures you can have. Maybe her real life adventures will not be as crazy, but they will give her a reason to live. I mean if I were depressed this story would be very helpful to remind me of all that was left out in the world.

Yet like heaven, her haven is very different from any individuals. She loved cats and generally only a little girl would like to have outrageous things in her haven. Her haven is her protection from the world. This book makes Alice’s dreams come true, it makes the world nicer and more fun. Everyone has their own haven, that they return to when they are sad. What’s your haven?

A Sequel?

Should there be another book written to continue the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? After all at the end of the story, it seems very likely that there should have been a sequel.

Excuse my ignorance, as I said before I do not know anything about Alice, there seems like there is a sequel in our copy of The Annotated Alice. Regardless I will finish this blog as if there was not a sequel. So excuse my ignorance.

I think that there are 2 ways for their to be a sequel to his quirky story. First Alice definitely needs to have another dream so she can finish her adventures.  Second her sister starts to have her own dream of adventures. Does Carroll write another story about Alice’s sister? If he did, do you think that he would have been fresh out of adventures, or would Alice’s sister go through the same adventures, and meet the same people.

For those of you who read my last blog, here is another question. I stated that Carroll uses poems and true facts, but gives them a little twist, in his story. How long would it have taken to write this story? After all he is a mathematician, not an English philosopher. I mean how did he know all of those poems? He also used objects that pertained to Alice’s real life. Why did he write this if it would take a while?

Annotations and a Question for the Author

The other day I heard a comment stating that our website is our own Annotated Alice.

I began to think about this. I thought to myself, but without The Annotated Alice half my blogs wouldn’t exist. As before I still think its very interesting how this book became so popular. So how do you think this book became so popular? What is more interesting is that professors have taken there time out to analyze the book fully. Why did professors pick a book that was written for a little girl? How was this book even discovered? Did Carroll publish for the world, or did he just give it to Alice Liddell?

I also thought it was interesting how Carroll used poems and other true facts, but played with them. He didn’t actually make up his poems, but just changed the words of existing poems. He used real life things, but made them witty. All he had to do was think of a story line, which I still have yet to understand, and then include poems and facts that he played around with.

Here’s a question:

What would you ask Carroll if he were alive?

Stories Linked

Here’s an interesting comparison inspired by Caroline McCarten and her blog post: Daydream or Nightmare?.

She says that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is similar to The Wizard of Oz. I began to think, is The Wizard of Oz based on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I mean we can link The Matrix and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, why can’t we link The Wizard of Oz. Alice falls down the rabbit hole, and Dorothy’s house gets sucked up in a tornado. They both have adventures in their different “Wonderlands.”

There is something I am not sure about, but maybe you could answer.

They both meet new people while in their “Wonderlands”, but later we know that the creatures in Dorothy’s adventures are her family. Are the people in Alice’s Wonderland her family? I can link the Cheshire cat and Alice’s cat Dinah, but I’m not sure about anyone else. What’s your opinion? Who else is related to Alice in her Wonderland?

Another movie would be Narnia. The kids enter a whole new world as well, except they are essentially four prophets and Azlan is Jesus. Unlike The Wizard of Oz and Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland the kids are there for a reason, to save Narnia. At the end I thought that Azlan was the man that was taking care of the kids. What’s your opinion? It seems like every story has the same story line shown in a different fashion, just like Campbell said.

Childish Minds

I thought it was interesting how Carroll showed his childish mind in one of his quotes in the book:

`When I’M a Duchess,’ she said to herself, (not in a very hopeful tone though), `I won’t have any pepper in my kitchen AT ALL. Soup does very well without–Maybe it’s always pepper that makes people hot-tempered,’ she went on, very much pleased at having found out a new kind of rule, `and vinegar that makes them sour–and camomile that makes them bitter–and–and barley-sugar and such things that make children sweet-tempered. I only wish people knew that: then they wouldn’t be so stingy about it, you know–’

First, is she not a duchess already?

Second I thought that the way he made linked pepper and hot-tempered was very witty and funny. She herself was an example of pepper and being hot-tempered.

My last questions for this post (there’s a lot :  What constitutes as a children’s book?

When we read a book, how do we know if that book is too young for us, or not “cool” enough for us (teenagers) to read? Is there a limit on how childish a book is when read by a teenager? Why don’t teenagers read children’s books? Why is there a genre called children’s, when you go to the library? Why are books “segregated” between adults, young teens, and children’s? Is it not appropriate for me to pick a Thomas the Tank Engine book? Do you consider it “uncool” if I were to pick up a Thomas the Tank Engine book?

Meaning

As we read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, we can see that Alice has to slowly lose her sense of reality. Everything in Wonderland is different compared to the “real” world.

Does Carroll want us to lose our sense of reality as Alice is losing hers? Is this why we aren’t supposed to over-analyze Alice? If we over-analyze Alice then we have destroyed Carroll’s idea of a world without limits. That’s why this book is a children’s book. We as wiser people have a better sense of reality then children. They can read this book and have fun with it.

What I am confused by is the story itself. Mr. Long’s in-class essay really stumped me. What is the meaning of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? I see it only as adventures, but its almost as if its too simple. He has only given us stories with a MUCH deeper meaning then what is seen. What is the plot?

What do you think is the meaning of Alice’s adventures?