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[CCBC-Net] Winding Down the Rabbit Hole
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From: Kathleen O'Dell <klaloch>
Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2000 08:56:38 -0800
As a writer for children, I can't offer any insights on how to use ALICE as a teaching tool. All I know is this: my love affair with ALICE was completely furtive and subversive. CHARLOTTE'S WEB, for instance, was a family affair--chock-full of sentiments you could share with your teacher, your little brother, your grandma... However, I cannot imagine my mother perched on the edge of my bed, reading me to sleep with WONDERLAND or LOOKING-GLASS.
It seems to me that to truly appreciate ALICE, you must sneak up on her. She should be in hardcover, with the Tenniel illustrations. She must be slightly dusty and ancient enough to have acquired "Old Book Smell." You must have the sensation, when opening the cover, of unlocking the creaking door to an old Victorian attic with a rusty skeleton key. And then you see her: the little girl with the striped stockings and neat, tiny feet and enormous head with the electric halo of hair and saucer eyes that see absolutely EVERYTHING! She is so shockingly and strangely attractive! And she is the only person in the entire book who is not totally insane!
Which brings me to the heart of ALICE. It is populated by authority figures who are smug, arbitrary, bilious and vain (when they are not being just plain stupid...). Any child who has ever asked an adult "Why?" only to be answered "Because I said so!" will recognize them immediately. I am afraid that they reminded me very much of the nuns who taught our grade school. And, I suspect that if either of my kids crack open the book one of these days, these characters will remind them very much of me. ("When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less.." Ever find yourself talking that way to a child?) So the book becomes your co-conspirator, confirming what you suspected all along: that the grown-ups leading your schools and churches and families are really often blowing smoke, misusing their power or just inflicting their neuroses on people who are littler than they are.
My copy of LOOKING-GLASS was given to me by my mother over 20 years ago, when I was in college. It was a book I already had discovered and enjoyed on my own. It sits now in an oak bookcase with glass doors and is finally redolent enough of Old Book Smell to cast its spell on a new group of children. Am I going to read this book to my kids? No. But boy, I do hope they sneak up on it...
Kathleen O'Dell
Received on Sun 29 Oct 2000 10:56:38 AM CST
Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2000 08:56:38 -0800
As a writer for children, I can't offer any insights on how to use ALICE as a teaching tool. All I know is this: my love affair with ALICE was completely furtive and subversive. CHARLOTTE'S WEB, for instance, was a family affair--chock-full of sentiments you could share with your teacher, your little brother, your grandma... However, I cannot imagine my mother perched on the edge of my bed, reading me to sleep with WONDERLAND or LOOKING-GLASS.
It seems to me that to truly appreciate ALICE, you must sneak up on her. She should be in hardcover, with the Tenniel illustrations. She must be slightly dusty and ancient enough to have acquired "Old Book Smell." You must have the sensation, when opening the cover, of unlocking the creaking door to an old Victorian attic with a rusty skeleton key. And then you see her: the little girl with the striped stockings and neat, tiny feet and enormous head with the electric halo of hair and saucer eyes that see absolutely EVERYTHING! She is so shockingly and strangely attractive! And she is the only person in the entire book who is not totally insane!
Which brings me to the heart of ALICE. It is populated by authority figures who are smug, arbitrary, bilious and vain (when they are not being just plain stupid...). Any child who has ever asked an adult "Why?" only to be answered "Because I said so!" will recognize them immediately. I am afraid that they reminded me very much of the nuns who taught our grade school. And, I suspect that if either of my kids crack open the book one of these days, these characters will remind them very much of me. ("When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less.." Ever find yourself talking that way to a child?) So the book becomes your co-conspirator, confirming what you suspected all along: that the grown-ups leading your schools and churches and families are really often blowing smoke, misusing their power or just inflicting their neuroses on people who are littler than they are.
My copy of LOOKING-GLASS was given to me by my mother over 20 years ago, when I was in college. It was a book I already had discovered and enjoyed on my own. It sits now in an oak bookcase with glass doors and is finally redolent enough of Old Book Smell to cast its spell on a new group of children. Am I going to read this book to my kids? No. But boy, I do hope they sneak up on it...
Kathleen O'Dell
Received on Sun 29 Oct 2000 10:56:38 AM CST
