the most beautiful bit of psychedelia: Ralph Steadman's Alice

[selinker]

What: Illustrator Ralph Steadman's acid-trippy version of Lewis Carroll's classics Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, first published in 1967 by Dennis Dobson of London, then alongside The Hunting of the Snark as The Complete Alice in the definitive 1986 Jonathan Cape version.

Comments

The only Alice that matters? :P

[anonymous]

John Tenniel is doing cartwheels in his grave right now. :P

Sorry, but I'm of the opinion that remakes really have to do something special to earn a place over the original. Kubrick's The Shining may be a good movie, but it's practically The Shining in name only.

I get that in your eyes, it IS that special. But just being trippy only makes me want to read over my Annotated Alice again. :P

- Rei

Re: The only Alice that matters? :P

[selinker]

OK, OK, I'll give you that. How about the only Alice after 1900 that matters?

Re: The only Alice that matters? :P

[anonymous]

Sure, apart from Annotated (and even then is it technically the same work or not?).

Certainly I agree that the Disney version is an abomination before God, and I can't think of many other adaptations that are worth a tinker's damn. (The only possible exceptions, which I can't think of right now, are ones that don't even pretend to be following the original and do something fresh. 'Course, doing THAT well is just as hard as adapting the original.)

- Rei

Re: The only Alice that matters? :P

[selinker]

I don't think the animated version is an abomination. It's just not my Alice. I look forward to seeing the Tim Burton version tomorrow, as I expect my friends at Disney did a great job with it.

Re: The only Alice that matters? :P

[donkeymoo]

i agree on both, i don't think the animated alice is an abomination, and tenniel is just spectacularly creepy in its vintage-victorian way. watching the animated version of alice as an adult, it still has those echoes of creepiness and dark madness, if only in the thick and angry looking eyebrows that everyone has despite seeming to be friendly.

Re: The only Alice that matters? :P

[anonymous]

Don't mind me; I'm just automatically biased against any Alice adaptation that mixes elements of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. :)

Which is why I'm already irritated that in the Burton movie, a character who's apparently the Red Queen says "Off with her head!" (Unless some explanation is given, of course.)