Who is Alice and What is She to You?
The rub is that any work of nonsense abounds with so many inviting symbols that you can start with any assumption you please about the author and easily build up an impressive case for it.
- Martin Gardner from The Annotated Alice
That's something quite a few people need to be told nowadays. In college, I heard it said that interpretive theories applied to works of fiction are not meant to be absolute claims about the works or their creators but a separate creative exercise in themselves. Most people don't seem to hold this view, though, particularly students who quickly turned their analytic fervour into grist for the internet mill. Most infamously. these interpretive frameworks have been used to justify calling authors or directors racist or sexist or homophobic. But this thing can take many forms, like the saddeningly popular YouTube video where a man "explains" Twin Peaks is entirely about Lynch's deconstruction of popular television.
The quote from The Annotated Alice continues:
Consider, for example, the scene in which Alice seizes the end of the White King's pencil and begins scribbling for him. In five minutes one can invent six different interpretations.
Alice is invisible to the White Chess King but so much bigger than him that she can easily lift him in the air between her thumb and forefinger. What could one say? Let's see. Patriarchs are controlled by invisible women. A childish instinct ultimately controls the hands of absolute rulers. A king's subconscious preoccupation with children influences his decisions. If we take the pencil as phallic, we could say the libido is too gigantic and invisible for a king to resist when crafting legislation. We could say that any Royal position is in reality no more than a figurative game piece operated by an arbitrary power. It could simply be an indication of how all the creatures Alice encounters in her dream are extensions of her own will, or we might say that all administrative figures in life are reflections of the common will.
That's seven interpretations in four minutes, Gardner! Booya!
I got a new copy of The Annotated Alice on Sunday. I was so happy to see it. My old copy is in a box back in San Diego but I could justify the new purchase because this is the updated and expanded 150th anniversary edition. I really wanted it to show to teachers and students here in Japan where Alice is mainly known for the Disney films. Most people don't seem to be aware of the original books.
This new edition was expanded and updated by Mark Burnstein who's taken up the torch since Gardner passed away in 2010. It features many more colour illustrations from various editions of the Alice books from the past 150 years.
Above images by Iassn Ghiuselev, Peter Blake, Arthur Rackham.