7 November 2008 Class Notes

• One of the best film versions of Alice In Wonderland is "Alice Through The Looking Glass" starring Kate Beckingsale.
• On Monday - - Bring in question for the test on Wednesday!
• Possible themes to write about --> history, myth, dreams, art, coincidence, three goddesses...
• Tweedledee & Tweedledum were telling Alice that she isn't real, her tears aren't even real. If the Red King were to wake, then she would dissapear!
• Last play that Shakespeare wrote was The Tempest.
• Breaking the spell...
• Talked about insights of Alice, which is your favorite chapter...
• Alice --> everything is so CURIOUS
• The white knight --> Carrol himself?
• Trust the tale and not the teller.
• Talked about the seven stages of man...infant, boy going to school, grows up, mechant, soldier, old man, losing everything...
• When a child sees a tree, he sees a tree. When an adult see a tree, he sees everything but the tree. When a wiseman sees a tree, he sees a tree.

6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast!

This is a bit late but they are the six impossible things I thought of the other day. I am just now getting the chance to blog about them. And they are:

1. All the labels for my (and a couple other girls) upcoming exhibit will be done by Saturday!

2. I could simply touch the cover of His Dark Materials and after a few moments know what all

three books are about...I really, really wish!

3. That I could think about someplace I really want to go and with a snap of my fingers be there

instantly.

4. Buy/Afford the brand new Chevy Camaro on the day that it comes out next year (it's my

dream car)!

5. Not have surgery on my wrist when I go home at Christmas.

6. To not lose anyone else important to me before their time...

Six Degrees Of Separation...Huh?

So, I am not sure I understand this whole concept of six degrees of separation. But here is my stab at it - that is connecting Alice In Wonderland to The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz.

Alice In Wonderland is a book based on a little girl named Alice, who indeed, is actually based on a real little girl named Alice Liddell.

Alice Liddell traveled to New York in her later years for a celebration of that book.

New York is where Frank Baum was born and raised.

Frank Baum just happens to be the author of...The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

And there you have it. Hopefully it is correct. Personally this whole "six degrees of separation" concept seems kind of like a bunch of hooey. You can somehow be related to something with no more than because you went somewhere someone else did. It seems like a very far fetched concept...but maybe that's how it is suppose to be.

My Favorite Alice Chapter!

My favorite chapter of Alice would have to be Chapter VIII, The Queen's Croquet Ground.  I think it is one of the most vibrant or colorful chapters, that or I just seem to follow it better than other chapters in Alice.  The chapter opens up with the three gardeners (individual cards from a deck of cards mind you) arguing while painting a white roses on a bush red.  Then the croquet game starts.  I love the imagery.  And of course, you have the queen running around the whole time shouting "Off with his/her head!"  I think the croquet scene is why I like it so much because I actually consider/think what it might be like to play with the same things they do.  I wonder what it would be like to play with a flamingo for a croquet mallet, a live hedgehog for the ball, and soldiers (who are cards from a deck) as the arches that are constantly moving around.  Would it be really entertaining to try to play under those circumstances or would it be really frustrating?

Dreamchild (1985)

So, being the huge movie fan that I am, when Michael said that "Dreamchild" was one of his favorite movies of all time, I was curious to see what the movie was all about. After finding out what I could I must say it does sound rather interesting. It seems like it is a look at the dark side of Alice In Wonderland by none other that Alice herself, as a much older lady. If anybody else is intrigued, here are a few film clips I found from YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8JvMdfNOrg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WBPBM9PxCU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff8_Sir_iUs

They aren't the best quality but you get the idea...

5 November 2008 Class Notes

• Discussed the last few pages of Alice In Sunderland in regards to the election.
• "It is a tale, told by an idiot..." Shakespeare's "MacBeth"
• Select favorite chapter from Alice books and blog about it...
• Read Ronnie's dream
• Myth is a depersonalized dream
• Rebecca read about her dream
• pg 290 --> A-B-C-D...E-A-T-H...it all ends in death
• "We are such stuff as dreams are made on..." Shakespeare's "The Tempest"
• "The Big Sleep" is death.
• The worms win in the end...
• "The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out, the worms play peanuckle on my snout."
• Read from Through The Looking Glass, "Wool & Water"
• Mayflies...here, do it, die
• Rent a movie called "Duck Soup"
• Marx brothers, anarchist comedians where nothing is sacred to them
• Friday --> What is your favorite Alice chapter
• Monday --> Have questions for test

3 November 2008 Class Notes

• Took the first 5-10 minutes of class to talk about the election
• Access Chris Clark's blog --> Percy Shelley
• Blog about page 206 in Alice & Sunderland
• Lolita as a chess game...
• Alice in the music industry --> Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd
• What is the obsession with Alice?
• Well trained imagination or a badly trained imagination
• Epileptic seizures -->some authors would have these and then claim to be entering a portal and being able to see things clearly for the first time
• Read and talked about people's dreams...

31 October 2008 Class Notes

• "Dreamchild" - one of Michael's favorite movies
• Parodies
• School Room Poetry
• There's no such thing as boring history/literature, just boring people.
• anagogy -- everything is related
• Six degrees of seperation between everything. Google/blog about six degrees of seperation --> especially between Bozeman and the Wizard of Oz
• Fun fact: Michael used to preach in Central Square, New York
• The more interesting we become, the more interesting literature becomes.
• Serendipity
• Provide a first draft of final paper on your blogs
• Blog about your dreams
• Joseph Campbell --> myth & dreams
• Lewis Carrol knew a lot about dream literature --> language of Alice is dream like
• Isn't the unexpected more interesting?
• Blog on Alice In Wonderland & Alice In Sunderland
• Think of Six Impossible things before Breakfast...
• Questions of identity and metamorphosis in Alice
• Check out the exhibit "Stories" at the Emerson Cultural Center
• Got together with groups the last ten minutes to discuss projects

27 October 2008 Class Notes

• Raquel played Bach's Cello Suite #1 at the beginning of class, or I should say Michael made her play and that is what she chose. It was absolutely beautiful. She did a wonderful job. What a way to start the class.
• Sublime - literary critic term
• "all the arts aspire to the condition of music"
• Two different poems that begin Alice (one of those was didactic)
• Alice was a real little girl, according to Alice In Sunderland
• The Matrix is based on Alice In Wonderland.
• Alice is one fo the most looked at books, 2nd most quoted coming in behind Shakespeare
• Go look at Kayla's blog for info on Alice
• The film (My Book & Heart)...the little books have good intentions. "None of it is real" --> grandmother's house of books
• Art is deceiving
• Human nature is misplaced concreteness. What is a child, book, nature? There is no answer, you can't define these things.
• Literature liberates us into play
• Aesop's Fables --> Allegorical
• William Bennet wrote a book on morals, judgemental on people who don't spend time wisely --> Tatar criticizes him for this
• Mary & Martha from the bible ---> like the ant & the grasshopper from Aesop's fables
• What is needful?
• Reading things that people have been reading for centuries and still enjoying them today.
• Being literate allows you to go into the story, the portal into the other world
• Discussed differences between metaphors and similes
• Symbols --> communion, cannibalism, like the story of the Juniper Tree
• Children's Literature still being didactic today
• Subversity
• Don't trust anybody to tell you what something means...
• The film (My Book & Heart) wasn't exactly meant to be teached or didactic.
• Read Sutter's response to My Book & Heart...
• Oscar Wilde --> great children's literature art, life is an imitation of art, the thought of "you wouldn't be sad if Shakespeare hadn't wrote it"
• "Only the educated are free..."