Monday, September 16, 2013

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapters Eight and Nine

In which our heroine finally enters the little garden, where she sees some Card Tricks, threats of Mass Executions which are stymied by the Pre-Disembodied Head of the Cat, whereupon she re-encounters the Duchess in a more Pleasant though Didactic Temper, and then is introduced to a Gryphon and a Mock Turtle who share some Puns Most Terrible.



You'll need the Tenniel illustrations for this one, as one is actually mentioned in the text:


The Seven, Two, and Five of Spades paint the white roses red
0:40 - Botanical Dissembling

Notice that Carroll made the Spades gardeners, the Clubs soldiers, the Diamonds courtiers, and the Hearts the royal family. There are far less subtle puns to come.

The Queen of Hearts demands to know who Alice is, in front of the court of cards
3:32 - The Queen is a Most Jolly sort.

Alice tries to wrangle her flamingo mallet, while her hedgehog crawls away
7:30 - The Flamingo dares Alice to go ahead and Try It.

The King, Queen, and executioner argue while the Cat's head floats above, smiling
12:11 - The difficulties of beheading a Head with no Body

Alice continues to hold her flamingo as the smiling Duchess takes her arm
13:39 - The surprisingly pleasant Duchess finds a Moral In That

The Gryphon, with the front half of an eagle and the back half of a lion, sleeps in the sun
19:53 - The Gryphon, for Those Unfamiliar with the term


Alice and the Gryphon listen to the sobbing Mock Turtle, with the body of a turtle and the head, legs, and tail of a calf
21:40 - The Mock Turtle is miserable For Reasons
Mock turtle soup often uses calf's head and calf's foot (among other brains and organ meats) to replace the turtle meat. This is, of course, why our friend here looks as he does.

And I did warn you about the puns.

All illustrations are courtesy of Lenny's Alice in Wonderland Site
If you would like to read along, the text can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!

No comments:

Post a Comment