Alice 160: "Viens nous voir Alix!" - Alix and the Wonderfolk (2019 -21) and carrollian language learning.

(All the major characters. Credit: ici.tou.tv) 

7 year old Alix walks through her mirror into a magical land. She befriends the wise walrus, inventive Hatter and Hare, and energetic egg Gros Coco. Their adventures are hindered by the overbearing queen like boss supreme director. (IMDB description) 

Regular viewers of the French conglomerate tv Channel TV5MONDE in Europe may have noticed things have gotten rather Carrollian in the mornings. As part of its Jeunesse (Children's/Youth) programming TV5MONDE Europe have started showing season 2 of the French Canadian series "Alix et les Merveilleux" (Alix and the Wonderfolk) This little half an hour series ran on Canadian TV for 3 years.  This series could well gain a audience of language learners, and Carrollians, beyond the intended child target market. I'll explain in a moment why I think if you're learning French (any variant, but especially French as spoken in Canada) this show will really help. First we'll talk about what this series actually is!

(Alix (Rosalie Daoust) and Rabbit (Inès Talbi) Photo Credit: TV5MONDE)

Although not an adaptation of the famous novels, Alix... has a end credit which translates to "liberally inspired by the work of Lewis Carroll" and certainly it makes good on that promise. The spirit of Carroll's original books is retained here by how bizarre the plotlines per episode get. There will be turns that logically make no sense, or are designed to make the audience laugh. In several episodes Alix breaks from daydreaming to ask her family a question related to her dream, which on answering, she dives back to imagining again. 

In this sense Alix holds on to the intent of Carroll's work the way other children's series using the characters normally don't. It remembers to be as strange as a literal dream, as well as amusing.  Plots generally start with Alix facing a problem in real life, typically with her parents, sister, or brother (all double as roles in Wonderland later) then daydreaming she goes through a mirror under the stairs and encounters friends who are having similar problems in a parallel plot. Yes, it has the same set-up as Adventures in Wonderland (1992) and long term fans of that can consider this series a direct successor. I prefer this series personally just for more how carrollian it feels and how off the rails plots can go.

(The Pause tea party. Photo Credit: TV5MONDE)

Rosalie Daoust's Alix, energetic, helpful, and a daydreamer,  is Alice in modern-day childhood, whilst Grande Patronne (Marilyn Castonguay) with selfish demands, royalty status, and want to send someone to the dungeon, mirrors the Queen of Hearts. Rabbit (played by Inès Talbi) mixes the White Rabbit with White Knight characters, having Rabbit's overall characteristics but knight's inventing flair (like Knight, the inventions always go catastrophically wrong one way or another) Chef (Martin Héroux) is a mix of Caterpillar, King of Hearts and the footmen characters, being a messenger for royalty, and loving rules and order. Morse (as played by Didier Lucien) is a strange mix of the looking glass sheep (he runs a shop with a magical counter) and the Walrus (giving his love of raw fish) Humpty Dumpty (played by Alex Desmarais) re-named Gros Coco, is a young egg, and often overexcited, and perhaps the character here who is the furthest from their original form. Hatter and Hare ( Jean-Philippe Lehoux and Luc Bourgeois) are as usual, but Hare is a musician who has anxiety, and this Hatter actually owns a hat workshop.  The "mad tea party" is a enforced tea break that occurs once per ep where characters are obligated to drop what they are doing in the plot, take tea together, and play a childhood game, or just one that is plain weird. 

Carrollian objects and themes such as: cards, strange versions of croquet, chess, nonsensical trials, weird kitchen running, songs that make no sense, dancing, ridiculous advice, bad advice, logic-less laws, seeing dreams as important, and magical foods all make their due appearances in the series. Not bad at all for something that is nominally an "inspired by" work. There is an unshakable sense that the writing team has read Carroll's novels over several times, and has tried to re-create the same feelings of fun, whimsy, and outright strangeness in their own work. I can't really say this for any other series which also fall into the "character and location using" category.

(Alix (Rosalie Daoust) encounters Chef (Martin Héroux) (Photo credit: TV5MONDE)

So why may Alix as a series help Carrollians who specifically are learning French? First of all, the series is already has characters you'll know, albeit in a different form. Secondly, it has a jaw dropping 195 episodes, making it one of the longest "inspired by" Carroll series to run. Thirdly, the language, being for younger audiences, is somewhat simplified, meaning if you're a beginner/late beginner in French, this is for you. The accents of the actors also have a bonus of being for the most part, VERY clear. You can 100 percent learn from this series also if you aren't learning the French Canadian variation of French (just bear in mind some words are different in standard, as is prononciations). 

Lastly, its just fun. Fun is something that is difficult to replicate in language learning and if this series can be that for you, it will certainly help. 

Alix and the Wonderfolk airs on TV5MONDE Europe on weekdays. It is on demand worldwide at PLUS, and some episodes with French subtitles are on Archive.org. 

Neil Gaiman betrayed us all

 A quick note about the horrific prolonged SA cases that have come out around Neil Gaiman. I have been reading his work since the age of 11. I knew 0 about his character aside from what he wrote in introductions, and wikipedia's then small background tab.

Gaiman preyed on fans, people like you, people like me. He was not who anyone thought he was. 

I have talked about Coraline (2002) as its original novel, animated film, opera, and stage versions. I can do so no longer. Whilst the posts will remain on this site I will pin to each the article by New York Magazine on Gaiman's crimes, which I will link underneath this post. 

I believe every victim who has come forward.

LINK: THE SIDE OF NEIL GAIMAN HIS FANS NEVER SAW, BY LAUREN STARKE (TRIGGER WARNINGS APPLY)

 

All in the golden afternoon, full leisurely we glide... 
(Happy July 4th!)

On this day, July 4th, Charles Dodgson took his friend Robinson Duckworth, and the three Liddell sisters, Lorina, Edith and Alice, on the first of several boating trips. Over that summer the first incarnation of the tale of "Alice's adventures Underground" (now known to all as Alice's adventures in Wonderland) was told episodically in a stop start fashion by Dodgson. The tale was made up on the spot and subsequent parts incorperated jokes and things Duckworth and the Liddells would find funny or interesting. The story was written down much, much later and presented to Alice Liddell in November 1864.

More about the timeline of the book's creation can be read here (article by Karoline Leach) 

Notification!

 Alice in Backlands (original title: Alice Dos Anjos) is now on dailymotion with English subtitles!

Alice (Tiffanie Costa) discovers a bizarre and brilliant land where she encounters even stranger characters. However the community is under threat from a local colonel who will do anything to take the land the community relies on.

This delightful adaptation aired on ARTE1 Brazil a few months ago, after many years round festival circuits in the region. It has a cabinet of trophies to prove its worth now. For us here its most valued as being the technical first adaptation of Carroll's Alice books as a film/TV special since... 1999's NBC attempt. 

I'd say more, but really you should just go and enjoy it. This is the first of several adaptations this decade to release (if IMDB is correct fully) so we are nowhere done with Carroll and film yet :)

You can follow announcements for this film officially on instagram :)

Thoughts on Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll's unedited diaries (1993, edited by Edward Wakeling)

 

(A rare complete set of the undedited diaries, photo by Harrington Books UK)

A dear friend of mine is currently undertaking work in regards to Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll's unedited diaries. These are the ones that are most complete and were published in the mid 1990s by the Lewis Carroll Society UK, and edited with expert footnotes by Mr Edward Wakeling. I have now had the jaw dropping oppertunity to read 4 of these. I'll explain why I called this jaw dropping later in this piece, but for now, it is worth reflecting on Mr Wakeling's sheer skill at putting together these diaries as an actual series of books, and piecing together insights that were completely lost/not known in Green's 1950s version. 

Its impossible to talk about these diaries without talking about what got lost via other people's editing. Green's edited diaries of an early era, are of course, only half the story. Green omitted, according to Karoline Leach, 50 percent of the diaries. He was handed an edited manscript, edited for content. As documented by Hagues Laibally, Dodgson's own descendants would cut out anything they deemed too "adult" in nature for this children's author to be doing.

What they found much more difficult to cope with was the plentiful evidence [....] of C. L. Dodgson's attendance at and enjoyment of what they considered as coarse performances starring young pert actresses, as well as of the favourable impression various adult female nudes produced on him: proof of such vulgar tastes looked to them far more scandalous, and they suppressed it in a much more consistent and systematic way, unaware that they were thus reinforcing and confirming the already too widespread view of 'Lewis Carroll' as a monomaniac perverse. 

 So that's any references to romance with adult ladies, and any references to "erotic" art that Dodgson seems to have enjoyed. Laibally also notes that what was omitted was:

13 % of the books C. L. Dodgson read [32 out of 242]

20 % of the plays he witnessed [139 out of 683]

65 % of the concerts he heard [79 out of 121]

53 % of the light entertainments he attended [18 out of 34]

40 % of the exhibitions he visited [87 out of 215]

and 15 % of the individual sculptures and paintings he singled out [44 out of 293]

were omitted from the first printed version of his diary, together with 199 mentions of or

judgments passed on the impersonations of actors and actresses of all ages out of 870 [about 23%]

In Wakeling's restored 1993 diaries, we see:

• Dodgson's art and culture reviews (doesn't like wuthering heights, does like the opera Norma)
• Day to day life details at Christ Church
• Dodgson's growing interest in photography and writing.
• Dodgson's friends, many of whom are adults and often are left out of his story in popular culture.
• Dodgson's attitudes to religion. Volume 4 includes multiple prayers that have long mystified scholars. Why do these prayers appear sporadically across this volume? No one really knows. Leach and Woolf point at a potential love affairs, each with varying theories. Others have rather disingeniously, tried to claim the prayers are about Alice Liddell, who features far less in these diaries than you'd imagine.

Wakeling's 1993 diaries restore a lot of what Green left out, or rather everything in 1993 that existed (minus the cut pages in diary document, which had not been found yet) Taking into context that 1990s era, its a remarkable achievement. Made even more impressive when, upon searching newspaper archives, I found almost nothing but wall to wall myth boosting about Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson in newspapers in the 1990s. The climate Mr Wakeling was working in appears to have been one that was media wise openly hostile to carrollians and had long sided with the now known-as-incorrect freudian stance. 

This may or may not explain why, inexplicably in my opinion, the press and popular culture as a whole did not react to the findings in the undedited diaries in 1993 or indeed, when the project finished. The supposed, even wanted, "confession" about Alice Liddell never appeared, because it never existed. That doesn't mean at all that these diaries were not "valuable", quite the opposite! Why no one did a piece on these in a public paper is beyond me.

Unfortunately, the only negative thing I can say regarding these diaries is that they are hard to get hold of.  This is why I said that my reading of them felt jawdropping to me. They are sold exclusively via the Lewis Carroll Society UK, and exist in full in US university libaries across America. The lack of access is a punishing blow for such important evergreen evidence. I wish I could encourage everyone who's interested in Carroll or has read his works to read these diaries too. And I wish the media could have read them.

SOURCES:

BOOKS:

Leach, Karoline. In the Shadow of the Dreamchild: the myth and Reality of Lewis Carroll, Peter Owen Press, 2015. 

Wakeling, Edward, Lewis Carroll's Diaries. The Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Luton: Lewis Carroll Society, 1993-2007.

PAPERS

Through A Distorting Looking-Glass: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's artistic interests as mirrored in his nieces' edited version of his diaries. By Hugues Lebailly. 

Rest in peace Edward Wakeling 🕯

 

(Edward Wakeling with manuscript replica of one of Charles Dodgson's diaries, photo via Keithpp, circa July 2010)

Devestated to hear of the passing of perhaps the only world expert in Lewis Carroll, Edward Wakeling. Wakeling's dedication to his subject matter unearthed many key documents and his lagacy shall hopefully be of someone who changed Carroll academia forever for the better. In later years Wakeling spoke out against misreadings of Carroll in the press and media and was not afraid to correct other biographers or read new research. His openess was rare in Carroll scholarship and he showed great integrity. 

He will be sorely missed.

Softly vanishing away: A review of the Hunting of the Snark (2023)

 Based on: the Lewis Carroll poem of the same name

Directed and adapted by: Simon Davison

Staring: Ramon Tikaram (Narrator/the Baker) Ralph Arliss (The Bellman) Tim J. Henley (the Bonnet Maker) Tom Wansey (the Butcher) Peter Daw (the Banker) Tristam Kimbrough (the Billard Marker) Nick Mellersh (the Barrister) Jose Barreto (the Boots) Bernard Myers (the Broker) Richard Ecclestone (The Baker's Uncle) Corrinne Furman (Hope) 

This UK crowdfunded film, beautifully shot with Victorian style camera lens effects, has been quite a long time coming. Originally funded far before 2020, the filming process took several years and its premiere was delayed due to the pandemic. Snark is the first out of a bulk of Carroll film adaptations in English to release this decade, with others subject to either delays or a somewhat slow move through festival circuits. In that sense, this version of Snark provides an excellent taster. Like upcoming Alices, it is shot on a fairly low budget and is far away from a “Hollywood” adaptation as possible.

For expanding a 70 page or so poem into a 90 minute film, writer and director Simon Davidson makes use of all kinds of tricks, from framing the story as occurring inside the mind of Lewis Carroll himself (more on this later) to visually representing maps, ideas, and illustrations. This second element means on first watch there is almost too much to take in, and I’d advise anyone thinking about watching this to do it twice. 

The film is packed with details and references to Carroll’s other works, the Victorian era, and mathematical and philosophical conundrums. Carrollians who are more in tune with these subjects than me will surely adore digging into the various signs and symbols and title cards the film presents its audience with. 

The cards, old Victorian organ music, slapstick, sharp angles and camera lens effects will remind you strongly of both Victorian theatre and culture. You will also be reminded of the films of art house directors Terry Gilliam and Jean Pierre Jeunet, whose unreal visual flairs and bizarre humour the film shares somewhat, but never to the point of just solely imitating either director’s style. The music, also by director Davidson, is also exceptional, waltzing between Victorian seaside organs, Carrollian poems, and carnival uneasiness. The end credits piece, mixing spoken word with several of these elements, is impeccable. You will want it on your Carrollian playlist, if you have one!

The loose story, as ever, focuses on a group of people setting off to hunt a mythical being called the Snark, with only a limited idea of what to do if they find it. This version focuses most on the Baker (played by Ramon Tikaram), promoting the character to almost lead status. This also means in terms of adaptation we see flashbacks to his childhood (not just the scene with his Uncle but several severe schoolroom memories) This version also gives him a sort of visionary role. The Barrister’s dream verses are altered in the biggest adaptational change to become about the Baker. Indeed there are multiple dream sequences throughout the film in which the Baker seems to come close to knowing his fate. Tikaram's Baker is a mix of wonder and fear, and the actor plays all sides of the character marvellously. 

The rest of the crew fit more in line with their original poem counterparts. Key standouts in the cast are the Bellman (played by Ralph Arliss) and the Butcher (played by Tom Wansey) Because this is an ensemble cast, its difficult to highlight individual actors as the overall affect means there is no weak link in the casting.  This version also adds another character, although she a dancer and so is not given any dialogue. A personification of Hope (played by Corrinne Furman) exists on Snark island and her appearances and disappearances indicate the mood of the crew, and often the direction of the narrative. 

What makes this version stand out from other Snarks the most is the strange meta twist that occurs halfway through. We are told at the beginning by a narrator, that this will not just be an adaptation, but a “journey into the mind of Lewis Carroll”. What does that mean for the viewer exactly? It means that as well as the poem, we get tiny flashes here and there to the reality of the situation for the poem characters. The Baker, in one of his dreams, catches a glimpse of a shadowy Carroll (played by Avon Flower) in an office which is likely to represent Christ Church. Alice, away from her dream adventures, runs through a corridor like a ghost as Carroll no longer needs her as a character. 

Unfortunately, sometimes this strand of the film gives way to rather ill thought out (in my opinion) darker ideas: why does a version of Gertrude Chataway look sadly at Carroll as he passes her on the beach? Is the grief Carroll is suffering with regarding a death in the family affecting the Snark poem? None of these questions are answered, and it is extremely difficult to tell how the film wishes us to feel about this fictionalisation of Carroll. I found this element occasionally difficult to swallow. I can’t know for sure, but this part may unintentionally be playing into mythic ideas, seeing Carroll as a shadowy figure or even a figure of harm (depending if you see the film’s ending as a result of Carroll’s grief being taken out on the poem characters) A friend of mine, whom I watched this film with, also had a similar reaction. It is, however, entirely possible to watch this film and come away with a totally different interpretation of its version of Carroll, and I'm well aware that my interpretation may be entirely false or not what the filmmakers intended! 

Overall the film works extremely well as a version of Snark on film, and despite my misgivings with how Carroll himself is incorporated into the narrative, the strength of the Snark island scenes and adaptation balance out any slight disquiet you may feel towards how Carroll is portrayed. I would still recommend it highly. Adapting a near un film-able poem with all the whimsy, darkness, and humour needed is a tough task, and this film mostly succeeds. 

The Hunting of the Snark 2023 is currently available to watch in the UK and US via Amazon video.