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| Alice and the Gryphon © Erin |
After watching the Royal Ballet's recent production of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, I thought I should revisit the book. This time I paid more attention and found some sense in that world of nonsense. Lot's of wordplay that makes it fun, even for an adult to read:
The Mock Turtle went on. “We had the best of educations... the different branches of Arithmetic-- Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”
Here's my take on it:
Distraction − Subtraction = Distracted by things we want = Spending money
Uglification × Multiplication = It sounds bad and something bad to do with multiplying money = Greed
Derision ÷ Division = Ruin of personality or finances
Have you read any children's literature recently?
6 comments:
I'm a children's librarian, so I read a lot of children's literature or maybe it's the other way around. Alice in Wonderland is one of my favourite, I've read it many times. The best children's books are those adults can enjoy in their own way.
The best children's book I've read lately is Neil Gaiman's Odd and the Frost Giant
I had to read The Little Prince for my French test last week, but I did anything but enjoy it. I have never liked children's books very much, strangely not even when I was a child.
@Jedediah What a lovely job! Haven't heard of Gaiman's book, must go look at your post. I did enjoy Shannon Hale's Goose Girl series and Princess Academy though.
@Cassandra Haven't read The Little Prince. I'd recommend coming back to children's lit one day. The one's that are well written have a lot of little nuances that you might later appreciate. :)
It's just finding the ones that write on an even level instead of with a rather condescendingly simple voice/language.
Reread Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass last year and loved both for the fact that I think adults can appreciate them as much as children can. Just reread The Phantom Tollbooth, another book full of fabulous wordplay that adults might appreciate even more than the children for whom it was written.
I'll have to look up that ballet; it sounds great. I actually just reread Alice in Wonderland!
The Phantom Tollbooth is one of my all-time favorite books! Oh, the wordplay!
I love The Little Prince, too, but I had to wait until I was old enough to understand it.
Another wonderful children's book for grown-ups is Winnie the Pooh. Seriously! Much wisdom.
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