Monday, March 18, 2019

Down the Rabbit Hole with the Lewis Carroll Society of North America Spring Meeting


On Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9 San Diego State University had the privilege of hosting the Lewis Carroll Society of North America’s Spring Meeting, and we loved falling down the rabbit hole together. Fans and scholars of Lewis Carroll and literature alike came together for exciting talks including Kathleen Krull’s discussion of the writing and publishing of her children’s picture book “One Fun Day with Lewis Carroll”. Some familiar faces to the SDSU campus popped up in Dr. Joseph Thomas’ talk on Shel Silverstein’s “Alice” poem and Dr. Philip Serrato’s talk “It’s Not Easy Being a Girl in Heteropatriarchy.”

Kathleen Krull detailed her process of researching, writing, and publishing her picture book, “One Fun Day with Lewis Carroll: A Celebration of Wordplay and a Girl Named Alice”. After falling in love with Alice in Wonderland as a child, she wrote an entire children’s book about Lewis Carroll’s Life utilizing Carroll’s nonsense words, evoking nostalgia for the whimsical language characterizing Alice in Wonderland. 


Dr. Thomas discussed Shel Silverstein’s “Alice” poem. The symbols of childhood and play within the poem depends greatly on the knowledge of Carroll’s original Alice in Wonderland. The final lines of the poem truly stood out: “And so she changed, while other folks/Never tried nothin’ at all” (Silverstein, 1974). Another poem he discussed was Silverstein’s “The Missing Piece”, a poem about an almost complete circle rejecting his perfectly fit piece. Dr. Thomas argues that this questions the idea of perfection and “wholeness” by reversing the standards of a “happy” or “fulfilled” life (pardon the pun), much like how Alice is learning to accept more of the incongruous aspects of life.


Dr. Serrato’s “It’s Not Easy Being a Girl in a Heteropatriarchy” upended traditional readings with a gothic reading of Alice’s in Wonderland. Under the guise of a simple children’s fantasy tale, Dr. Serrato brought to light recycled gothic features such as the beloved White Rabbit being a symbol of repressed trauma, and Alice inhabiting the specter of seeing motherhood as fearsome and unnerving. You can say I am never looking at my favorite childhood book the same again.


The meeting concluded with a visit to the once-lost Alice in Wonderland mural hidden on our very own SDSU campus. This beautiful mural was found under layers of paint and restored by Dr. Seth Mallios and his dedicated team, and we are so lucky to have a historic piece that artfully represents the impact that Carroll has had on past SDSU students.

We had so much fun and we hope we get the opportunity to host the Lewis Carroll Society of North America Again!

(SS)

For a video of Dr. Joseph T. Thomas's talk visit https://youtu.be/iARmr-wmwNo.

Works Cited:
Silverstein, Shel. Where the Sidewalk Ends. Harper Collins Publishers, 1974.

No comments:

Post a Comment