Alice? Alice?

I come to you briefly during an ad break in the original Alice in Wonderland, courtesy of free-to-air. It’s glorious! I really had forgotten how entertaining being a child is. Not only is one free of worries and responsibilities, but the stories are so much better. Nowadays the stories filling my ears usually consist of corrupt bankers or Governmental politics, but even Parliament can’t compare to the colourful characters of Lewis Carroll.

Sure, I could be out watching the new Burton/Depp version, but the original has me enthralled (Gene Wilder! Whoopi Goldberg!). And the story! Where does such creativity come from?!

Carroll’s mind, aided by a lot of drugs, I’d imagine. I never realised how littered with drug metaphors the story is – perhaps child-like ignorance is necessary to really appreciate it. But we’ve just passed the part where Alice has to lick mushrooms and drink ‘strange potions’ to change herself. Hmm.

Of course, chess metaphors also abound. The Queen, the Pawns, the fights between the black and white Knights – even the chequered garden floor. Carroll was a mathematician and a logician, but I have a vague recollection of him composing the odd chess puzzle to boot.

But that’s not why I’m enchanted tonight. It’s the sensation of childhood returned (though now adulterated slightly with the realisation that Alice is probably on LSD). What an escape!

I’ll cut this short as the movie is back on, but let me finish with one troublesome question:

Did Duracell copy the rabbit from the movie, or the other way around?

ither way, I see a lawsuit rivalling the Men at Work / Kookaburra debacle in the making.