Victorian Visual Culture

Portmanteaus

caitlinmonahan — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:50:05 +0000

The more I learn about Lewis Carroll, the more I am amazed by his wonderful creativity and coupled with his extremely logical, math-oriented mind. One does not often see these two opposite characteristics in one person. For example, I knew that Carroll liked to make up his own words and definitions as part of his quest to add logic to the world, but I just recently learned that he coined “chortle” and “galumphing” which are now standard English words. Even more fascinating, is that Lewis Carroll coined the term “portmanteau”, as in portmanteau words, meaning words that are made from two or more other words. Carroll wrote the words “slithy” meaning lithe and slimy, as well as “mimsy” meaning flimsy and miserable, seen in the poem Jabberwocky. These words were so-called because of how Humpty Dumpty described them as being like the piece of furniture the portmanteau, which is two pieces in one. Although he didn’t coin them himself, Lewis Carroll is responsible for words like smog, spork, and sexting!

John Tenniel’s Illustrations on Dinnerware!

caitlinmonahan — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:24:57 +0000

This website has some amazing ceramics with John Tenniel’s illustrations from the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland printed on them. I loved the illustrations that Tenniel created for the story, and I think that they look absolutely beautiful on these dishes too! I was surprised to find these, as I feel like the original illustrations, along with the original story, have really become lost to the modern world with so many recreations and adaptations. It is lovely to see the beautiful artwork available in this timeless fashion.

American McGee’s “Alice”

caitlinmonahan — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 06:00:16 +0000

When I was in middle school I had a friend with an older sister who would often play a computer game called “American McGee’s Alice”, and I remember thinking it was the scariest and coolest thing I had ever seen. This game from the early 2000′s is based on Alice in Wonderland, but it is really a completely backwards version of the already backwards Wonderland of Lewis Carroll’s imagination. In this corrupt version of Alice, she has grown up and has spent several years in an insane asylum following the death of her parents in a house fire, and has subsequently become twisted and deranged. After leaving the asylum she finds herself back in Wonderland, which is now just as dark and demented as she is being that it is her own dream manifestation. The player of the game has to navigate many obstacles involving killing Wonderland creatures in the macabre version of Alice in Wonderland. As a preteen I thought that this game was extremely cool, and I somehow thought that it must be more like the original story than the Disney version, not having read the original story. Now I just think that this game is a very strange perversion of a wonderful story that doesn’t need to be manipulated to be made more interesting or provocative. Also, I read that this game was the predominant inspiration for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” from 2010 rather than the original story. Here is a trailer for the “backwards Wonderland”:

Jefferson Airplane “White Rabbit”

caitlinmonahan — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:38:05 +0000

This popular song from the 1960′s has an interesting take on Lewis Carroll’s classic story. Because of the popularity of drug culture in the sixties and the video’s definite psychedelic feel, Jefferson Airplane appeared to be using imagery from Alice in Wonderland to create a song and video that simulated an acid trip. I like this song very much, but now that I know the “real” Alice I know that the lyrics of this song are a manipulation of the original story from the 1800′s, long before the invention of such psychedelic drugs as acid. These are the lyrics:

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall
Tell ‘em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “off with her head!”
Remember what the dormouse said;
“Keep your head”

It is very interesting to see the use of the events in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a vignette of drug use. Jefferson Airplane talks about taking pills, which Alice does not do, and they allude to taking “some kind of mushroom”, both of which are drug references that were not in the original Alice. Basically, the lyrics of this song are saying, if you’ve taken drugs and are experiencing a trip in which you chase rabbits and encounter hookah-smoking caterpillars, then go talk to Alice, because she’s done those drugs before and knows all about that trip.

Stabbing Paintings

kamibrodie — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:07:27 +0000

One of the things that stood out to me as I worked on my final paper was the way Wilde comes full circle in regards to the painting of Dorian. When Basil first finishes the painting, Dorian grows despondent after realizing that, while the Dorian in the painting will remain young and beautiful forever, he will not. Basil, upon seeing his friend’s sadness, decides that the painting, though his finest work, is not worth as much as his friendship, and takes up a knife, planning to destroy the painting. Dorian stops him, crying, “‘It would be murder!’” (Wilde 30). Basil stops, and eventually, the painting ends up in Dorian’s hands.

By the end of the novel, Dorian is again despondent, because he realizes what a terrible person he’s been. He goes to the room with the painting, and using the knife he used to murder Basil, stabs the painting. In doing so, the painting is restored to its original beauty, and Dorian is transformed into the person that was depicted in the painting. As it was the image of the aged Dorian that was stabbed, the living Dorian is now dead, by his own hand. It is ironic, because, had Dorian let Basil destroy the painting, it would not have been actual murder, and both of them would have probably lived.

The Annotator of Alice

kamibrodie — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:58:14 +0000

I really enjoyed many of the annotations in The Annotated Alice. Others were less than necessary, in my opinion. But one sticks out in my mind as something I just can’t agree with. In note 3, on page 62, he says, “Whoopi Goldberg was the Cheshire Cat in NBC’s undistinguished, boring television version of Alice in Wonderland that aired on February 28, 1999.” This strikes a chord with me, not only because it seems totally out of place, but also because that is my favorite film adaptation of Alice. It is neither boring nor undistinguished. The cast is fantastic, and one of the things I love about it is how they make the characters in Wonderland resemble those in the real world. As Gardiner mentions in his notes, many of the characters in the books are meant to allude to actual people. While this is a little bit nit-picky, but it’s been bothering me since it was pointed out in class.

In this clip, Alice sings the Lobster Quadrille to a group of her parents’ friends, who all bear uncanny resemblances to characters in Wonderland.

Irish Fenians vs. Illegal Immigration

allisongran — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:20:17 +0000

At the beginning of class, while looking at the images of Fenians I remembered being struck by how familiar they seemed. Then, sadly, while my friend was doing some research for another class I saw a propaganda caricature depicting Illegal Immigration in Arizona and the similarity struck me.

Here we have the image we all saw and discussed in class from a London Newspaper depicting the Irish ideal Hibernia clinging to her strong and protective sister Britannia (Britain) to shield her from the savage, primitive “Fenian Pest”.

The image shows an obvious attempt to portray the figures of Irish Fenianism as grotesque and brutal, giving the viewers the Central Figure of Britain as the sole protective force against this devastation.

Interestingly, a similar idea is presented in the following propaganda image dealing with the issue of immigration. Here, viewers are given the figure of The Statue of Liberty (the personification of the United States) literally and figuratively stomping out the issue, stereotypically portrayed as a little mariachi, caballero style “mexican”.

Viewers see “America” presented as a strong and unyielding force undefeatable, a stark contrast from the following image where she appears to be all but overrun.

Here viewers are given the impression that “America” is falling and needs to be saved, that she will drown if not rescued from the “terror” of illegal immigration. I think it’s really interesting to look at the propaganda of these two periods and compare them.

1950s Advertisements

lizzyspain915 — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:17:25 +0000

While working on my Victorian Visual Culture paper on advertising, I’ve come across a lot of very interesting and sometimes bizarre advertisements that have existed over time. Usually, I love to look at old advertisements, because as Lori Anne Loeb says in “Consuming Angels”, advertisements can be really great cultural commentary of a specific time in history. Older print ads, from the 1920′s and 1950′s, can be fascinating. It’s funny to see the novelty and excitement an advertisement expresses when promoting a product we are so used to using in our everyday lives (a washing machine! Ponds cold cream! Well, I don’t use Ponds, but it just seems so old-fashioned, it’s hard to think that there ever existed a time where Ponds was new and exciting). Anyway, in my research I also came across some extremely disturbing ads. I was looking at an article on businesspundit.com entitled “10 Most Sexist Print Ads from the 1950s” and found this:

The article supplied a quote underneath that said: “There’s a lot to be said for domestic violence. Sure, it ruins lives and tears families apart, but at least you can be certain your coffee is fresh! The mere suggestion today of an ad such as this would be enough to have you sacked from most major ad agencies. What were they thinking? The more you look at this ad, the sadder it gets”.

It’s true, this is an awful ad. But I can’t help but think about some of the advertisements we have access to today. While few to none are as blatantly violent as this one, it’s clear to me that the degradation of women in our advertisements today is still painfully prevalent.

This is still pretty provocative if you ask me:

Illustrations of Stories

allisongran — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:05:20 +0000

I’ve always been interested in the editing choice to include illustrations in books, particularly those deemed “young adult”, seemingly bridging the gap between children’s picture books and novels. And while looking at the images Tenniel provided for Alice in Wonderland, it made me think of what the most well known illustrated book there was today. And of course I came to Harry Potter. The books only include illustrations in the beginning of chapters, but they are very interesting from an influential aspect. While with Alice, the images were constant throughout the story, providing readers with an image to accompany the written story. With Harry Potter, on the other hand, the image is often obscure and a single object of apparent importance in the chapter, often leading readers to suspect or guess what will be coming up next.

These are some examples of the images from the Harry Potter series. They differ severely from the images shown in the Alice book focusing on one single characteristic and often the object is shown simply, and not really in the context of what is happening in the plot. I don’t really know whether or not this has anything to do with the age group the stories were directed at or any other factor, but I think it’s just interesting to look at the two different approaches to illustration.

Victorian Ideas of Time

allisongran — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:18:46 +0000

One idea which I keep seeing appear in our readings and our discussions is the concept of time. It comes up in many different forms, whether it be a desire or hatred towards the preservation of time, the prolonging of time, the bending of time, or the freezing of time. It seems like there was almost a Victorian obsession with these idea.

For example, in Alice in Wonderland we are presented with a Conversation between Alice and The Mad Hatter in which “time” is moldable, and changeable, as a person in itself.

“Alice sighed wearily. ‘I think you might do something better with the time,’ she said, ‘than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers.’

‘If you knew Time as well as I do,’ said the Hatter, ‘you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him.’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ said Alice.

‘Of course you don’t!’ the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. ‘I dare say you never even spoke to Time!’

‘Perhaps not,’ Alice cautiously replied; ‘but I know I have to beat time when I learn music.’

‘Ah! That accounts for it,’ said the Hatter. ‘He wo’n’t stand beating. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he’d do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o’clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you’d only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!’”(Carroll, pg 72)

The Hatter then goes on to say that time doesn’t work this way for him anymore, as they got into an argument and now the time is always 6 o’clock (tea time) for them. By personifying time, Carroll gave it the ability to reap either favors or revenge, going along with the well known idea that time can be friendly or cruel. These obsessions with time strike me as really interesting. It makes me wonder if this subconscious wish to control time came up from the ever increasing speed of life as the Victorian Period saw it changing from the rural to the modern.