Miss Gioia

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Time has Come, the Walrus Said


"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"to speak of many things.
Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax --
of cabbages and kings."

-Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

I have always loved this quote. In truth, I love all that is Alice,* including the very odd and dark Jabberwocky, but this poem makes me particularly happy. It is very twisted, actually, opening with dreams and fantasy and ending with trickery and - well - death.

This week I saw a link on AT the Nursery to a great site where you can order Wonderful Graffiti: custom vinyl text for the walls of your home. Here is my favorite example from the company's website.

I began to think about what quote I could use in Miss G's nursery, and my mind kept jumping back to the Walrus and the Carpenter. The "talk of many things" quote in particular alludes both to fantasy and to imparting of knowledge. It is my childhood and her potential, all wrapped into one.

When I told Chris, however, he said no. Hell to the no, actually. Too twisted, too weird. After all, the poor oysters did not fare so well. Well, OK. Perhaps a tale of deceit is not really the best reference for above my daughter's crib. LC was most likely a pedophile too, which is not cool either. So, back to the drawing board.

Speaking of Wonderland, I found some lovely Alice illustrations this week through a reference to the Rare Book Room on Whipup. We are all pretty familiar with John Tenniel's late 19th century illustrations, such as the one shown at the top of this post and below (courtesy of Project Gutenberg). But have you seen Attwell's art nouveau illustrations from an early 20th century edition? And the gorgeous Pease illustrations, with intricate borders around every page? And this fascinating (Polish?) version....



*If you are a math geek (like me), make sure you check out the Annotated Alice.

Obligatory Project Gutenberg language: This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

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1 Comments:

Anonymous chris beuk... said...

Ok, let's start here with the video.
The let's see see Jim Carey do it


Here are the lyrics.

And last but not least here is what it all means

Now tell me. Do you really want your kid growing up anywhere near this madness? Yes, I know you do Rebecca :)

May 15, 2007 10:32 AM  

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