The Virtual Coffeehouse

Although the words of the Alice text are crucial in telling the story, the visuals are just as important in conveying the strangeness, wonder, and nonsense of Alice's adventures. This is why the illustrations are so important in the book (and Lewis Carroll even references them a couple times in the text in order to explain what's going on), and also why a silent film is still able to convey the story. Actually seeing parts of the story such as the white rabbit, the disappearing Cheshire Cat, and the procession of cards is as powerful as reading about them. These parts of the story require us to mentally visualize them anyway, because they are so out of the ordinary, so being able to see them is just as effective and intriguing.

Another reason the silent film might be of interest to people today is that it shows how people interpreted Alice's Adventures in Wonderland closer to the time it was written. Seeing what parts they included and what parts they left out made it interesting to me, as well as seeing how they interpreted it when restricted to mostly visuals.

I agree with Amanda. The illustrations and visuals are helpful in bringing the text to life, especially because the literal events in the story are so unbelievable and magical. It draws people into the story when they see an artist’s representation of the actions and gives the text some sort of credibility. To me it seems like if one person could visualize and draw (or tape) the contents of the story, readers would feel more comfortable letting their imaginations run wild.

Another thing I want to point out, as a fan of fashion photography, is the various interpretations of Alice in Wonderland in contemporary art. Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz recently did a collection for Disney’s A Year of a Million Dreams campaign in which celebrities posed as their favorite Disney characters.
Here’s a link to the Alice picture: http://avmk.disney.go.com/avmk_v0300/en ... lpaper.jpg
If you do a Google search, more pictures from the collection could be found (if you’re interested).

Also, Leibovitz did a photo shoot portraying famous designers with Alice. Here’s the link for that: http://www.funforever.net/archives/glam ... iry-tales/ Also on that page are pictures of Keira Knightley as Dorothy (again, if you’re interested).

Similar to a silent film, pictures do not have a soundtrack. Strong images, however, do help shape our reading of the text, and in the case of Alice in Wonderland, they’re very influential.

I loved those pictures! thanks Jennifer.

I also agree with these 2 posts about the importance of visuals. The film gave me the same feelings of absurdity as the story. I also thought that the fast paced motion of the film was important in adding to the confusion and dreamlike quality.

Also, Amanda made an excellent point about the importance of what this director chose to include, as someone much closer to the time of the first publication. It was interesting to take note of this while watching.