The Lavinia Whateley was a Boojum, a deep-space swimmer, but her kind had evolved in the high tempestuous envelopes of gas giants, and their offspring still spent their infancies there, in cloud-nurseries over eternal storms. And so she was streamlined, something like a vast spiny lionfish to the earth-adapted eye. Her sides were lined with gasbags filled with hydrogen; her vanes and wings furled tight. Her color was a blue-green so dark it seemed a glossy black unless the light struck it; her hide was impregnated with symbiotic algae.
Illustration from Lightspeed Magazine for the story “Boojum”
That’s the definition of a Boojum from the short story “Boojum,” by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear, printed in the September 2012 issue of Lightspeed, a magazine of Sci-Fi and Fantasy fiction. There’s also a character named Black Alice. The story is online here, and ebooks of Lightspeed can be bought here or on Amazon here ($3.99).
Erin Stocks has an interviewwith the authors, and the first question is about the Carrollian title:
September 2012 issue of Lightsaber
Your short story “Boojum” happens to be one of my favorite science fiction stories written in the last few years, and I’m delighted we’re reprinting it in this issue. Some of our readers might recognize a “Boojum” as a dangerous kind of snark, a fictional animal species invented by Lewis Carroll, or maybe the intercontinental supersonic cruise missile dreamed up in the 1940s (and never completed) for the U.S. Air Force. Was the creation of the Lavinia Whateley influenced by either one of those?
We got the word from Lewis Carroll. The second story set in this universe, “Mongoose,” features monsters called toves, raths, and bandersnatches.
(Sarah: I don’t remember how we thought of crossing Lewis Carroll and H. P. Lovecraft, but since “The Hunting of the Snark” is one of my favorite poems, in retrospect it seems utterly inevitable. Bear: True story: Sarah and I once drove around Madison after a rainstorm looking at an enormous triple rainbow and reciting “The Jabberwock” to one another from memory. The intersection of Lovecraft, Carroll, whimsy, and horror seems inevitable once you’ve hit upon it.)
Their story “Moongoose,” mentioned above (the one with toves, raths, and bandersnatches), was published in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection (2010). “Within moments, the tove colony was in full warble, the harmonics making Irizarry’s head ache…”
Sean Hennessey, “Humpty Dumpty is a Rabbit Hole” (2012)
Sean Hennessey, “Humpty Dumpty is a Rabbit Hole” (2012)
An exhibition of work by mixed-media artist Sean Hennessey opens today in Washington, DC.
“Reimagining Wonderland’ interprets scenes from the Alice books as wall relief compositions using a rich combination of glass, concrete, steel, wood, paint, sound, video, LED’s and electroluminescent lights. In a nice long interview with the Huffinton Post Hennessey describes his inspiration and working methods and makes particular reference to the relief pictured on the right:
“For this series I took a page from my sketchbook for every chapter. It started with words, key elements, icons. For a series I make the frame sizes the same. I like consistency for a theme.
I wanted to do a version of “Humpty Dumpty,” I knew I wanted a concrete egg, I knew I wanted it broken, it took me a really long time to figure out what to put inside of it. Other things came out exactly how I thought they would. It’s a process until you hang it.”
The show will open with an artist’s reception tonight, from 5-8pm, at the 410 GooDBuddY gallery, 410 Florida Avenue NW, Washington, DC. The gallery does not appear to have a website but you can visit this Facebook event page for more details of the reception.
The door stops featured in Antiques Roadshow on PBS
In yesterday’s Summer TV round-up PART ONE, the evil ghost of Alice Liddell came back through the looking-glass in Syfy’s Warehouse 13. The characters in the show needed to use enchanted artifacts, such as the caterpillar’s hookah, to conquer the demon. Alice-related artifacts were also on a very different show this May, namely, Antiques Roadshow.
The popular PBSshow featured some lovely Alice in Wonderland carved door stops, appraised at $10,000-$15,000. The appraiser, Noel Barrett, said, “Alice in Wonderland is so much a part of our culture. And this imagery is just ingrained. And what to me is really exciting is, in carved wood, whoever created these did a masterful job of adding dimension to the wonderful Tenniel illustrations, which of course are touchstone imagery of Alice.” The guest originally paid $100 for them at an estate sale. More pictures and a transcription of the appraisal are here.
Watch Appraisal: “Alice in Wonderland” Doorstops on PBS. See more from Antiques Roadshow.
Last week, a show called Face Off, also on Syfy, had an episode called “Alice in Zombieland.” Face Off is a stage make-up competition, sort of like Iron Chef but with the contestants making monster masks. In this episode, “the contestants find themselves in the gorgeous Descanso Gardens where McKenzie tells them that the challenge this week is a mash-up between Alice in Wonderland and zombies. Some artists are psyched, but Sarah, who grew up in a Mennonite community, is stumped. At a loss for how to turn the Cheshire Cat into a zombie, she consults Nicole, who tells her to just mash it up.” This episode can also be watched online in HD on Amazon Instant Video for $1.99.
There pictures below were taken from FearNET TV, where there is a detailed review of the episode.
A still from Syfy’s Face Off, episode 304 “Alice in Zombieland,” from FearNET TV.A still from Syfy’s Face Off, episode 304 “Alice in Zombieland,” from FearNET TV.
And now a look into the future of Alice television!
On the CW network, look for a cop drama based on Alice in Wonderland. You read that correctly. “Alice will be a modern-day big city detective,” reports Entertainment Weekly. “In this version, Alice discovers a fantastical world beneath Los Angeles. The working title is Wunderland (yes,with a ‘u’).” EW concludes, “What could go wrong?”
And finally, big news from Comic-Con. Last year we joked about the fact that the prequel to Zenoscope’s “Return to Wonderland” was called “Alice in Wonderland.” Indeed, the books have been among the top ten independent comics of the past few years. Now, the news from Comic-Con is that the television rights for the whole Zenoscope series were won by Lionsgate, apparently following a “six-studio bidding war.” Look for Alice Liddell’s busty ass-kicking daughter to enter a mad Wonderland on a major network sometime in the next few years. The entire series of Zenoscope novels are available at Amazonand where all fine comics are sold.
Lewis Carroll made a few cameos on television this summer.
BBC’s Inspector Lewis, on Masterpiece Mystery (also on PBS in America), had an episode in Season V called “The Soul of Genius.” The dead body in this whodunit was a professor obsessed with The Hunting of the Snark, and of course the Inspector has to delve into the poem to search for clues, i.e. a “legendary riddle hidden in Carroll’s philosophical story of an impossible quest for the unknowable.” Oxford’s Botanical Gardens are also visited. Here’s the trailer from the PBS website:
I’m not sure when PBS reruns it, but it is already available on DVD at Amazon.com, where it received mostly five-star costumer reviews, and is already available on Netflix (Season 5, Disc 1.)
Over on basic cable, Syfy’s Warehouse 13 had a creepy mystery involving Lewis Carroll’s mirror, which aired August 27. The trailer shows the protagonist finding the Looking-Glass in the warehouse, and accidentally unleashing an EVIL SPIRIT from the other side, namely the “murderous” ghost of Alice Liddell.
Syfy’s website had further description of the plot:
Evil dead Alice Liddell, in the Warehouse 13 episode “Fractures.”
[…] Almost immediately, a ping comes in that a young woman has transformed from her meek self to a salacious thug. By the time Pete and Myka realize that Alice Lidell escaped from Lewis Carroll’s mirror – and the mirror somehow got out of the Dark Vault – they realize that she’s also able to jump from body to body using a shard of the broken mirror. […] Artie narrowly escapes the attack from a waitress, possessed by Alice, but once outside, he and Vanessa confer with Pete and Myka. Artie won’t explain how he knows, but says that Alice is there to kill him. They call back to the Warehouse and direct Jinks and Claudia to find a trapping artifact – a hookah that appeared in “Through the Looking-Glass” [sic]- so they can re-contain Alice.
Even if you missed the first-run on TV, this episode “Fractures” can be watched online in HD on AmazonInstant Video, for $2.99.
Alice Liddell as a Beggar Maid, now at the Carnegie Museum of Art
Two of the most famous photographs Dodgson made of Alice Liddell have been promised to the Carnegie Museum of Art: “Alice Liddell as a Beggar Maid” (1858, albumen print) and “Alice with Garland” (1860, glass negative).
The gift, from the collection of William Talbott Hillman, also includes key works by Roger Fenton, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Alfred Stieglitz and represents “an exceptionally important addition” to the museum, in the words of Linda Benedict-Jones, curator of photographs. “Indeed” she continued “they may pave the way for further collecting of iconic works by such recognized masters of the medium.”
I haven’t been able to find an image of “Alice with Garland” online. If anyone reading this knows where to find one, could you link to it in the comments below?
This May, a London jeweller-turned-artist named Joe O’Donovan displayed his new series of “Alice in Wonderland” paintings at the Marleybone Library in Westminster. The West End Extra reported that “among the works is a picture of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, who the 57-year-old acrylics painter has reimagined as a pair of hardnut football fans on their way to a distinctly retro Wembley Stadium.” Indeed, and O’Donovan himself describes the pair on his website in more detail:
Yes, the Skinheads as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, circa 1960 on the way to the White Towers, Wembley Stadium, England, remember THAT world cup!
With their signature style of working-class lad wear, Fred Perry t-shirts, Doctor Martens boots – Ox blood colour, red braces; down and ready for action, and of course the turned-up Wranglers, Lee’s or Levi’s.
I have fond memories of this time, as a young boy myself, I saw these lads as hard working young men, originating their own modern style of affordable clothing with a love for Ska music and an affinity for their West Indian mates. Trojan music still inspires me to stomp, lol.
Things do change but honest, fond memories cannot be corrupted by later hijackers of the style.
With these two fun characters from Alice in Wonderland, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, doing what they do best, which is being themselves. Here is a painting to awaken the glory of Bobby Moore’s England squad in all of us. A pride in your nation is your right no matter what your ethnic origin, if your here your English, and welcome! Come on England!
That’s poetry, mate. Glicee prints are available through O’Donovan’s website. Also, his caterpillar is Albert Einstein:
“ALICE IN WONDERLAND. ‘IT’S ALBERT ACTUALLY!’, SAID THE CATERPILLAR” by Joe O’Donovan
It’s hard to imagine anything less Victorian than the hula, but world-travelers like Alice always pay a visit to Hawaii sooner or later. Alice in Hulaland is a boutique in Paia, Maui, selling clothing, souvenirs and its own line of Alice in Hulaland t-shirts. You can order online or pretend you didn’t hear that and add it to your list of very important reasons to go to Hawaii.
Not sure if this is a paradox or a parody but here you have it: a kindle case made from the original covers of an Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (or Dracula). It is handmade in Hampshire, England using traditional bookbinding techniques and sold on Signals.com (“gifts that inform, enlighten and entertain”). Similar cases, handmade by a variety of artists, are for sale on Etsy.com.
If you like underwater photography – and what landlubber doesn’t? – there’s an artist named Elena Kalis who specializes in just that. Her latest series is called “Alice in Waterland and Looking Glass,” and comprises of lovely submerged Alices. Her entire portfolio can be seen here.
Your destination will most certainly be uncertain if you follow the Wonderland/Looking-Glass Land Transit Map for sale on a t-shirt at ThinkGeek.com. According to the website, “the red line is Wonderland, the yellow line is Looking-Glass Land, and the blue line is a commuter line that makes it easier for all the queens to get together for tea.” But what happens if you try and change lines at Mount Jub-Jub, where in the world is the City of Charity, and will you ever find Dinah again? Proceed with caution.
And finally, big news from Comic-Con. 
