wtorek, 19 lutego 2013

Alice and Lolita - are they really similar?

Some time ago I read Alice I have been by Melanie Benjamin,
a story freely based on the life of Alice Liddell
which is supposed to be an inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Usually I am not really interested in stories behind books.
I prefer to enjoy a story as a world in itself
and don't try to find what made an author write it.
This time the story of 'real Alice' really appealed me,
but I don't really care how much truth is in it
(and if the book's Alice is really based on Alice Liddell
or on her sister or any other Carroll's little friend).

I am just going to write about one thought
which I found really fascinating when reading the book.

Let's assume that an ideal Alice is like Alice Liddell.
What kind of a person Alice as a child was?
Well, in spite of her sisters she didn't want to be a proper lady.
She hated all this Victorian etiquette, fixed rules and bans.
She always got dirty when playing and hated wearing frilly dresses
which prevented her from feeling free and natural.
Let's follow the Melanie Benjamin's fantasy and say that if Alice had entered her Wonderland
she would have run barefoot on grass in casual clothes or even in rags
(in reference to infamous photography I post below).



How can such a person be a role model for Lifestyle Lolitas
who in fact try very often to behave exactly according to rules that Alice hated?

There is one way to connect it.
Quite easy one, sounding like a cliche: to be the way you want to be.
Alice wanted to behave informally, wear comfortably clothes,
play outdoor and get dirty when doing it.
Lolitas want to behave, dress and live like ladies in a world when informality is approved.
Nowadays being a tomboy is okay, 
but being feminine is very often considered anti-feminist.

Being/ becoming Alice would metaphorically mean behaving in a way you truly are.
The society has changed and also rules how to fit it has changed
so in the consequence contemporary Alices are so much different.
But the mechanism stays the same.

2 komentarze:

  1. very interesting.

    i think the way they made tim burton's alice was based on the real alice, how she (and i quote directly from you) "hated all this Victorian etiquette, fixed rules and bans.
    She always got dirty when playing and hated wearing frilly dresses
    which prevented her from feeling free and natural."

    i wonder if Burton was inspired by this and decided to incorporate this into the movie?

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  2. In fact I also thought about it, but I don't remember any interview when he would explain what was his inspiration.

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