Once Upon a Time book clutch

WANT.

Via ASOS

*As seen on Carrie of WishWishWish

Also, although Alice isn't technically a fairy tale, I wouldn't mind this Alice in Wonderland book clutch found on Asian iCandy

Walt Disney's Laugh-O-Grams

Walt Disney was inspired by fairy tales before the famous full-length cartoons were created-here are several shorts he did in the early 1920s (I think my favorite is the "Alice's Wonderland"-the cartoons interacting with humans made me smile, especially the cartoon mouse poking the cat). These are a preview for a future post on Jack Zipes' essay "Breaking the Disney spell"

Alice in Wonderland by Syrup

 I got these pictures from the lovely inspirational blog, The Drifter and the Gypsy. Enjoy some Alice in Wonderland-inspired collection from the Japanese label Syrup. Sometimes you hear of fashion being fairy-tale inspired, but that's most often in the vague, general sense that the clothing is a bit whimsical or maybe vintage-inspired. I like the more obvious references to Disney's Alice in Wonderland, without it being costumey.

Fairy tale necklaces from RingRingRing

Fairy tale silhouette necklaces available in the etsy shop RingRingRing

Isabella's Art

Aladdin and the Magic Lamp


Alice and the Madhatter

The Snow Queen

Little Red Cap and the Big Wolf

The Sandman

Hansel and Gretel and Witch

Candy House

Isabella's Art is an etsy site that features shadow puppets and theaters, with folklore, mythology, and fantasy as inspiration. I found this via Kingdom of Style. Reminds me of the work of Lotte Reiniger...the first one especially makes me want to watch The Adventures of Prince Achmed again...

Annotated Alice

I heard of the Annotated Alice through the blog Inside a Black Apple and immediately went to my library to get it. Note-initially I accidentally got More Annotated Alice, and I definitely recommend reading the regular Annotated Alice first. Or, you could read the Definitive Edition and get the best of both worlds-all annotated by Martin Gardner.

It is a common supposition that Lewis Carroll was on opium when he wrote the Alice books (in fact, if you type "was lewis" into Bing, the first option that comes up is "was lewis carroll on drugs"). There are definitely dream-like qualities in the books; sudden changes of scene, episodes that seem random and unconnected, etc., but none of the books I've ever read on Alice or Lewis Carroll mention drugs. His writing is full of inside jokes between himself and the Liddell sisters, or amusing jokes for other mathematicians, logicians, and philosophers. Carroll was a very intelligent man, and if he did do drugs, I'm sure he couldn't possibly have written the Alice books while under the influence-they're too intricate. For example, "Through the Looking Glass" represents an actual chess game that follows all the rules of chess. Most of his poetry are parodies of well-known poems and songs from his time. The story originated as tales he would tell the Liddell sisters while out boating, off the top of his head-apparently Alice was fond of nonsensical tales and requested them. Given that, it's no surprise the stories might appear a little disjointed or strange.

Drugs didn't play a part in the writing of these books, but if you've heard rumors of Carroll's unhealthy interest in little girls, that much is true. I don't think he ever actually molested anyone, but it's quite clear he had complicated relationships with his young child friends...in the preface to "More Annotated Alice" Gardner tells us that four photographs of naked little girls were found in Carroll's possession. Caryl Hargreaves, the son of Alice's real-life counterpart (Alice Pleasance Liddell) believes Carroll was in love with his mother, and there are indications that Carroll had hinted to Alice's mother about future marriage. His interest in little girls, though, seemed to wane as soon as they hit puberty-and he seemed to detest all little boys.

I personally found the book absolutely riveting, but it was funny to see people's reactions when they asked what I was reading. You could tell they were thinking, "Oh great, how can respond to this politely?" But anyone reading this blog would probably find it interesting as I did. There are all sorts of interesting tidbits-some only speculation, of course, but interesting nontheless. I had no idea there were so many Lewis Carroll societies and publications, or people that consider themselves to be "Carrollians."

Rather appropriately, Emily Martin of the above mentioned blog has been doing another series of Alice-themed characters. Below are the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Mad Hatter, the Chesire Cat, the Red Queen, Alice herself, and "Still Life with Live Flowers" (based on the garden of talking flowers.) The above pictures are from the original book, by John Tenniel.

I had already drafted this post when I came across this post on March Hare which includes a helpful bibliography of resources for those interested in Alice and in Little Red Riding Hood. I have so many books on my to-read list...

Alice

Neco z Alenky's "Alice" (1988) adds an interesting twist to the history of versions of Alice in Wonderland. The Czech film features a little girl among a cast of stop-motion creatures. The pace is very slow, and the overall mood is dark and drab, rather than the typical "let's imagine a lush and beautiful fanciful land for Alice to dream up." The white rabbit is a toy that comes to life-he is made of sawdust, which falls out every time he takes out his watch, and some scenes feature him eating sawdust out of a bowl, which I thought was cute. The caterpillar is made of socks. Everything is more grounded in reality. There is no music, which adds to the slowness. Each spoken line is followed by a close-up of Alice's mouth saying "said the White Rabbit" or "cried Alice," which gets a bit tiring (especially when watching the English version, where the lips and words don't match up.) Some props are more morbid-other animal characters are played by animal skeletons.

Isn't that a great image?

Alice has a doll of herself-with blonde hair and a matching dress. When she shrinks down to small sizes, she turns into the doll. The movie features famous Alice scenes, like the mad tea party, but also more obscure ones, like when the baby turns into a pig.

Now, some reviewers called it entirely true to the book, or more what Lewis Carroll intended when he wrote the book. I disagree. I like this interpretation, although to be honest, because it's so slow and repetitive, it's not one I'd watch again and again. But the tone I always got from the book was pure, lighthearted humor (not to mention a fast pace). This movie has very little humor and fixates on the bizarre factors. Those who thought this version was the most authentic were probably going on the assumption that Carroll was on opium when writing it. I don't know enough to comment on that, although I read a book about him once that was all about his love of riddles. He made lots of riddles, and the Alice books are full of hidden riddles-for example, "Through the Looking Glass" follows an actual chess game and the books shows you the moves each character makes. So I think it would be hard to do that type of thing while on drugs. However, evidence does point to him being perhaps a bit too intimate with little girls.

The film also adds imagery that was not necessarily emphasized in the books: drawers, scissors, and repetition. I can't say I understand the significance of those images. So the movie is worth a watch for Alice fans, but don't go out and buy the dvd.

BIRTHDAY!!!

Today is my birthday!
On my 16th birthday, I watched Disney's Sleeping Beauty because the whole thing takes place on her 16th birthday.

I also watched Disney's Alice in Wonderland, just to be ironic. To all of you out there who aren't celebrating birthdays, Happy Unbirthday to you!!

Inside a Black Apple

One of my favorite blogs ever is (Inside A Black Apple) by the lovely Emily Martin. She's an artist with a fairy tale aesthetic.

This week she featured this amazing locket-an illustration of Snow White and Rose Red. If it weren't sold out, I would have bought myself a birthday present. Based off of this Snow White and Rose Red Print


She has lots of other wonderful art, very whimsical and childlike yet often with a bit of the macabre mixed in. For the sake of the blog I'm only including those which directly relate to fairy tales. Alice print

Ofelia print (So, Pan's Labyrinth isn't a typical fairy tale-I like it anyway.)

Red Riding Hood and Wolf notebooks-I've also been debating whether or not to get these for myself
She also has a fashion blog. This outfit she called her modern Little Red Riding Hood outfit. Makes me want a red hoodie.

Mad(ly cute) tea party

If this little reading nook were in my house as a child, I would have spent all of my time here.

Note the teeny tiny teaset on top of the book!

Pictures from a local house my roommate was housesitting.

Designer Princess

One of my favorite fashion bloggers is Alix, The Cherry Blossom Girl. If you go through her archives, she's put together several modern and designer clothes and accessories to create outfits modeled after certain fairy tale characters.

Sleeping Beauty

As a peasant:

As a Princess whose dress color is being fought over by fairies:

Mary Poppins

Alice in Wonderland

Dorothy

Donkeyskin

A dress the color of weather:

A dress the color of the moon:

A dress the color of the sun:

Follow the links for more information on the individual peices, or in some cases, more accessories and outfits.