And is that not the same as the experiences in college? I'm from a small school where everyone had to go through essentially the same things. We all had the same teachers, the same lunch options, the same extracurricular activities (to a degree), and such parallel lives that I never put much thought into what I wanted to do or how I was going to get there. I was just moving with the flow. But here at UT, everyone is stunningly unique. I feel constantly awed and confused by so many possibilities. I agree with what Dawn said about the caterpillar's question, "Like Alice, I did not know how to reply. One spends four years in high school creating a persona, routine, and niche in their surroundings, only to have each of those things overturned in college." (Anthology, pg. 208) I used to be known as a 'color guard chick' but now I'm doing Tae Kwon Do. I was always better at history than most of my science classes, but now I want to go into the field of neurology. Im diverging from my self-concept I've held for so long. I know I'm starting the obvious, but it's really scary. But at the same time, it's exhilarating. I was held down for so long by my classmates concepts of how I was as a person and how I should act. I felt rather one-dimensional because I didn't always act the way I felt; I was too busy adhering to their expectations. So while I currently feel lost down the rabbit hole, it's all about my journey to my ultimate end as an individual. As the red queen said in Through the Looking Glass, "remember who you are!" (Annotated Alice, pg. 166) If I can follow this advice with my core of how I am and how I want to be, the outcome will be practically automatic!
On a darker note, I couldn't help but feel bad for Carroll/Dodgson after reading one of the selections. I don't hold to the belief that he was improper towards his children friends as Freud would like to have us think. Certainly he was an odd man, but I don't think he ever had ill-intentions for anyone. He was just in a different mental state than his peers. He, like Peter Pan, didn't really want to grow up. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that and he did grow up in a physical sense just not emotionally/mentally. And that's what makes him such a pitiable person. All the girls he befriended eventually grew up and left him stranded. "Like the Mad Hatter's tea-party, he was forever stuck at a particular moment in time and unable to accompany the girl he identified with to full maturity." (Anthology, pg 200) It's just incredibly sad to me. I guess it's at least somewhat cheering that at he enjoyed the time he spent with Alice and created a lasting novel in her honor.
http://amaltea-olenska.insanejournal.com/tag/pel%C3%ADcula
On a last, and relatively unrelated note, I recognized the song lyrics placed at the end of today's reading. In fact, I've heard it multiple times before though I didn't realize this until I listened through the entire song. Basically, there's a winter guard based out of Austin/San Marcos called Identity and last year they had a distinctly designed show. Titled "Curiouser and curiouser," they did a show based on the idea of Alice's journey but in a more abstract form. It gave me chills the first time I saw it and quickly became a crowd favorite. I can't seem to find a video but I'll ask my director (who helped teach sabre work for Identity) and see if there's a way to link it to the facebook group. It's an interesting interpretation that, though best seen in person, certainly gives Alice a more eerie, dark tone but keeps the adventurous spirit.
http://www.wgi.org/news/01122010-Does-Identity-make-you-Curiouser.html
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