We’re All Mad Here!

Psychedelics, drugs, growing up… Alice and its many meanings.

Alice in Wonderland, Disney, 1951. Wikimedia commons. Public domain.

When Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carrol) made up the stories in Alice in Wonderland to entertain the Liddell girls during a summer boat trip on the River Thames in Oxford in 1862, he couldn’t have imagined the literary revolution he was about to unleash. Over 150 years and several other books later, movies, games, and paraphernalia, this book is now as popular as ever. But why? Alice exploring the “Under Ground” is a brilliant allegory of childhood, of getting to terms with aspects of the world and ourselves that can seem strange and frustrating. And this idea resonates heavily with adults too. But there are many more bizarre interpretations to this tale.

John Tenniel’s original illustrations for Alice in Wonderland. Source: Free SVG. Public domain.

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Alice Liddell in 1861, photographed by Lewis Carroll. The girl that inspired the original Alice’s Adventures Underground. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The book was banned three times in the 20th century