Charlotte's Web | E.B. White

Publication Date: 1952

Author's Nationality: American

Author's Real Name: Elwyn Brooks White

Original Language: English

Genre: Classics (children's literature)
Pages: 184

After reading "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" I decided to make a conscious effort to revisit some of my childhood favourites.  Since I was going away on vacation, I figured I would have enough time to get through "Charlotte's Web", one of my favourite books as a child.  However, I had so much to do at work that I had to finish the book when I got back.  Due to this, I read the book in two parts... prior to the fair and everything after.

This is still one of my favourite books of all-time, and one that I will read to my children.  White does a tremendous job of taking complex themes like aging, coping with death, friendship and love and somehow makes them simpler to understand.  The book is obviously not just for children; adults can learn a lot about life through the prose as well.  The book serves as a constant reminder of what life is like through the eyes of a child, and it's always important to reinforce childhood memories in order to understand their children but also to understand what was and is important to them.  I love the line "children almost always hang onto things tighter than their parents think they will," because I think it's very true.  Children are sometimes not given credit for their memory because some events they bounce back from very quickly.  Others are very important and stay with you into adulthood.

The book has a nice balance of happiness and sadness... akin to the ebbs and flows of a 'normalized' life.  I was reading John Irving's "The Fourth Hand" on vacation and it mentioned that if you didn't cry when you read "No one was with her when (Charlotte) died" then you weren't human, or something of that ilk.  It was a touching line and often a reality in death.  Wilbur had a tough time coping with his own finite life, but he had an even tougher time losing a friend.  I know as a child I lost many friends in all my moving around, and while I don't remember being read this at the time... it may have helped.  I would surely read it to my child if the situation arose.

This book is timeless (except one reference which stood out to me about recycling and a second about the novelty of a 'deep freeze'), and will continue to be read to generations.  I believe the first time I read Charlotte's Web was after White's death in 1985... and it still rings true to me 25 years later.  White left a wonderful legacy... despite the limited number of publications he produced.  Another reminder of quality over quantity... a lesson that if more learned, would do the world much good.

I have never read "Stuart Little" so I may eventually give that a go.  I feel like the movie (I'm not sure if I watched it or just the previous) tainted my opinion on it but hopefully I can look upon it with to as close as a tabla rasa as possible.

QUOTATIONS:
"What a gamble friendship is!" 41
"Wilbur was merely suffering the doubts and fears that often go with finding a new friend." 41
"People are not as smart as bugs." 67
"Children almost always hang onto things tighter than their parents think they will." 69
"You're terrific as far as I'm concerned," replied Charlotte sweetly, "and that's what counts.  You're my best friend and I think you're sensational." 91
"When words appeared everyone said they were a miracle.  But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle." 109
"Friendship is one of the most satisfying things in the world." 115

Through the Looking Glass | Lewis Carroll

Publication Date: 1871

Author's Nationality: English

Author's Real Name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

Original Language: English

Genre: Classics (children's literature)

Pages: 121

I was not expecting this sequel to be better than the novel before it, but that's exactly how I felt and I believe it had something to do with having some sort of structure.  Alice walks through the looking-glass to a world on the other side and finds herself in a real life chess game.  The storytelling was original and I found myself seeing the pieces on a chessboard come alive and interact.  The Queens in the story move so fast, and if you think about it... this makes perfect sense.  There is no other piece in chess that can move all the way across the board in one move.  That said, the King doesn't even try to catch her... and why should he?  He can only move one space at a time.  In addition, the whole world created moves backwards... and isn't this just what a good chess player does?  Doesn't he anticipate the moves that will be made next and then makes something which he believes will take him to that eventual anticipated move?

There were numerous themes that captivated me in this work, as well.  Nature and human structures were constantly changing into one another, reminding me that we are inevitably linked and everything we create effects nature.  The work was slightly more humours as well... I actually laughed when Carroll described a living plum pudding as having "a thick, suety sort of voice" which took me back to the first time my mother tried to use suet (beef or mutton fat) to make a plum pudding... how they were originally made back in the day.

Humpty Dumpty also makes an appearance, and contrary to the Disney movie... he is the one who comes up with the term 'unbirthday'.  In this work, we also hear the complete poem "Jabberwocky" and the lovely "The Walrus and the Carpenter" story.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this work... much more than the original "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."  I'm wondering if anyone else enjoyed this work much more than the first book.  I'd be interested to hear from the blogger community.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll

Publication Date: 1865
Author's Nationality: English
Author's Real Name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson *
Original Language: English
Genre: Classics (children's literature)
Pages: 96

I've been a fan of the Disney film "Alice in Wonderland" since I was a child.  The story has always been very magical to me and I have certain favourites like the smoking caterpillar, the story of the walrus and the carpenter [actually in "Through the Looking Glass"], etc and I was very excited to start reading the original work.  Unfortunately, I don't have an edition with the original illustrations, but I have a nice copy from Dragon's World Ltd with some coloured illustrations by Malcolm Ashman. Overall I was pleased with the edition and the illustrations, but I long to read the original edition.

Moving on from that tangent, I was less than pleased with this book.  Maybe it has something to do with the Disney movie version I have so long admired, but I found there were parts in this book that did nothing for me... and I think Disney was correct in leaving them out.  There was a point with the Duchess who eventually turns into a pig and an episode with too much pepper, an episode with a sad turtle and a gryphon... and I just didn't feel they added much to the story.  As a whole, there were many more animal characters than in the movie and while it muddied it for me, I'm sure that some children would appreciate the diversity.  That said, it was not a novel for children to learn about animals, because they had obviously been given human traits not akin to their real nature in the wild.  This led to a further imagination for the reader, but I could see adults having to do a lot of explaining afterwords to inquisitive minds.  Perhaps this potential interaction between parents and their children is a good thing.

I'm torn a little with Carroll's wit.  Through the eyes his child protagonist, Alice, he was able to break down the meaning of things we say every day and turn them into literal meanings.  This had the effect of frustrating Alice while adding a bit of humour to the story but also a feeling of "okay, Carroll... we get it already.  Don't you think you're overdoing it a little?" 

The other thing that I never realized was that through the book references to the Jabberwocky appeared quite randomly.  In 'Through the Looking Glass', the poem is listed in its entirety.

On the whole, the story was an enjoyable one.  I could not imagine my life without Carroll's stories, but I just prefer the way Disney adapted it... which is unusual given that I usually despise changes from the original.  I will post another review on "Through the Looking Glass" shortly... as my thoughts towards that work are incredibly different.
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*Note: This pseudonym was a play on his real name; Lewis was the anglicised form of Ludovicus, which was the Latin for Lutwidge, and Carroll an Irish surname similar to the Latin name Carolus, from which the name Charles comes
+Note2: In 1931, the book was banned in Hunan, China, because "animals should not use human language" and it "puts animals and human beings on the same level". In Woodsville High School in Haverhill, New Hampshire, the story also was banned, because it had "expletives, references to masturbation and sexual fantasies, and derogatory characterizations of teachers and of religious ceremonies". -Blogger's Note: The former is hilariously absurd and I didn't see those references at all... did I miss something?  It probably has something to do with the fact that Carroll liked to paint children in the nude... but it's important to note that no cases of paedophilia were ever substantiated.

Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide | Orson Scott Card

So I'm reading the Ender's Game series. First book I read in Venice while the 2nd and 3rd I have read recently.

In Ender's Game, I feel strongly connected to Ender when he played that video game that he never could win. The point is, he always thought he could win. He wanted to control the situation. I seem to enjoy attempting to control the situation against all odds. Maybe the secret is in relinquishing control. Letting your senses guide you. Maybe that is the answer to life... little to no investments and letting your senses take over.

In Speaker for the Dead, the entire concept was fascinating. Having one person speak about the dead's life, not as it was seen to everyone, but how it actually was. Probably one of the reason's I really like the movie, The Aviator so much. Now, were talking Hollywood here, and by no means does it truly compare, but you get my gist. Telling everything, even if it is hurtful. I hope someone that understands me tells everyone who I was when I die. I'm not sure that many people know. Maybe that's what this blog is about.

Xenocide was an interesting book, but not as good as the first two. Poor Orson Scott Card got bogged down in physics too much. He has a wonderful way of presenting both sides of an argument through dialogue, but the physics speak took away a little from the book. He has some amazing ideas, but the book was too much like a mathematical proof. Just do the math man, I don't want you to prove EVERYTHING.

Next book is Children of the Mind. I'm not that excited about it, given Xenocide... but I will push through it so I can get to Ender's Shadow, which I really want to read. Asimov did some beautiful work with his latest add-ons to the Foundation series and I have a feeling Card will too. Both experienced lulls towards the later part of their series. Time will tell.