Review of Alice In Wonderland (1903)

Cecil Hepworth's 1903 silent movie adaptation was the first of such ever made based on Lewis Carroll's childrens book Alice's Adventure In Wonderland. It is a nearly ten minute variation that sticks to the script of the source material practically to a T. Like many early films, in viewing it seems more like watching a stage play, but in that is an enjoyable displayed appropriation of the text to the screen. An interesting note is that being made when it was, the actual Alice Liddel whom Carroll based his story's character on was still alive at the time.

This is a poem I wrote while stoned from weed for the first time in three months. I was when I wrote it as I am also in typing it up.

Red-hot

Fire preventing ront

Inferno sterilization 

Burning pridges, rebirthing purity

New unnecessary

Weighted remnants wary

Rusted revival

Trivial and forgettable dreaming

Forlorn ecstasy

Satisfied beneficiary 

Voided cold

Coded for reload

Culled satisfactory

Dissolved debris

Egotistical and sold

Analysis of Alice In Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy

Alice In Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy (1976)  is probably the most unique portrayal of Lewis Carroll's story, for the obvious fact in that it is a pornographic musical. A Freudian dreamscape of releasing repressed sexuality. 

The backdrop of this adaptation has Alice as a young adult working at her job as a librarian when she and a man whom she shares a romantic tension with get into a small debacle over the topic of having sex. Alice negates the idea (as later revealed in her dream after being propositioned for the act with the King), wishing to stay pure until marriage; though as is revealed throughout the film this standard doesn't hold up to inner repressed curiosities she holds; but at this introduction she stands in her resolve. From there he leaves and Alice goes on to resume her work a moment, then breaking into song where she considers that maybe she's holding herself to a standard that isn't realistic, that she is too strict with herself while being at a young age, and maybe is too quickly reprehensive towards partaking in Earthly delights; likening herself to a large redwood tree that takes 500 years to mature, pondering if she could do all that in just two so as to not be so 'grown up' so soon.

It is after this number she settles back down to find a copy of Lewis Carroll's book Alice In Wonderland, and in that the story is what would be called today, 'meta', with events about to transpire. Having never read the novel before she decides to do so, falling asleep and entering into a dream while doing so; where she then meets the White Rabbit and follows him through a mirror into Wonderland. The use of a mirror as the portal to this realm could properly signify that the world she has entered shows just what she tries to cover up, or stave away from her mind but is there nonetheless as, "the dream is a sort of substitution for the emotional and intellectual trains of thought," where, "the dream not infrequently anticipates, in impatience, as it were, the expected pleasure," from repressed desires.

It must suffice to state that we obtain matter enough for the resolution of every morbid idea if we direct our attention to the unbidden associations which disturb our thoughts— those which are put aside by the critic as worthless refuse.

With this, each song that spontaneous comes into fruition in the proceeding events serve largely as prelude for what is ultimately exploratory sexual activity for Alice. Learning in witness, and two instances of personal participation, of such erotic engagements: masturbation, fellatio, cunnilingus, fingering, full on fucking, and orgiastic activity in the kingdom serve as a sort of unconscious awakening for Alice to rid herself of what would seem based on her conversation with the King, as externally prescribed prohibitions. This then showing the dream by and large to serve as a form of sublimation for latent feelings of curiosity manifesting what she otherwise outwardly deemed as morbid, near incomprehensible or desiring the undesirable; and shedding those sensibilities. 

The formula for these dreams may be thus stated: They are concealed realisations of repressed desires.

The film ends with Alice on the run, escaping from the Queen after a trial which resulted in 'giving her head', coming to a body of water she leaps in and on account of being unable to swim nearly drowns. But, being a dream before any real harm occurs she awakens as she is once again confronted by the man who had come to apologize for his insistent and slightly belligerent advances prior; however Alice initiates a kiss which then turns into the two making love. Latent desire fulfilled and inhibition stripped of all its restricting clothing.

Select Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund, and M. D. (Montague David) Eder. On Dreams. With Internet Archive, Mineola, N.Y. : Dover, 2001. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/ondreams000freu.

Criticisms of Dark Side Of The 90s (Part III)

I have now watched the fifth and sixth episodes of Vice's documentary series Dark Side Of The 90s first season. Needless to say, and some of it is a bit repetitive in the same vein as to what I had to critique in regards to the second episode. Ultimately however I've come to realize that it's a sensationalistic conveying of information and general lore about the presented topics; and despite the claim of being 'dark', are rather glamorised in a voyeuristic manner— and more on that subject contextually with episode 6. 

Episode 5. Grunge and the Seattle Sound

Sound Garden, L7, Green River, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, and of course, Nirvana. The topic of this episode being the bands under the Sub Pop record label and who in a reverse-British Invasion took hold of the musical world for a few years with the explosion of grunge; a seminal mix of metal and punk rock wearing frayed flannel. Detailing a straightforward overview of the history attached to Sub Pop as a label and some of the notable acts which signed to them; most notably and most talked to obviously being Nirvana. Through that the 'dark side' presented here is the death of half a dozen grunge band frontmen. Heroin usage in the scene was noted earlier in the episode, and like how the second episode of the show had its focal point of River Phoenix's overdose, the suicide of Kurt Cobain is front and center to it all. It's a mundane extreme thing where sure, these people are stars and die young and thus crystallized in that image as they never could falter in that; but as Danny Goldberg noted in his book Serving The Servant: Kurt Cobain was not a saint; he had faults and died as a result of them. If they weren't famous, the deaths would be just a statistic.

Episode 6. Baywatch: Sex Sells

 No shit it does, has, and always will.

Voyeurism and proto-influencers is what this episode takes as its main topic as it pertained to the original Baywatch series. It opens with a line from one of the interviewed cast members stating that it induced something about personal image onto younger people that they really didn't need to worry about; as if generations prior weren't concerned with say, getting drafted to Vietnam or working hard labor to sustain their families. It seems quite minimal in at the face of it all as and issue seeing as such is perpetual today to an even more apparent degree from Eugenia Cooney and extreme anorexic (and as a similar side with this, bulimic) disorders; the meth-infused and surgical corrections as means to alleviate dysmorphic tendencies with 'looksmaxxers' like Clavicular; or so called fat activists professing that being overweight is a personal, radically empowering and prideful display of a healthy body. Going into the history of this even with the body modification aspect of with personal augmentation in contrast to the simultaneously glamourised heroin chic. Such insecurities and aesthetic preferences has stuck around, obviously; though the augmentation in all manners, from breasts to height seem to be less of a stigma, just look at The Kardashians as the poignant epitome of it all.

Speaking to the voyeurism involved with the Baywatch show as it was made to be sensually stimulating in its appeal (though in this episode one of its creators claims in a contradictory statement that it was, "sexy, not sexual") with stars like Pamela Anderson coming to it hot off of a Playboy cover. Today this can be seen in its own form with the gained popularity of a starlet like Sydney Sweeney. Madonna had her SEX book— which is briefly noted in the episode— but even then with the hindsight of say, Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat seems repetitive throughout the last 60 years, since feminists were burning their bras. 

On that topic it then delves into the tumultuous relationship between Anderson and the rock drummer Tommy Lee and resulting leaked sex tape... while one had gotten her fame from a Playboy cover and the other now occasionally posts pictures with his lower ligature out on social media for all to see. Revenge porn it may have been in its release, but as seen in the infamous event that occurred in the earlier 2010s known as 'the Fappening', this is again only cared about if it's that of a celebrity's privacy breached.

"Babble babble, bitch bitch rebel rebel, party party, sex sex sex; and don't forget the violence" —Marilyn Manson, This Is The New Shit

Analysis of Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland (2010)

Tim Burton's 2010 adaptation of Lewis Carroll's children's book Alice In Wonderland can ultimately be described as that of an amalgamation of both the original author's tales of this young girl's fantastical dreams, and reinvigorated by the novel director's own taken artistic liberties imbued into the movie. 

Naturally, Burton paints this version of the story with his own and typical darker flare that one knows him for; and in a way that is reminiscent of 1993 masterpiece The Nightmare Before Christmas. In that stop motion-captured theatrical Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, has grown weary of his role in leading the Halloween holiday and filled with a sense of inevitability in bored, hollow, repetition. Due to this Jack masterminds a takeover of Christmas after falling down a hole in a tree and discovering the joyous occasion. In spite of his maniacal efforts however, the escapade almost ends disastrous and in him spoiling all for the winter holiday, but he luckily manages to get old Sandy Claws back in his sleigh and saves the day; and accepts his status over that which had felt stagnating to him...

Going down the rabbit hole in this revision Alice is thirteen or so years older than she is in the events of Carroll's stories, though those are portrayed as nightmares in the starting scenes. Young Alice here is now 19 and faced with the expectation of fulfilling a preplanned path and accepting a marriage proposal planned in a very public affair. After running off to chase the sight of a rabbit rushing through the bushes and avoiding the popped question she isn't sure how to answer yet, falls down the hole yet again. After making her way then through the small door and consuming the DRINK ME bottle to shrink in order to do so, Alice is ultimately faced with yet another choice in the world of Underland (which was christened Wonderland by her younger-self's inability to pronounce Underland): she can either fulfil a prophecy and pick up a sword to slay the draconian Jabberwocky and save the fantastical land from the tyrannical rule of the Red Queen, or she can let the large headed woman with an army of playing cards remain the dominant power. The story ends with and, "off with the head," for the Jabberwocky and banishment for the Red Queen; where Alice then returns to the upper lands and nulls the proposal for marriage and sets sail to China to continue her late father's company. 

There are many allusions to the original books, naturally; as well as additions from Burton's expertise. Being in the future to when Alice was but a 7 and a half year old the tale reworks many phrases and points; and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter is a delightful portrayal. That said, the major idea behind this and the 1993 Burton film is the question of fate and agency. Jack Skellington can be likened to a godhead of his domain, and role being kept to a necessity; Alice in her impossibly characterised dream is a cog in a preconceived script, but with the agency of where she wants to turn in both saving Wonderland and getting married. One shows an acceptance and reinvigoration in his part to play; the latter details away from that determinism with Alice's dream serving as sublimation for her to realise where she would go in the real world. 

Doomer Date

I was thinking of this whole AI apocalypse idea a bit more today and realised: this is nothing more than a broad blanket of Doomeristic thinking. So I wrote this brief poem; it's sort of a combination of my recent polemic piece on AI Doomsday Fantasies and the research back in March I did on the concept of Doomerism as a whole.

Doomerism:

Deterministic despair,

Placant, vacant fetishization—

Faith in death and wait,

Wait lacking in full weight;

Fundamental about inevitable,

Pushed further and nearer away—

Everyday's another end date

Ode to Chaos

I wrote this to commemorate the 6th anniversary of what is my favorite album by Marilyn Manson released on this day in 2020: the seminal and unmatched We Are Chaos. I will love this album like there's no tomorrow until the day I die.

Breathing up and beating down

Hurricane blurs like actless blasphemy

From the ashes of cordiality

Rising rewind, a respirator on fire

Chasing what is made away into frame

Bleached finger prints over tattered remains

Of charred lessons in refrain

In the front and to the back

Nagging at my brain

Pushing and pulling; tightrope wire over flame

Inhaling the heavy fumes of tomorrow

Stewing in prior decay

Change with conscious stain

As the record spins on replay

Drowning visions like a lullaby

Rearranged but always reingrained 

Some things crumble while remaining the same;

With no permanence,

Blame is a delusional game

Soaring eagle in the sky,

Crashing like a meteor

In a crow's eye—

A teal spectacle of disintegrating inferno

A tale spoken of on rainy days

Love for the grey while the sun is blocked away

While Prometheus' torch stays unquenched

How many times can it be painted, so many instances to say?

Conjuring calamity, pleasurable insanity

Like a rusty nail lobotomy

But it sounds to amaze

Through ever-constant breakthrough raze

Heroes are overrated and scum overdone

Idols and deified entities just a temporary daze

Light it up with a match to sober haze

Redundant in rhyming rephrase

Pedantic purgatory and soft serving entertainment

Hard hitting and into the mental abyss I gaze

Filled empty in sonic soliloquy 

Alice & Adolescent Morality

Through The Looking-Glass is the sequel and continuation of what started in Lewis Carrol's book Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. This installation, like the last takes place in a dream that the seven and a half year old Alice embarks on a journey within. Blending some prior existing children's tales (like Humpty Dumpty) as well as tweaking some characters from the prior tales in her fantastical dreamscapes; like the Red Queen who is now no longer from a card deck and squawking "off with their head" left and right, but a chess piece as her royal entity. 

That is however, neither here or there for that I'm getting into regarding this story. What fascinated me the most out of the whole tale is a short discussion of morality which occurred between Alice and the twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum. To young Alice they sung a story about a Walrus and Carpenter which included the two catching oysters and eating them.

"I like the Walrus best," said Alice: "because he was a little sorry for the poor oysters.

"He ate more than the Carpenter, though," said Tweedledee. "You see he held the handkerchief in front, so that the Carpenter couldn't count how many he took: contrawise."

"That was mean!" Alice said indignantly. "Then I like the Carpenter best— if he didn't eat so many as the Walrus."

"But he ate as many as he could get," said Tweedledum.

This exploration of Alice's morality can be viewed in a few different ways. As one person I discussed the matter with sees, it depicts indulging and giving into the temptation of greed as initially, the Carpenter doesn't give into the plan orchestrated by the Walrus. Taking from that and Satanically thinking to this; giving into that greed shouldn't be much of an issue. After all, to quote Church of Satan Magistra Templi Rex Blanche Barton: "…how far you go; there are no parameters. You set those parameters by the consequences that you encounter. You can go as you want with drugs or alcohol or sexual escapades or food indulgence, but there are going to be consequences to that. You push yourself out of your comfort zone […] There’s very little guidance; you have to find your own way; there’s a lot of information that will come at you. You have to find your way through that, and it’s not going to say “NO” to you. It’s going to say “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” and you have to find your way through that.” It's an interesting form of moralism which is depicted; it's more how Alice judges who she prefers based on who caught the least to eat. It's an interesting sort of moralism; and continuing with the satanic theme may be evocative of the essay by Anton LaVey from The Devil's Notebook, Two Wrongs Make A Right: 

There is no such thing as "moral" Right. There is only true Right, the balance of the Natural Law, Lex Talionis, versus acquired Right, bestowed by popular consensus and usage (the rules of the Game). Morality is a human invention conferred by the self-serving interests of the sensuality impoverished.

 We must constantly confront decisions of whether to live by the Law or by the Rules of the Game. Either way will be "Right." Of the two, I always prefer the way of the Law, but it is often riskier and more brutal. The latter -- beating them at their own game -- requires more planning, time, strategy and money. That's why in all issues enforced by false moralisms and specious Rules of the Game but unfettered by legalities I apply my own rule, which is: "There are no rules."

 

If you create a new rule and it takes hold, you have made a Right for yourself, however self-serving. Whatever prevails, overwhelms, holds in thrall, disarms, terrifies, frightens, controls, constrains, enslaves, or otherwise contributes to man's masochistic needs will always be accepted as Right. No amount of lip service to the contrary can eradicate what the past has proven, and the present intensifies.

Alice is a child though; and as Satanic the mind of a child can be seen as, she doesn't have such a level of comprehension towards such a topic as morality. Where this style of child-like thinking can be seen and explored further, and to a similar degree is later on in Through The Looking-Glass when she is divvying up plum cakes between herself, the Lion, the King and Unicorn only to wind up with none left over for herself. In this interaction the Unicorn displays jealousy at not getting as much a serving of the plum cake as the lion, which is seems a parallel to how Alice weighed in on who was better or worse between the Carpenter and Walrus but in an opposite manner, as she showed preference for the one who caught the least rather than most. Oyster and plum cake, the difference in sustenance is there but in the end it does the same job. However the result in this matter more than for the Oyster, is in the attempt at being fair as a child may do, and in such learn that being so equitable can come to a personal detriment and not have any remaining cake for oneself. There's a virtue to selfishness.

AI Doomsday Fantasy

First they proclaimed 2027. Then 2030, and adding another two years after to up it to 2032. Now it's attested that AI could wipe out humanity within a decade. The time scale on this sci-fi end times prophecy keeps moving up and up in years and past, and clearing through supposed milestones. Sure, it's not 2027 yet, but looking around, such a fantasy seems hardly plausible. 

Just this week the predicted year for this commencement has changed at least twice by my count in a very short span of time. This extenuated by a supposed whistleblower on the platform formerly known as Twitter from the Anthropic company, who professed insider knowledge of how these major AI companies are hurtling to a gambled on death sentence and in spite of that, continuing to progress this technology... Now, this comes from a person paying for a blue check mark on an algorithm running on artificial intelligence; and through paying for this status, funds both updating it and the Grok systems advancement. Makes total sense, doesn't it?

What is this if not poorly configured fear-mongering? 

While certainly it's true that the way AI is powered can call in more criticism due to the emitting of frequencies disruptive to wildlife, but what is that doing in that which isn't already done by humans as well? Who builds these power plants and data centers? What is AI truly used for on a widespread level and fed, beyond a steady feed of P. Diddy, Epstein and Charlie Kirk imagery? It feeds the aforementioned algorithms of any platform one can use to complain about it; this is the real world, it isn't the MCU where one just uses the stones to destroy the stones. Do people on some level subconsciously believe in some Transformers: Age Of Extinction scenario where all the pieces of Charlie Kirk media into these databases will, like Megatron into Galvatron, reconfigure and come into a likened Kirkinator to kill all humanity as revenge for his demise?

All is the same as the Doomsday Clock being set back time and time again as it reaches midnight, and what do you know: we're still here. The end of the world doesn't come so suddenly. Even then, the world keeps spinning.

What I really suspect this is, beyond fear-mongering, is ultimately the worry of an apex predatory (humanity) with no competition for its spot in the food chain on being replaced at the top, by their own hand no less. In a way it's likenable to the film adaptation of Rick Yancey's book The 5th Wave where an alien species called 'the Others' eradicate homo sapiens from Earth so as to be able to use it for their own ends; and towards the climax of the movie one of the aliens embodying military Commander Vosch retorts in a soft and simple manner to this claim that humanity would never wipe out another species for this goal, that they have and in fact do exactly that, and have for centuries. 

Even in that however, it's far fetched and the fear of AI is just an easy way to take away fear from the species that we are.

Temporary Ordinary

This is sort of an extension of Burning Bridges. One of the lines takes from a riddle given to Bilbo Baggins by Gollum in the chapter Riddles In The Dark from The Hobbit. Another takes cue from the song Meat by Poppy. 

Immortal improbability:

A monumental morgue,

Even if hidden under rubble

or the sea

To infinity

Into nothing

Earth will be engulfed,

Entropy eats up everything,

Even the bursting black hole gamma beams

All crumbles,

Time minces bone and grinds mountains down

Old or new, what is learned is gone after high noon

Like meat minced between teeth, too much too soon

Acid eating it away

A carcass consuming then gone all the same

Plugged into life support machinery;

Misery and joy—

All ordinary is temporary:

Hoping as much as loathing a possible repeat