Down the Rabbit Hole
On The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Fran Bow
It’s too late for me. I didn’t meet a rabbit running late, I didn’t get swept away by the green wind, and I never found Duotine pills to take. I never went down that rabbit hole, and now that I’m 21, I must accept that I never will. The cutoff date for young girls to be whisked away to Wonderland, Fairyland, or the second reality seems to be anchored at 11—I’m 10 years too late.
But it’s okay, because I lived these adventures through the three fictional young girls who did get to traverse the border between reality and absurdity. Fantasy, as a genre, has amazing potential to bend what we know into something unknown, and its writers, especially these three, are chemists who can stir the mundane into a new and wonderful whole. But, I am taking a closer look at one particular niche within these three stories, and I shall name it “Down the Rabbit Hole.”
Though these three bright and brilliant stories may seem incomparable at first, they have some interesting commonalities, All begin with a young girl, whose thoughts are not yet on romance and adulthood, whose mind is mature enough to act and think, yet who is also open to adventure, adversity, and amazement. Without this girl, the story could not commence. Alice would notice the rabbit but dismiss it to turn back to her book. September would not choose to climb out the kitchen window; she would shirk away from the leopard and man floating outside the sill. And Fran, oh Fran, would likely never be curious enough to explore, escape the asylum, and instead resign herself to depression and ignorance. Instead, these girls can face anything because they are curious. And it’s a good thing too, because there is plenty to explore.
Photo and Article published in The Independent http://theindependentmag.org/the-arts/down-the-rabbit-hole/