Wonderland has been analysed to Hell and back.

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I decided to put this here since there is no subforum dedicated to books.
A while ago I re-read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - a book I had read quite a while ago. Here are the conclusions I came to:

-The book actually isn't very spooky. Lots of people like to make goth versions of the Alice characters but the book actually isn't spooky at all.
-Anyone who sees anti-religious imagery in that book (like the characters from Dogma) is really grasping at straws.
-Anyone who sees drug references in the book is REALLY grasping at straws.

I'm starting to think that we - as a society - have put way too much thought into that book. When I read the book I was laughing the whole time because it was so random. Perhaps it really is that simple.

That's really all Wonderland is about: nonsense. You'll notice as you go through the book that Alice is always trying to find a reasonable explanation for what she sees in Wonderland, only to find that she can't. While they don't make sense for poor Alice, they keep the reader entertained, thus wanting to read on. Since Carroll originally wrote AiW for the Liddell children, it's safe to assume that it was meant to be a fun story to be read aloud. There are some references to mathematics and other linear modes of thought in the book, but I believe Carroll was just employing what he knew. At the time, childrens' literature centered around morals, and AiW was the first to break that mold.

As for the interpretations on religion and drugs, that's just what they are. When someone reads a book, they bring in their own knowledge in interpreting the events. If Alice's adventure reminds the reader of a drug trip, then they're more likely to interpret it that way. Though I can understand how people would view AiW as spooky, since the plot is unpredictable and includes some strange looking characters.

I read the book when I was still a kid, and I just saw it as being only odd because it was really, you know, a little girl's dream. I thought it was more funny and not creepy or spooky. I once had a book that had all kinds of footnotes about all the unusual stuff, like how The Had Hatter was based on how real hatters used to act like they had gone mad from the toxic chemicals used to make the felt for their hats. But I would have rather they put that at the end of the book so I can read the story without distraction.

I the old Disney version (not the Tim Burton one) is actually more like how the story is supposed to be more than something like Megee's games, where it's actually Wonderland being corrupted, which is really that way because of Alice's trauma of losing her home and parents. It wasn't all dark and sinister the first time Alice "went" there.

I really hate the way other people come up with all these stupid beliefs about nearly everything I liked as a kid, a lot of it I still like now, especially if they're Moral Guardians and/or religious fanatics. Ohhh, The Smurfs wasn't a harmless cartoon about the adventures of happy little blue people, it was sexist and racist and the Smurfs were commies and homos, and drug addicts because they lived in mushroom houses, and Papa Smurf will make your kids worship Satan because he uses magic! Even the Care Bears, whose whole message is about caring and having empathy for others, will send your kids to hell!
Seriously some guy wrote a book about that years ago, The hilarious thing he had actually watched all these eeevil shows himself.

Well if the Caterpillar smokes in the books as well as the movie adaptations....he is at the very least using tobacco, but would not be surprised if there was some weed in there as well or instead. Also some of the size distortions and what not with the various 'eat me' substances/foods does seem to have curious similarities to tripping, but if you have not tripped you probably would not understand why. So I'd have to disagree with you on the drug references seems its at least possible there was some reference to such things....at the very least tobacco which contains nicotine.

I have a video game that is sort of a 'goth' version of Alice in Wonderland, but it was pretty fun to play and I certainly enjoyed it, even though the original story is not so dark. I did not like the live action Alice in Wonderland movie with Johhny Depp though, his character was ok....but he can't carry a whole movie like that on his own especially if he's not even the lead character, it was kind of a butchery in my opinion.

Never heard of any anti-religious imagery per-say, and doubt there would be much of that as it seems the story has no real focus on religion or even reality.

I read that Alice's Adventures In Wonderland was once banned in China (along with many other books) because it had anthropomorphic animals and they believed that would make children think animals were (gasp) equal to humans! Perish the thought.

I'm not even into drugs, have never done hallucinogenic subtances, and have only heard about serious "tripping," but even I have realized the whole thing is like one huge presentation of a drug trip, including the really not subtle choices of which item to ingest that would produce a different result etc.

Anyone who doesn't think Alice in Wonderland bears any resemblance to a drug analogy is being naive. You don't even have to be part of drug culture to realize it's essentially trippy. I have no difficulty knowing why anyone thinks it is. Not only is is not "grasping at straws" but to deny the references is grasping at straws.

I think it is like a Rorschach test in that different people see different things. I can see the drug reference. I have heard it refers to politics. To me, it is about encountering people who don't make sense and are unpredictable and threatening. I love that it is wonderfully creative and unique.