NICK HORNBY - SONGBOOK

 

Picked this one up recently. Hornby gives us the benefit of his opinion on songs, lyrics and music as an art form. I read it with YouTube open at my elbow. References High Fidelity now and then. Well worth a read by anyone even slightly interested in popular music. All right then, rock music. BUT published in 2002. I'm ready for the 2017 version.  

            ALICE IN WONDERLAND - PART TWO

So just after I wrote about Oysters and Pussy, possibly the same night, I saw the Secret Life of Lewis Carroll. Mainly interesting, a good background to Dodgson's life.

I was unaware of the picture of the naked Lorina Liddell but I still have questions I'd like answers to.

One - Dodgson was a keen and apparently proficient photographer. He took photos of all those writers and artists and no-one would doubt his talent. He took those photographs as Charles Dodgson. 

Two - The so-called paedophile picture was examined by experts and commented on as a true rendition of Lorina Liddell. My query is why it was attributed on the reverse to Lewis Carroll and not Charles Dodgson. The expert also noted that the picture had been cropped, leaving one to assume that the attribution was written later. But why Carroll? Why not Dodgson? Does the writing look like Dodgson's? And was the picture of Alice Liddell with her left nipple coyly showing deliberate or accidental?

Three - That leads me to wonder about Dodgson's mind and how his mind saw what I believe was a seperate personality that occasionally blurred with the concrete figure of Dodgson. I'm not quite talking split personality but here's a man who has found fame because his stories have achieved world-wide recognition under an assumed name. Although it was kept secret for a while, the news came out. Surely there could have been moments when he puffed out his chest and assumed his other personality? 

Opinions abound, maybe thousands, about Dodgson's state of sexual mind, but I suspect the picture is more innocent than criminal. 

                                                              

           

                    ALICE IN WONDERLAND

                          Oysters and Pussy

I can't think of another book ever published that attracted and still attracts so much attention from writers and artists. The recent films of Alice in Wonderland (good) and Through The Looking Glass (crap) are good examples. Reviews of the latter are universally bad. I saw it late last year on an A380 Airbus - Businss Class -  and was appalled. Even five glasses of Moet and Chandon failed to take the edge off this rubbish. I assumed Tim Burton had had another brain explosion but I apologise to Tim because the Director was James Bobin, althoug TB was a Producer and should have been keeping an eye on Bobin.
Anyway, Alice continues to inspire. Pinterest has near to 10,000 boards dedicated to her illustrations, many of which are in dubious taste but nevertheless often executed by very talented hands. Arthur Rackham gave us good Alice. Don't forget ballet and stage musicals and such.
Do we believe those stories about Dodgson and his possible attraction to little Alice Liddell, she of the long hair and shy demeanour? I write of the unsavoury suggestions that ill-wishers put forward from time and time, and have for a long time, wanting find scandal for their own purient pleasure. These people would also find fault with Judy Garland and Lindsay Lohan. 
I've put some pictures below to illustrate the talents of artists who wish to depict Alice. There are at least anothe twenty billion on the Web.

  

 

You all remember the oysters I'm sure and her pussy's name was Dinah I think.