Sweet Alice

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, shortened to Alice in Wonderland, and the sequel, Through the Looking-Grass is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells a story of a girl name Alice who is always dreaming fantasy dreams. Once in Alice’s dream, she falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic in children. It is considered one of the best examples of the “literary nonsense” genre, and its narrative course and structure have been enormously influential, especially in the fantasy genre. It was initially a story told by Uncle Lewis to three little girls while they were walking along the Thames River. The curious girl, Alice, urged Uncle Lewis to tell them a story to while away the time, so Lewis told the girl a story that, not so coincidentally, featured a bored little girl named Alice who went looking for an adventure. Three years later, the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland came into the market and the creative, curious, and magnetic girl quickly grew up to became a widely loved and respected cultural icon, both in England and around the world. It was said that Lewis Carroll wrote this book in honor of the trip with the girls, especially little Alice who was the namesake of the heroine. Since it was printed, Alice has been a publishing sensation, beloved by children and adults alike. The book has never been out of print. It has been translated into 125 languages, and there have now been over a hundred editions of the book, as well as countless adaptations in other media, especially theaters and movies. There are over 1000 books, films, operas, plays and video games based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The book develops the theme that behind every great person there is always a person who inspires and believes in him, and who motivates him to realize his dreams. The book’s dedication reads: The Alice in Wonderland “is dedicated to all those who inspire the minds and souls of human beings”. It raises the question: what does it mean to inspire?

End of Way

I saw this short film This Way Up occasionally in the internet. The scene of this film is a little dark; the characters are quite simply, as well as the content of the story. However, to understand the film is never that easy, although only two or three people are involved. It is a computer generated short from the United Kingdom, and was directed by Alan Smith and A dam Foulkes. more »

English Sense of Humor

To be exact, what is English sense of humor? If you ask one hundred English men, you may get one hundred answers. To the British, their so-called humor is the same as Zen Buddhism in that you can not write something about them. There is only one short sentence in given by the Oxford Dictionary, “The quality of being amusing or comic.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language has two other definitions, “That which is intended to induce laughter or amusement”, and “The ability to perceive, enjoy, or express what is amusing, comical, incongruous, or absurd.” The definitions make me even more confused, so when a British man is talking a joke, the others often could not react to him. more »

The Cider House Rules

After a traumatic misadventure with a prostitute as a young man, Dr. Wilbur Larch turns his back on sex and love, choosing instead to help women with unwanted pregnancies to give birth and then keeping the babies in an orphanage. Homer Wells is one of those poor children in the orphanage. But he is the special one for he shows some talent for medical at early age, so Dr. Wilbur trains him as an assistant and then a direct obstetrician.

Dr. Wilbur obviously loves Homer, and pins great hopes on him. However, their lives are not as simply as it appears. Dr. Wilbur is secretly an abortionist, which is unacceptable for Homer. He comes to this work reluctantly, but is driven by seeing the horrors of back-alley operations. Dr. Wilbur is also found take in ether.

As time going by, Homer’s desire for leaving the orphanage becomes stronger and stronger. He begins to think about his future. Finally, he manages to step outside when a young couple, Candy and Wally, comes into his life. Homer leaves the orphanage, and then works in an apple orchard with them. Wally and Homer become best friends and Homer develops a secret love for Candy. Candy helps him a lot and they fall in love with each other when Wally goes off to war.

Homer lives a peaceful life in the orchard. Dr. Wilbur writes to him frequently, but he returns nothing other than a box of apples. more »