150th anniversary of Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland

First published in 1865, Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland has just turned 150. This timeless children book, playful and puzzling, was inspired by real events and a real child. Lewis Carrol, Charles L. Dogson´s pen-name, was a lecturer in maths in the Christ Church college in Oxford. Although he suffered from a bad stammer, he was a natural storyteller who liked to invent tales to entertain his friends and this speech dysfunction seemed to disappear when he spoke to children.

On a summer day, three years earlier, he had taken a boat trip up the river Isis (the Thames in Oxford) accompanying the Dean of his college and his three young  daughters for a picnic. Lewis Carrol started recounting them about a bored little girl called Alice who, while looking for adventure, tumbled down a rabbit hole. So enthralled was everybody that the medium girl, also called Alice, implored him to write it down. 

Once published, it soon cut the mustard and people of all ages were drawn to it. Both Queen Victoria and Oscar Wilde adored it, for instance. His personal circumstances might have had a bearing on the creation of this masterpiece. The mathematician is well-known to have suffered a rare neurological disorder that provoked hallucinations in him and affected his vision of the size of objects. Besides, the surreal world into which Alice falls is oddly mathematical and logical.

Both Alice in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass, inaugurated a new era of children literature, which did not longer have to be didactic or moralistic. Lewis Carrol broke new ground by adding a whole world of imaginative whimsy which would let the children´s minds roam free. The tragic and unavoidable loss of childhood innocence, life as a meaningless puzzle or whatever it might represent, what is certain is that Alice is considered one of the most beloved characters in the classics today and she has kept us good company ever since.

Reading and enjoying The Canterville Ghost

Some of my 2nd year ESO students (Compulsory Secondary Education) have read and enjoyed Oscar Wilde´s The Canterville Ghost.  They have drawn some comics, an amusing tool to foster their written expression and communicative skills, and searched about the great Irish writer´s work. Good excuse today, Saint Patrick´s Day, to show it to you.

"Oscar Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. He studied at Trinity College in Dublin. After that he wrote lots of plays like The Duchess of Padua, poems like Ravenna and tales like The Canterville Ghost." (Irene Cagigas)

"Nobody wanted to live in that house because they said that it was haunted. But Americans are very practical and the Otis family didn´t believe in ghosts" (Selena Martín)

"The tale teaches you many lessons but it is disappointing too." (Sara Cecín)

"Strange things happen and it´s exciting." (Nahia Martínez)

"It´s fantastic to practice my reading in English." (Paula Arce)

"When you read you feel in another place. With books you can travel around the world. When we read we can´t see the words, we see pictures, we see the story in our head. Books make you think about the world, the humans, the animals and our future. Books are our world, our culture, our past, our present and our future... Don´t stop reading, please!" (Cristina Pérez de las Cuevas)

Pilgrimages and literature

When Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales at the end of the 14th century, pilgrimages to shrines like St. Peter´s at  Rome, St. James the Greater´s at Compostela or St. Thomas Becket´s at Canterbury were very popular. Pilgrims, who used to go in company for protection, had a wide variety of purposes: to venerate a saint, to do penance for sin or to be healed of some sickness.

In Chaucer´s masterpiece, a group of them meet at an inn as the starting point and, on their way to the cathedral of Canterbury, they engage in a tale telling contest. The landlord has offered a free dinner for the best story. The tales, mere entertainment for a hard journey, turn out to be a remarkable anthology in Middle English of medieval literature: courtly romance, saints´ legends, sermons, fabliaux, beast fables...

On my recent "Camino", Way of Saint James, there have also been moments for stories and literature. Since every single item in my rucksack had to be weighed (travel light was a must!), I could only afford to take one paperback with me. After hours and hours of often silent walking every day, there was always some time for sitting and reading in the youth hostels or engaging in enriching talk with other pilgrims. Camaraderie and fellowship made it possible to exchange anecdotes and personal stories, other books or anything you might need.

More than purposes or goals set before starting the "Camino", I can write about the rewards gained during this life-affirming, physically challenging and fulfilling experience. Each completed day built on everybody´s self-confidence. For me, it has also turned out to be a journey of inner peace and faith in myself.