Wonderland: Teaser
Wonderland
A teaser for upcoming project in accordance with The University of Liverpool Critical and Creative Writing MA Dissertation
by Delphie Levy Jones
And then, in a finale much different from a man’s, she swept the mess up into a dustpan, tidy now, as if it were never there at all.
Fans of
Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Jabberwocky will
consider this new must-read an essential addition to their fantastical
bookshelf. Paying homage to much of Carroll’s own escapist writing, as an
up-and-coming author I introduce readers to Wonderland: a short
story interweaved with poetry, following the fable of a reinterpreted Alice. Facing
her rapist during his trial, the gripping tale of feminist anguish intimately
explores unsettling reflections on the injustice prevalent in the modern legal
system. Tackling the pressing themes of mental health and dissociation in the aftermath
of her assault, Alice’s journey of recovery involves losing herself within the
whimsical imagination of her own mind, immersing the reader into a world of
magical realism.
Chapters
of fragmented prose document Alice’s experiences with her mother, lawyer, nurse
and therapist, characters who surround her in some way throughout the court
case. Wonderland ignites a curious sense of familiarity where new
characters echo Carroll’s, whilst recurrent parallels throughout the novella are
embedded in Alice’s personal search for peace and her discerning the chaos of
her reality. Comparable to Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Other
Stories, the novella reworks a famous folkloric narrative with an
empowering spin. Whilst Wonderland deals with the protagonist’s psychological
turmoil, it is her perseverance and strength which sends an uplifting notion to
readers interested in feminist fantasy.
The book
itself has a visual playfulness, where the typography on the page has an
all-encompassing effect, causing the readers to tumble down the allusive
rabbit-hole beside Alice. The poetic interludes delve into the innerworkings of
Alice’s mind as a representation of her own method of coping and escapism,
which happens to be writing itself. In these pieces, we see glimpses of how she
interacts with the world, including her memories of the rape. With a poetic
lyricism resembling Bhanu Kapil’s How to Wash a Heart, the story’s
sequential shifts from prose to poetry lull the reader into a false sense of
security by bounding between the painful and tender.
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