Garden of Lights (The Curiouser and Curiouser Conundrum)

“But it’s no use now,” thought poor Alice, “to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!”

Alice in Wonderland has long been a favorite subject to obsess over for bookworms and "normies" alike, something our great capitalist overlords have readily taken advantage of. There are Alice in Wonderland mugs, shirts, hats, coasters, mouse-pads, decorations, doormats, pens, erasers, and pretty much any other purchasable item in imagination to be found. London even has a dedicated bookstore.

Over the winter months, the Botanical Garden here in Bucharest transformed its winding alleys and pathways into Wonderland, lighting up each cold winter night to delight young and old alike. I remember when it opened, in November, how thrilling it sounded, yet as the winter wore on, it just kept slipping my mind to actually go. Until yesterday. I woke up, and immediately thought "they're closing tomorrow" (and indeed, today is the very last day the exhibition can be visited).
Like lightning, the thought flashed through my mind, and I figured well, better get moving then.

What makes Alice... so popular, though?

I'll skip the details of the story, as I assume most of us know it by now. If not, there's far more skilled storytellers than me to delight you.

But I do want to delve a little bit in why Alice in Wonderland has become such a phenomenon. It's a fantastic story, granted, and it's very quotable, with many passages and much symbolism to transpose into our daily life. But that's true about many stories, and I think there's more to it.

Like Lord of the Rings and a handful of other tales that have grown and grown into larger-than-life phenomenons, Alice in Wonderland addresses a vital issue in our society, which I like to think of as the curiouser and curiouser conundrum.
The reason we like the story is that is seems to rile against a society that seems intent on keeping us down, keeping us normal. You've got all these characters who, rather than running away from their madness, seem to embrace it. And more importantly, much more importantly, they live in a world where they can do that.

Because the Mad Hatter would just be tragic if suddenly relocated to Paris or somewhere "normal", you know?

The beauty of Alice in Wonderland isn't that it brings forth all these fantastic characters like the rigid White Rabbit or the vanishing Cheshire Cat. It's that it weaves for them a world that accepts them. Something we're critically bereft of in our own society.

I think the reason so many people find solace in the story isn't simply that it presents characters madder than them, but that it suggests that what our world perceives as madness could just as well be normality, knocked on its head.

To top it all off, you've got the character of Alice who's lovely and polite and sensible. In a way, she's the icing on the cake, because although Alice comes from a point of great rigidity, from a world of manners and logic and rules, she tries to understand the residents of Wonderland. Rather than shun or deride them, Alice is kind and empathetic towards them. Something our own society, at the time of the story's writing, particularly, was decidedly not.

And while our world has made great strides in its attitude towards mental health in the ensuing 160 years, it remains as rigid and unforgiving as ever in many ways. Trapped inside a complex web of rules, of should and should-nots, interconnected, yet more isolated than ever before, madness is around every corner.

And here comes this story, propped up not only by its original literary panache, but also by the test of time (which tends to add a certain patina to most artistic creations) that reminds us it's not us who are crazy. Might just be the world.

That there is great wisdom in the overlooked and discarded, and that we ignore the wise Caterpillar or the teachings of the Cheshire Cat at our own peril. What's more, ignoring them might end up costing us a lot more than bending the stupid societal rules that demoted these characters to outcasts in the first place.

I think Alice in Wonderland matters, still, because it's saying these people - the outcast, the recluse, the conventionally "mad" - may have something important to teach us. That they are, even in their unease, valuable. And is there anything more soothing and worthwhile to reassure someone who's struggling?

In a final effort to understand and define why Alice in Wonderland remains so popular, I examine my own reasons for returning to the story. And find that, in the deafening silence of not fitting in, it sends the reassuring message that you're not supposed to. That there's a place and a means of escape. That maybe you followed the white rabbit, and that's why they're now telling you your mind is broken.

That we know something they don't. And therein lies salvation.

Much as I love to explore new parts of the world, and witness museums, exhibitions and such, it warms the heart to see my own native city evolve. Certainly, over the past few years, Bucharest has seen a marked improvement. There's a lot more art shows and immersive experiences like this one. It is, I think, a move towards better.

Are you an Alice in Wonderland fan?