"Together as one against all others"...(Running To The Edge Of The World, 2009)
Until now our fallen idol has realized that he´s just a rabbit, a helpless creature living in a cage, being watched and enjoyed by millions and millions of people around the world. A singing bird who has no wings to fly. A shadow, a servant of the Queen Of Hearts. "Faster, faster, I´m late, I´m late..." What are you really afraid of White Rabbit, being slain or becoming a slayer, well?
Alice was just on her way to the tea party, you see , but it took her quite a while to come to such a conclusion.
`Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. `Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. `Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
`I don't much care where--' said Alice.
`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
Obviously she landed on the right place; being here seems doubtful, huh?
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| "Little girl, little girl, do you even know what you´re doing in a place like this?" |
In the video version of the song "Heart-Shaped Glasses" a young Evan Rachel Wood appears portraying the character of Dolores Haze, better known as Lolita, also a novel by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov. In it, Dolores is described by his stepfather Humbert Humbert as a "nymphet" (from the term nymph) a child between the age of nine and fourteen, more likely at puberty or early developed.
There is no apparent relation between Alice and Lolita, yet if one is quite a good observer, the little girl in the blue dress was sort of precocious.
"little girl, little girl, you should close your eyes, that blue is getting me high, making me low."
We may not be in a tea party, but for sure we´re among mad people.
Mr. Lewis Carroll imagined these next episodes with the March Hare, the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse, but Mr. Disney introduced the White Rabbit as a new guest. And the frisky cottontail didn´t come here exactly for tea. He claimed he was always late, but now he´s just in time to meet this demon of a girl, this Alice/Lolita steps into the room with heart-shaped glasses and all...
Pay closer attention in the scene from the Disney movie where Alice jumps excited to see The White Rabbit again:
" She reminds me of
the one in school
when I was cutting
she was dressed in white
and I couldn't take my eyes off her
but that's not what I took off that night."
For she (Alice) appears as the ideal Queen of Hearts, the one who dabbles in the realms of the mind and has mastered the art of being desired. The White Rabbit feels shocked, and at the same time wrapped up with a familiar feeling, one that remained dormant.
" And I don't mind you
keeping me
on pins and needles.
If I could stick to you
and you could
stick me too.
Don't break, don't break
my heart
and I won't break your
heart-shaped glasses."
A promise is made, a ritual to renew the passion and the love which were swiped from his hands. However, Mr. Rabbit doesn´t mind being victimized every now and then.
The part, "keeping me on pins and needles" could be a loose reference to voodoo dolls, where we can stick pins anywhere we want, except for the heart. This last part reminded me of a song from some time ago, "Tourniquet", from Antichrist Superstar.
"take your hatred out on me, make your victim my head, you never ever believed in me, I am your tourniquet."
The pact that night was sealed with a kiss. The White Rabbit´s heart eventually would heal, but it would never forget.
`Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.
See how in this scene blood plays an important role.
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| A storm of blood fills the bedroom, almost like a ritual. |
Once the deal is done, a promise is made:
"Together as one against all others"...
With a lucky rabbit´s foot we´re on our way to pay a visit to the Queen, or perhaps behead her?
`That's very curious!' she thought. `But everything's curious today. I think I may as well go in at once.'
Notice how Evan plays with a butcher knife and compare it to American Mc Gee´s Alice. Curiously, Manson was involved in the creative process of the videogame. Another similarity is shown in the poster art of Stanley Kubrick´s Lolita.
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| American Mc Gee´s Alice with The Vorpal Blade |
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| Stanley Kubrick´s Lolita Poster Art |
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| Evan with butcher knife |
Watch the full video for "Heart-Shaped Glasses" here, (but if you´re naughty I recommend you hunt for the uncensored version).
Let us end this golden afternoon with these clever words:
"Once more she found herself in the long hall, and close to the little glass table. `Now, I'll manage better this time,' she said to herself, and began by taking the little golden key, and unlocking the door that led into the garden. Then she went to work nibbling at the mushroom (she had kept a piece of it in her pocked) till she was about a foot high: then she walked down the little passage: and THEN--she found herself at last in the beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool fountains."
