Day 35: My dear child, there are a great many good books in this world without pictures.-- Alice's Sister

My dear child, there are a great many good books in this world without pictures.-- Alice's Sister, Alice in Wonderland

In the opening of Disney's Alice in Wonderland, Alice's Sister is reading to her from a book with no pictures, which Alice finds boring and useless. Alice's Sister reminds her this is not always the case.  

Picture-less books cause us to use our imaginations as we read the story, creating images we find most pleasing or less scary. Yet it also has a way to be boring as well, depending what the author writes.

For example,  Lewis Carroll writes in Chapter 1 of Alice in Wonderland:   

"Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head through the doorway; ‘and even if my head would go through,’ thought poor Alice, ‘it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.’ For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible."

"The loveliest garden you ever saw" varies from person to person.  I imagine canopies of vines and large leaves, banana trees, roses,  birds-of-paradises, daffodils, anthuriums, red gingers, and other bright vibrant jungle flowers entertained with others that under normal conditions could not thrive in a tropical climate like lavender and dandelions with many fountains of various sizes and colors such as round ones with leaves positioned in such a way that the water flows to the basin like it does during a gentle rain, others where the water arches and falls into a round basin from spitting frogs, and still others where the water falls in braids after defying gravity by looking like it comes out of thin air. What you envision may not be the same. The only ones who truly know what Alice saw is Alice and Lewis Carroll.  

On the flip side,  the author could bore a reader to death by being stuck on one detail or write in a certain tone. For example, Jane Austen's writes this conversation between Mr. Bennett and his wife, the ultra-chatty Mrs. Bennett, in Chapter 1 of Pride and Prejudice:

  

 '“Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.”

“What is his name?”

“Bingley.”

“Is he married or single?”

“Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”'

While I understand it was written during the period where women/ girls were expected to marry into money, 4 or 5 grand/year was more than enough to support a family, and men were expected to provide for their families, the way Jane Austen's wrote it and focused on money, it made the book a very hard read for me, even with listening to an audio book as I read the 2nd time. The financial backgrounds were included with each character entrance and overshadowed the underlying story of how Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy ended up together. I understood the book a lot better after (re)watching the 1990s "Wishbone" PBS adaptation where Wishbone the dog portrayed Mr. Darcy after a modern-day segment reminded him of the book. The adaptation segment cut the story to the bare bones and focused more on the love stories than money. Though some money was mentioned, it was not the main focus. I also know this book is extremely dear and loved by some, it's just just not my cup of tea, no matter how hard I tried to enjoy it.  

So as you can see, picture-less books can be the best of both worlds: just descriptive enough for us to use our imaginations and tailor our mental images so its a fun or less scary of a read or so bland or detail-focused that not even the most colorful imaginations can make it a pleasant read.  As they say, never judge a book by its cover. After all, you'll never know if you truly like it until you finish.

Until next time,  keep cooking with character!