Alice in Wonderland

10 of the World’s Greatest Hotels Inspired by Literature

By Emily Temple on Feb 6, 2013 1:00pm

After spotting this Jules Verne-inspired hotel in Canada, we decided to go on a worldwide hunt for other interesting hotels that pay homage to our favorite reads — whether in general, or focusing on a single volume, or even detail. After all, book nerds need someplace cool to stay as much as art nerds… Read More

Pop Culture

Watch Meryl Streep Sing About Mushrooms in an ’80s Version of ‘Alice in Wonderland’

By Caroline Stanley on Nov 12, 2012 5:00pm

Oh, Meryl. Just when we thought that we couldn’t possibly love you any more than we already do, Open Culture has to go and unearth this video of you wearing pink overalls while singing a song called “Eating Mushrooms” in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Elizabeth Swados’ musical adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Alice At The Palace. We’re curious as to whether Tim Burton ever saw this version of Lewis Carroll’s tale; clearly, it’s proof that you don’t need a massive injection of CGI to create something that’s incredibly trippy — just America’s favorite actress pretending that she’s stoned. … Read More

Books

10 Great Novels and the Cocktails You Should Pair Them With

By Emily Temple on Sep 21, 2012 12:30pm

As the bookish among you are most likely aware, literature and liquor have gone hand in hand since time immemorial. But while we know which drinks our favorite authors liked to imbibe while creating, that’s not necessarily a good indication of which drinks are best to read their work by. We’ve already given you our suggestions on the cocktails you should pair with your favorite TV shows, but if you’re more likely to be curled up with a book than in front of the small screen this weekend, we have a few thoughts as to how to best keep the party going in your living room. Click through to read about the cocktails we would pair with ten of our favorite novels, and if you’ve found another winning combination, give us your own recommendations in the comments! … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on Sep 19, 2012 10:09am

1. “One of the things I’ve learned as president is you represent the entire country. My expectation is if you want to be president you have to work for everybody and not just work for some.” – In case you missed it, President Obama was on Letterman last night, and took the opportunity to address… Read More

Books

Incredible Sculptures Made from Your Favorite Children’s Books

By Caroline Stanley on Aug 23, 2012 5:00pm

If you spent hours as a child fantasizing about leaping into the pages — and fictional world! — of your favorite book, then these mind-blowing sculptures spotted by Maria Popova should put a smile on your face. “I still have a connection to Stuart Little and the Borrowers,” explains Kelly Campbell Berry, the Oklahoma-based artist behind the work. “Books, for me, come alive… My book sculptures are my way of showing what the words on the pages create in the imagination of the readers.” Click through to check out a few of her loveliest pieces, and take note: many of them are currently available for purchase in her shop on Etsy. … Read More

Books

10 Artifacts from Literature That We Wish Were Real

By Emily Temple on Aug 4, 2012 12:00pm

This week, we stumbled upon some interesting news: that a specific strain of fictional marijuana — Elephant Crush, from Mark Haskell Smith’s Baked — had been created in the real world. “I’m totally surprised and delighted that someone would grow a fictional strain,” Smith said. “What happens when you smoke it? Do you enter a fictional world?” If only. Inspired by this recent development, we got to thinking about some fictional items from literature that we wish were real — and we’re talking real real, not collector’s item real. Click through to see what we came up with, and let us know which fictional objects you dream of owning in the comments. … Read More

Photography

Beautiful ‘Alice in Wonderland’-Inspired Underwater Photos

By Judy Berman on Jul 19, 2012 4:30pm

Is there any children’s book with more vibrant visual descriptions than Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? From the playing-card world of the Queen of Hearts to the psychedelic Mad Tea Party, it’s no wonder that so many illustrators have been inspired by it over the years. But we’ve never seen anything quite like Elena Kalis’ Alice in Waterland and Looking Glass, a series of photos that re-enact Alice’s adventures underwater, featuring flamingos, teacups, and even the White Rabbit’s famous pocket watch. The images bring an entirely new brand of surreal beauty to Lewis Carroll’s tale. Click through to see some of our favorite shots from Alice in Waterland, and visit Kalis’ website to see the rest of the series, along with more of her dreamy underwater photography. … Read More

Books

Yayoi Kusama’s Trippy Illustrations for ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’

By Emily Temple on Jul 18, 2012 4:30pm

“I, Kusama, am the modern Alice in Wonderland,” declares the dot-crazed Japanese artist in a new edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and we’re inclined to agree. We checked out the prolific Japanese artist’s awesome retrospective at the Whitney last week, and a stop in the museum’s gift shop led us to discover yet another treat: Alice in Wonderland has been given the Kusama dot treatment in a charming little book, which came out earlier this year. We think this is pretty much the perfect pairing, and if you do too, click through to check out a few pages from the book, and then be sure to check out this wonderful video to see even more! … Read More

Photography

Famous Meals from Literature Captured on Film

By Emily Temple on Jul 15, 2012 10:01am

The connection between literature and food is a long and storied one. After all, literature is reflection of or commentary on life, and food is what sustains that life, so it’s no wonder that we think they’re meant to be together. Or maybe we’re just trying to support our snacking-and-reading habit. Either way, we love this photo series from the aptly-named graphic designer Dinah Fried, entitled Fictitious Dishes, wherein Fried recreates the famous meals from some of our favorite classic novels. And man, does that clam chowder look good — maybe we finally understand why Melville spent a whole chapter talking about it. … Read More