Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

White Rabbit
By: G. Slick
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small,
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all.
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall.
And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall,
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call.
Call Alice
When she was just small.
When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low.
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know.
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead,
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said:
"Feed your head. Feed your head. Feed your head"

I wasn't planning on doing this as a blog entry, but imagine my surprise when I was researching my independent reading book and I found out that Beatrice Sparks/the editors created the title of Go Ask Alice by using the lyrics from the song "White Rabbit" by Grace Slick. This song was actually influenced by the book Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I didn't know about this before, until now, that Alice in Wonderland refered to drugs at some points in the story. For example, when she took pills to get bigger/smaller. I had no clue that Alice in Wonderland made references to drugs, but now that I think about it, it all makes sense.

When I listened to the song, and read the lyrics, the connection between the story and the song was clear. In the song, they talk about how the drugs affected Alice, and how her movement had slowed down, and her "logic and proportion" have died. This relates to the book because, even though the "author" isn't called Alice, many people refer to the author as Alice, and both "Alices" are doing drugs, and they can't control it.

I finished Go Ask Alice. But there's only one more thing I'd like to say: People have been recommending this book to me since 7th grade, but I've never had the chance to read it, so when I saw this book on the Independent Book List, I immediately decided that this was the year that I was going to read it. I picked up the book, and as soon as I started, I don't know why, but I felt bored. The book didn't seem authentic. It felt fake, even though Beatrice Sparks says its true with some fictional events in it. I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe it's the fact that I can't ever picture myself or any of my friends taking drugs, so I can't picture anybody else doing drugs, even though I know that many other people do. Yes, the book's plot was interesting, and the character really made me feel really sorry for her. I loved AND hated the ending (<- i don't know if that made sense, but whatever) I think that the reason for this is because as time when on, my "idea" of how great the book was just started getting bigger and bigger. I think that I overestimated the book, because I pictured the book to be "mind-blowing," but it just wasn't like that for me. ehhh. . .