Alice's Adventures in Every Land

Imagination is the Key

The human mind is a strange place, filled with hopes and doubts, dreams and fears. In one’s mind, you can be anything, do anything and have anything you want. It was Albert Einstein who said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you anywhere.” It is truly amazing to know all of the places our minds can take us; there are an infinite number of possibilities. I would define imagination as a tool used to escape the limitations of the real world. Although, a more legitimate definition from Merriam-Webster might read something like, “the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality”. (5) In his article, The Biology of the Imagination, Simon Baron-Cohen says the following about imagination: “What do we mean by “imagination’? I do not mean mere imagery, though clearly the imagination may depend on the manipulation of imagery. Imagery is usually the product of one of the five senses (though it can also be generated without any sensory input at all, from the mere act of thinking or dreaming). Imagery typically comprises a mental representation of a state of affairs in the outside, physical world.” (3)

I believe the mind is it’s own unique gamespace, except in this gamespace the rules, the algorithm, even the environment and avatar are whatever you want them to be and do whatever you want them to do. It’s the best type of game because it has the ability to become exactly the game you’ve always wanted. Although the mind is a free space where we can include and exclude whatever we choose, there are some instances that we cannot block out everything; sometimes the bad finds it’s way in; just as Alice will experience in Madness Returns, but I’ll get to that shortly. I believe this does two things; it makes the mind a more interesting place, but at the same time, it makes it less predictable, like a ticking bomb just waiting to go off. Einstein is also quoted when speaking about knowledge and imagination, as saying, “I’m enough of an artist to draw freely on my imagination, which I think is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” (6) It is for these reasons that I have chosen Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for my novel and Alice: Madness Returns for my game. They both focus on the same protagonist, Alice, and the same imaginary land, Wonderland, but they are far from the same. As I began playing Madness Returns, however, I realized that a lot happens between it’s beginning and the end of Adventures in Wonderland. It was for this reason that I knew I needed to also include Through the Looking-Glass into my explorations. Both of the book lengths were reasonable, they share very similar themes and at times, the two blend together almost seamlessly in my mind, so I did not think I was taking on too much by adding the second. The themes that I noticed most throughout the three is Alice’s loss of control over her mind and the confusion that follows, that affects her, but we’ll get to those later. First, a little bit about the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Adventures in Wonderland

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written in 1865 by Lewis Carroll, begins when the reader meets Alice, a young girl around seven years old, who is lying by the river with her sister. Her adventures begin when imagines that she sees the White Rabbit and follows after him down his bookshelf, cupboard and picture filled rabbit hole to Wonderland. Little does she know that it was a land filled with curious little characters, that she would have to talk to one by one in order to have new adventures. While I was reading, I was thinking of how these different adventures were their own small analog versions of videogame quests. She thinks back on them each at the end of the book, “The long grass rustled at her feet as the White Rabbit hurried by—the frightened Mouse splashed his way through the neighbouring pool—she could hear the rattle of the teacups as the March Hare and his friends shared their never-ending meal, and the shrill voice of the Queen ordering off her unfortunate guests to execution—once more the pig-baby was sneezing on the Duchess’s knee, while plates and dishes crashed around it—once more the shriek of the Gryphon, the squeaking of the Lizard’s slate-pencil, and the choking of the suppressed guinea-pigs, filled the air, mixed up with the distant sob of the miserable Mock Turtle” (4, pg. 119). In each new level or in this instance, chapter, Alice learns a few new guidelines for her time in this gamespace and progresses in her journey.

While in Wonderland, she wanders about exploring the landscape and meeting all of the creatures that live there. Some she is confused by, some entertain her, and some she just cannot stand. Alice is surprisingly sure of herself, for such a young child of seven years. She often times, bosses around some of the creatures she meets in Wonderland, even when she hasn’t the slightest clue as to what they are talking about. Inside Wonderland, Alice also experiences many new sensations, such as becoming larger and smaller after eating cakes and drinking potions, which allows her to get in and out of places. As a gamespace, Wonderland is a very interesting breed because it is exactly as Alice wants for it to be; it’s all her imagination. A perfect example of the gamespace in the book is that Wonderland is actually controlled by the Queen of Hearts, who’s Royal Court is made up of all the other cards in the deck. Alice’s first experience with the deck, was described as this, “First came ten soldiers carrying clubs: these were all shaped like the three gardeners, oblong and flat, with their hands and feet at the corners: next the ten courtiers: these were ornamented all over with diamonds, and walked two and two, and the soldiers did. After these came the royal children: there were ten of them, and the little dears came jumping merrily along, hand in hand, in couples: they were all ornamented with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens…Then followed the Knave of Hearts, carrying the King’s crown on a crimson velvet cushion; and last of all this grand procession came THE KING AND THE QUEEN OF HEARTS.” (4, pg. 78) In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Wonderland is a place full of excitement, possibilities and rarely anything threatening, when Alice is in control of it. Next, we need to focus on Looking-Glass Land.

Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass takes place about two years after Alice’s first adventures. It begins with Alice in her living room with her cats where she is admiring what she refers to as “Looking-Glass House”, which is actually just the reflection of her house in the mirror. Alice is intrigued by Looking-Glass House because everything appears to be the same except it is all backwards, which is a very curious thing for her to wrap her mind around. Trying to get a better view into the house, Alice finds herself on the other side of the mirror. After being thoroughly confused by hearing a poem about the Jabberwocky, Alice leaves and goes out into the garden. Alice meets the Queen of Hearts and after seeing that Looking-Glass Land looks exactly like a chessboard, the Queen states, “A pawn goes two squares in its first move, you know. So you’ll go very quickly through the Third Square—by railway, I should think—and you’ll find yourself in the Fourth Square in no time. Well, that square belongs to Tweedledum and Tweedledee—the Fifth is mostly water—the Sixth belongs to Humpty Dumpty…the Seventh Square is all forest—however, one of the Knights will show you the way—and in the Eighth Square we shall be Queens together, and it’s all feasting and fun!” (4, pg. 153). After Alice passes through all of the squares, she appears sitting by the water, wearing a crown. She enters through a door and finds herself at a banquet honoring her as a new Queen. Shortly after arriving, chaos erupts and Alice awakens from her dream, still in her living room holding her kitten. Looking-Glass Land is an interesting gamespace, just like Wonderland because it too is game based. As mentioned before, the land is divided up to look like a chessboard and is ruled by the King and Queen chess pieces and all of the other pieces are members of the court. If we think of Looking-Glass Land as a gamespace, just as we do Wonderland, it too is full of possibilities and new characters. Although Madness Returns is set in Wonderland, there are numerous references to Looking-Glass Land all throughout the chapters; more on that later, though.

Madness Returns

What if rather than talking mice and lizards, the only excitement in Wonderland was the constant need to have to protect yourself from enemies like samurai wasps and mutant dolls? What if almost everything was a threat and there was no way to escape that threat except to fight back with a pepper grinder and a hobby horse? This is the Wonderland depicted in Alice: Madness Returns; a game produced by American McGee, released in 2011 and is the follow up to their 2000 release of American McGee’s Alice. In the first game, Alice’s family dies in a fire and when she is the only survivor, she convinces herself that it is somehow her fault. She loses all touch with reality and cannot even find refuge in Wonderland, for it is now a warped version of the wonderful place it used to be in her sane mind. This leads to her inevitable institutionalization for ten years in Rutledge Asylum where she receives countless numbers of horrible “therapy”, known to sometimes include the occasional electrocution.

The second game picks up a year after she was released from Rutledge, and we meet nineteen-year-old Alice at her orphanage in London. It is here that she has been receiving hypnosis therapy from psychiatrist Angus Bumby, who attempts to help the other children forget their painful memories. Alice believes that she is past all of her hallucinations and she will finally be able to get on with her life, when they unexpectedly confront her once again. When the hallucinations begin, the ground suddenly falls apart beneath her and she goes tumbling, once more, down the rabbit hole. Only this time, she’s not going willingly and the rabbit hole is filled with clocks, gears, pipes and doll heads. When she stops falling out of the rabbit hole she finds herself in a place that is very familiar to a land she once knew. She is greeted by the Cheshire Cat who informs her that someone new is controlling Wonderland and she must be careful. The Cheshire Cat describes Alice’s struggle when he says, “She’s trying to unlock the meaning of life an she doesn’t know whose got the key.” (2)

As Alice advances in the game, you learn that she has the ability to jump over obstacles, dodge enemy fire by turning into a grouping of butterflies for a moment, float while in the air to go a further distance and shrink to fit through small passageways. Next she makes it to the Hatter’s domain, where she is eventually double crossed by both the March Hare and the Hatter. In the chapter that follows Alice finds herself in The Deluded Depths, where she meets the Carpenter, the Walrus and the ill-tempered Octopus. In this chapter, the Walrus describes the area to Alice, saying, “Sword and crown are worthless here. I invite everyone to dance. Laborers, lawyers, church, and gown; all make their little prance…” (2). Next she meets the Caterpillar and the Origami Ants in the Oriental Grover chapter. In between chapters the loading screen provides a place for some interesting one liners such as, “collect and treasure every memory and never count the cost”, “might revenge be just another name for justice?”, “a secret is only a secret when it is unspoken to another”, and a personal favorite “When one’s head’s in the clouds, one’s heart gets wet.” (2)

With the help of the Queen of Hearts, Alice discovers that Dr. Bumby is The Dollmaker in Wonderland and has actually been controlling her mind in the hypnosis sessions to make her forget that he was the one to cause the fire that killed her family. She also discovers that the reason for his setting the fire was that he made advances towards her sister and he wanted to make sure to prevent her from telling anyone. Due to his control over her mind, Wonderland has become the place that he wants it to be, where her imagination can no longer run wild and her innocence is taken. Next is The Dollhouse, the main headquarters for the Dollmaker, himself. In this chapter, Alice meets the Insane Children, the children who have suffered under the rule of the Dollmaker since he began corrupting Alice’s Wonderland. The last chapter of Madness Returns takes place on the Infernal Train, the train that replaces the Looking Glass Line from Through the Looking-Glass. Once the Dollmaker and Dr. Bumby are defeated, the train is destroyed. Although Wonderland has been rescued, the Cheshire Cat reminds Alice that the damage is permanent to Wonderland.

The interesting thing about Wonderland as a gamespace in Madness Returns is that Alice does not have control over it. One of the largest changes in the gamespace from the books to Madness Returns is that when she comes in contact with the characters, she goes from learning about them and having adventures, to going on quests to help restore Wonderland. The Wonderland in Madness Returns is also intriguing because when you take a second to look around you see that the whole landscape is made up of all different sized islands. It’s got a very Super Mario 64 feel to it, that I do not understand. While in Wonderland in Madness Returns, Alice encounters many things that make references to the book such as the Vorpal Blade, used for close range combat, is the same blade from the Jabberwocky story in Through the Looking-Glass. The pepper grinder that she uses as a gun is in reference to the Duchess’ pepper addiction and the red paint buckets that are collected for health are to reference the painting of the white roses for the Queen of Hearts. The Hobby Horse, depending on how many upgrades have been done, either resembles the Knights from the chessboard or the Unicorn from Through the Looking-Glass. The samurai wasps were included in the game because they were characters in a section of Through the Looking-Glass that never made it into the final version.

Relationship with Characters in Wonderland, Looking-Glass Land & Madness Returns

Alice has a very different relationship with all of the characters in Madness Returns than she did in the original Wonderland and Looking-Glass Land and it adds for a new and intriguing dynamic in the game because even when the levels are boring and drag on for way too long, at least she gets to meet new versions of old characters. The creatures that she once went to, to spend time with and hear stories are now changed. The Cheshire Cat constantly warns Alice of danger for fear that she will lose her sanity, the Queen (after being defeated at the end of Through the Looking-Glass) is now helpful to Alice after Alice fights off all of the Card Guards. The March Hare tries to harm Alice throughout one chapter and the Mad Hatter, who Alice thinks she’s helping after the March Hare turned on him, puts Alice in danger and uses her to put him back together after he was dismembered.

I think the most surprising difference in character relationships is that of Alice and the Caterpillar. In Adventures in Wonderland the Caterpillar, although sometimes short with Alice, is very helpful and gives Alice good advice for her time in Wonderland, but in Wonderland in Madness Returns, the Caterpillar offers Alice the advice to go see the Queen of Hearts, but the at the end of the game tells her that she is just as guilty as Dr. Bumby for all of the other orphans under his care because she knew what was happening to them and she still did not say anything. Alice eventually kills the Dollmaker and Dr. Bumby, but I can not help but feel as though maybe Alice was actually the Dollmaker and the hallucinations were caused by the weight of that guilt. That is just a working theory though.

Loss of Control in Wonderland and in Madness Returns

Alice’s loss of control over the things happening around her is a very common theme found throughout both Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass and Madness Returns. The only difference is that in the books, it is Alice’s innocent mind that does the controlling and in Madness Returns it is her demented psychiatrist who is in control. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Alice rarely has the ability to control her imagination, just like most children. We first experience her imagination take control when she imagines the White Rabbit going down the rabbit hole. Following after him, she finds herself in Wonderland, but is curious and wants to explore rather than find her way out. It’s interesting how accepting of such unnatural circumstances Alice is with this new place. She cries at times whenever she first experiences getting larger and smaller, but after that, she is very calm and rarely even questions how she’ll get home, which I find very strange. At the beginning of the story Alice finds a bottle and drinks the contents. She soon finds herself shrinking at a rate that she cannot control, to which she fears, “it might end, you know”’ said Alice to herself, “in my going out all together, like a candle.” (4, pg. 21) Alice experiences very similar things in Looking-Glass Land. It is interesting to me how her loss of control over Wonderland starts out some innocent; she starts to lose control and suddenly birds are speaking and she’s having a tea party with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Doormouse. These changes in reality are curious and welcomed because they seem to pose Alice no harm whatsoever. In Madness Returns, Alice experiences a different kind of loss of control when she is forced back into Wonderland by her hallucinations. Having no control over what she is seeing and experiencing, everything has become dark and twisted. She has no choice, but to try to find and defeat whoever has taken over her Wonderland and corrupted it. No matter the circumstances, no matter what she is faced with, she must try to defeat the Dollmaker, the evildoer in Wonderland; otherwise she will lose her mind. Her lost of control goes even further when she sees what has become of everything. The Mad Hatter and the March Hare are now turned against each other and the March Hare has helped The Dollmaker create his Infernal Train, the growing source of Alice’s insanity. As Alice continues on in the game, her hallucinations worsen and she begins losing her mind more quickly. Suddenly, she finds herself in a place that seems familiar, but is filled with more threatening versions of things and creatures she once knew. Alice also faces the problem of falling in and out of Wonderland with no control over it, making it difficult for her to tell the difference between what is real and what is not, which only makes her question her sanity even more than before. This frustration was a big driving force for me though while playing the game. I was upset that no matter how many enemies I destroyed, Alice was still losing her mind and getting lost further and further in this new and terrifying Wonderland.

Determination & Frustration in Madness Returns

One way in which I believe the game functions that the text cannot is that when Alice loses control over her mind in the game, it allows you to actually feel something for the character and want to fight the enemies to help her regain her sanity. You start the game feeling like you are ready to do whatever it takes to restore Wonderland to what it is supposed to be. This could be what pulled me into the game so quickly; my desire to help restore Wonderland. That’s not something that the reader is faced with while reading Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking-Glass. With the books, you simply have to sit back and go exactly where she goes. During the third chapter, out of six, Alice exclaims to the Cheshire Cat, her one ally in this Wonderland, “I can’t help Wonderland, if I can’t help myself”, (2) which only reinforces her frustrations to the player. As the game progresses and the enemies become more difficult to defeat, Alice loses touch with reality more and more as the Dollmaker continues to corrupt Wonderland. As I was playing I came up with the theory that in order to make sure that the player is just as frustrated as Alice is by being in this topsy-turvy Wonderland, they make the player repeat the same tasks hundreds of times throughout the entire game.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are, in my opinion, much more enjoyable ways to spend my pastime than playing Madness Returns. While reading them, I constantly wanted to have control of Alice and make her go certain places or stay with some people longer than others. When I started playing the game I thought, “Great! Now I’ll finally be able have my own adventure and do what I want!” False. The entire game is spent doing the exact same tasks over and over and over again. At least when I did not have control over Alice while reading the book, she changed as a character, she went everywhere she wanted to go, talked to everyone she wanted to talk to, and had a new adventure with everyone. In Madness Returns, the new stages are disguised with different characters, different enemies and different reasons for doing, not different, but the exact same tasks, which just seems a little poorly planned to me.

Madness Return and it’s Less than Interesting Algorithm.

The algorithm of the game is what I found most interesting and frustrating—which is maybe an influence in what lead to my being able to feel her frustrations as I mentioned before. Each of the six chapters, consists of several different sections and missions and as the game progresses and new chapters are reached, Alice faces new enemies, upgrades her weapons, and gets new dresses. Yes, apparently a new dress is in order for each new world. Nothing else changes though. Apparently these dresses do certain things once the game has been beaten and the player begins again, but after playing it once, never again will be too soon. Madness Returns is just level after level of the same tasks, puzzles and enemies that take longer to kill then the last. At least when I was reading the book, I wasn’t given a controller and made to think I was actually making decisions for myself while playing, because Madness Returns is a waiting game. Once the algorithm is learned, it’s just one chapter to the next, completing the necessary tasks. I navigated Alice through the stages, but everything had to be done in exactly the right order; there was no room for exploring. There was no freedom in the digital Wonderland. For this reason, I would say Madness Returns is the better example of Alice’s loss of control because playing as that character, you make no decisions as to the direction in which the game will go.

Text is intriguing, Game bores.

I started playing Madness Returns back around the beginning of January and I have not been so thankful about something in a while. Honestly, this game was difficult to get through, so I had to take it in at small doses. The repetition was beginning to make me feel as though I was losing my mind; perhaps this was the creator’s intended outcome. As I mentioned before, once the game is understood it becomes a seemingly never-ending quest for teeth (whose meaning I still do not understand), roses for health and the Dollmaker’s Infernal Train. The text has the advantage of allowing you to actually use your own imagination while reading about her imagination, whereas the game does that part for you. I think it can be an advantage in some regards, I think it’s a more captivating gamespace in my mind. The text allows for a much dynamic experience. Even though Madness Returns has the added bonus of getting to meet old characters again as their new Wonderland counterparts, it falls short. Do not get me wrong, these new character developments are interesting, but honestly the whole thing seems a bit overdone in the game. Based on the two texts, the game had what I think was a great possibility in that they had the option, when creating this Wonderland, to give the player hundreds of options for adventures, not just one set story that had to be followed exactly. This was quite possibly the biggest disappointment with the game. If I was going to experience Alice, knowing that she was losing her mind, I at least want to feel like my abilities in the gamespace will affect her throughout the game. It does not though. Playing through the game, I felt as though I had no effect whatsoever on what was happening around me. The gameplay was just a series of, run over here and collect these teeth, fight the ruins or wasps and wait for the Cheshire Cat to tell you where you are headed next; not nearly as enthralling as this game should have been. There were an endless number of possibilities none of them were explored. A review I found on Gamestop’s website, whose author I could not find, describes Madness Returns in the following way: “I believe Creative and creepy visuals give this action platformer a twisted and surreal vibe, drawing you into a land inhabited by fire-breathing doll babies and squirming leeches. The action doesn't display the same kind of creativity, unfortunately. The game recycles the same basic ideas over and again, and its failure to grow and challenge leads to occasional tedium.” (1) The writer elaborates on this a little more by stating, “Every so often, Madness Returns' level layouts displays a glimmer of creativity, such as when playing cards flip and slide into view, extending your path. However, reaching your destination is a usually predictable affair. You spend a lot of time jumping onto floating surfaces and into gusts of air so that you can flip a switch that creates another set of surfaces and gusts. Sometimes you need to drop bombs to weigh down pressure plates, shrink to miniscule size to bring invisible platforms into view, or run under a spiked ceiling threatening to slam down on you. But Alice: Madness Returns has a limited bag of tricks, and so you frequently perform the same actions in the same context. Monotony too often results, particularly when your objectives are simple fetch quests…Levels have no sense of momentum: were it not for the unique environments, you could replace one sequence with any other and not even notice, and navigation is barely more challenging in the penultimate chapter than it is in the first.” (1) Maybe they should consider a third installment. Only this one will include a Wonderland that is changed depending on the player’s actions. That could make it much more captivating, I believe.

What is Most Important?

In both the books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and in the game Madness Returns, Alice constantly battling for who is in control of her mind and losing touch with reality. The question that keeps finding it’s way into my mind repeatedly though is what is the more important aspect in the books and game to me, the fact that Alice is slowly losing her mind, or her reaction to it’s happening? For me, it is her reaction to what has changed and is changing all around her. I find myself being particularly drawn to the moments when Alice is being bombarded from all around by numerous enemies because it is a reminder of the fact that her character is the only remaining component from the original Wonderland that is not fully corrupt yet and all of the enemies are her fears and regrets trying to destroy her. The overall feel of the whole game is very much Mind over Matter. If you can get passed the fact that you will be repeating the same tasks, the visuals and the storyline are actually quite intriguing.

The Mind as a Gamespace

“Of all the strange things that Alice saw in her journey Through The Looking‑Glass, this was the one that she always remembered most clearly. Years afterward she could bring the whole scene back again, as if it had been yesterday—the mild blue eyes and kindly smile of the Knight—the setting sun gleaming through his hair, and shining on his armour in a blaze of light that quite dazzled her—the horse quietly moving about, with the reins hanging loose on his neck, cropping the grass at her feet—and the black shadows of the forest behind—all this she took in like a picture, as, watching the strange pair, and listening, in a half‑dream, to the melancholy music of the song.” (4, pg. 224) Although her adventures in Looking-Glass Land are behind her, this quote shows how Alice still recalls the memories of them because they are saved in her mind; the most natural form of autosave. Alice’s mind in Madness Returns is compiled of multiple layers/levels that all work together and must be explored one by one in order to unlock the door into Alice’s mind that will save her sanity from an eternity of nothingness. Just like in most gamespace, the imaginative lands of these books and this game each have their own sets of rules that must be learned, a new hierarchy system that must be obeyed, new friends and foes who will be introduced and a new algorithm just waiting to be discovered. It’s all about playing by the rules in Madness Returns; this is what makes me think that the books are a better portrayal of the freedom and possibilities of imagination. These rules though are the same things that lead me to the conclusion that although Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are wonderful depictions of Alice losing control of her imagination and mind, this concept did not truly come to fruition until American McGee decided Wonderland needed a makeover.

Sources:

"Alice: Madness Returns Review." Gamespot. Web. 6 Feb. 2012. .

Alice: Madness Returns. Version 2. 2011. Electronic Arts. 6 Jan. 2012

Baron-Cohen, Simon. "The Biology of Imagination." Entelechy: Mind & Culture. Web. 5 Feb. 2012. .

Carroll, Lewis, Hugh D'Andrade, John Tenniel, and Leonard S. Marcus. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass." Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2010. 9-250. Print.

"Imagination." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 2 Feb. 2012. .

Taylor, Dr. Kathleen. "Is Imagination More Important than Knoxledge?" Times Higher Education Supplement (2002). 2002. Web. Feb. 2012. .