This is another book in the Blackwell Philosophy of Pop Culture series. In this book, Alice’s adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are used to discuss ideas in philosophy. I thought this would be a good book, given that almost everyone is familiar with the subject and many people have read one of the two. This book may well encourage you to reread them.

Since Lewis Carol was interested in logic and word games, that provides a lot of the material for this book. The queen, who sees time backwards and who wants to remove people’s heads, and Humpty Dumpty, who reserves the definition of words he uses to suit his immediate needs, along with many others, provide a wealth of fodder for these philosophers to help educate the reader in different philosophical ideas.

Many parts of the book were concerned mostly with logic, or the lack thereof. I found these sections a bit tedious with little new for those who are well-founded in logic.

Another large portion concerned language and words. Looking at what a language is, word definitions and context. Can you readily fix a language with dictionaries and grammars when they are always changing?

Other philosophers (in the collection), addressed feminism, social contracts and nuclear strategy. It is clear that Lewis Carol thought a lot on these ideas after seeing what these authors have found among the works.

These subjects make you rethink what you knew about the books. They are full of some interesting ideas that are lost on the young reader. The book has a lot of interesting information in small bites that make it easy to read and worth the time. ( )

This book came out right around the time the newest 'Alice in Wonderland' movie came out, I doubt a coincidence but it is still a welcome book. This book is a collection of stories, or essays if you will because of the non-fiction pieces, the delve into the minute details of the well loved story, 'Alice in Wonderland'.

The essays are each vastly different all taking on elements of the original story and giving different insights, historical facts, and other various tidbits. After reading this book I want to re-read the original story just so I can get a truly see with my own eyes what each of these writers were saying in their pieces. If you like 'Alice in Wonderland', please pick up this book, you won't regret it!

P.S. I also think the cover is very well done, and super cute. ( )

William Irwin's Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) was not what I was expecting or hoping it would be, so I admit from the outset that my less-than-favorable review might be attributed to the strong preference of one's hopes over openness to another's offering. The best thing I can say about this book is that it probably belongs on a list of supplemental reading material for the philosophy college major.

I agree with the other reviewer who said this collection was "uneven" and so I haven't assigned it a "star rating", it just seems like that wouldn't be fair. I had hoped that this would be a more serious examination of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" from a philosophical perspective, but once I gave up on that notion it was an enjoyable enough read though disappointing and dry in spots.

Sigh. I had such high hopes for this one... I tried and tried and tried (and tried) to get through it, and while there were some gems inside, the majority of essays (the ones I made it through, anyway) seemed like very thin attempts to connect some kind of philosophical question with Alice in Wonderland. One essay in particular tried far, far too hard to be humorous (and it was at first, but by the end of the essay I wanted to throw the book across the room, it was that unfunny), while others were dry and so tenuously connected to Alice's story that you could have replaced 'Alice in Wonderland' with another classic story and had the same essay. In that case, what's the point? I'd hoped for a stronger discussion of elements within the book instead of philosophical discussions that drew examples from the book, and as a result found most of the content tiresome and irrelevant. Perhaps some of the final essays of the book are better than the ones I read? I can only hope so. Unless you're a die-hard philosophy major AND an Alice in Wonderland fan, I can't say I recommend this one. ( )