Abstract

Arnoud de Kemp
Alice in WWWonderland. What's Happening and What not?


Arnoud de Kemp started his Alice Series with an After-Dinner Speech "Alice in Data-Land" in December 1995 in London. Unfortunately none of them was recorded. It all began with a trip up the Information Highway, which was opened by Al Gore in 1993. Al Gore predicted that, one day, his little daughter would borrow the first edition of "Alice in Wonderland" from the Library of Congress and read this book at a computer screen. Those were the days of open minds and great hopes, long before PDFs, Tablets and E-Books. The Mouse in "Alice in Wonderland" could speak English. My mouse does not listen to me, but my iPhone understands what I am saying. According to Alice all this is: "Curiouser and curiouser!" ("She was so much surprised, that for the moment she forgot to speak good English"). Alice XV is another fairy tale for my younger and older friends. Listen why the Rabbit does not like E-Books and why the Mock Turtle does not use an iPad. My story is, like Lewis Carroll wrote to all his child-readers in 1871, a book of nonsense, but "a few grave words are not quite out of place".



Bielefeld University Library - last update: 17/04/2012