An Other Alice?: Neil Gaiman’s Coraline HUM 2250: Film Adaptation Summer 2011 Dr. Perdigao June 2, 2011

Windows and Doors Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) Born and raised in England, now lives in Minnesota Coraline (2002): NY Times bestseller, won the Hugo and the Nebula (for science fiction and fantasy) The Graveyard Book (2008) [Nobody Owens] Anansi Boys (2005) American Gods (2001) Neverwhere (1996) [girl named Door from London Below] Good Omens (1990), with Terry Pratchett Sandman comics, graphic novels (began in 1989); Sandman: Endless Nights (2003), NY Times bestseller list [The Endless: Dream; Desire, Despair; Destiny; Delirium; Destruction; Death; Sandman as Morpheus, Lord of the Dreaming, Master of Story] Stardust (1999), unillustrated version The Wolves in the Walls (2003), children’s book

Reflections Alice as “monster” to the lion and the unicorn “‘I always thought they were fabulous monsters!’ said the Unicorn. ‘Is it alive?’” (175). Alice becomes other, not quite a little girl Ideas about what is fantasy and what is reality in this world “she was already getting quite used to being called ‘The Monster’” (177). “‘what is the use of a child without any meaning?’” (193). “‘So I wasn’t dreaming, after all... unless—unless we’re all part of the same dream. Only I do hope it’s my dream, and not the Red King’s! I don’t like belonging to another person’s dream’” (179). “‘I want to be a Queen’” (181). The White Knight’s inventions

Making Meanings Alice coming “full circle” as opposites meet (note on 198): front and back doors; two ends of the chess board; beginning and end As resolution Question remains “Which Dreamed It?” Left to the reader

Mirror Masks? “She explored the garden” (4), which contains “flyblown rosebushes” (5) The mice get Coraline’s name right while the old man thinks it is wrong (16), to Miss Spink and Miss Forcible (20) Trying to draw the mist (17) The mist as a “ghost-world” (21)—exciting or danger? Everybody vs. nobody with back to school shopping (23) Enters the looking-glass world (27); looking-glass message when parents disappear (53) Sounds like her mother. Only... Only... (27)

Cheshire Catting? Cat as liminal figure, border-crosser Idea of names (36-7) Idea of cats talking (38) Key and the door Cat’s ideas about the other mother, as creature “her kind of thing” (65) Mirrors “never to be trusted” (77)

Other Alice Coraline not sure “where she was” and “who she was” (67) Idea of an other Coraline (69) World the other mother creates Her creation and imagination but manipulation “pale nothingness, like a blank sheet of paper” (73)

Ghost World “‘The names are the first things to go... We keep our memories longer than our names’” (83). “empty places” (87) Other mother located nowhere and anywhere (95) World turns into “formless, swirling mist” (105), becomes “idea of a house” (105) De-creation? Can only “twist and copy,” not create (118, 124) Coraline, as a contrast, as “explorer” Other father’s devolved role (111), part of the “dust and damp and forgetting” (111)

Masterplotting Coraline redefined: wise, brave, tricky Wished luck, good fortune, widsom, courage (145) Given time to plot and plan and ponder (152) Teatime again?

Nothing but a pack of cards? Coraline’s realization about a perfected world (120) She is changing, house is changing (120) From photograph to crude drawing (124) “unraveling time” (128) Mother changes—real, wonderful, maddening, infuriating, glorious mother (134)—or perspective?