Down the rabbit hole

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Rabbit from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland The White Rabbit (Tenniel) - The Nursery Alice (1890) - BL.jpg
Rabbit from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

"Down the rabbit hole" is an English-language idiom or trope which refers to getting deep into something, or ending up somewhere strange. Lewis Carroll introduced the phrase as the title for chapter one of his 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , after which the term slowly entered the English vernacular. The term is usually used as a metaphor for distraction. [1] In the 21st century, the term has come to describe a person who gets lost in research or loses track of time while using the internet.

Contents

Etymology

In 1865, Lewis Carroll introduced the idiom in the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . The chapter one title was, "Chapter One – Down the Rabbit Hole". Alice follows a white rabbit with pink eyes because she saw the rabbit checking a pocket watch. She chases the rabbit, and it bounds into a rabbit hole. [2] Alice falls into the rabbit hole, and it is a long fall, which leads her to "Wonderland". [3] In the novel, after the fall, the main character ends up in a literal strange world. [4]

In the 21st century, the term has come to mean a person ended up somewhere mentally rather than physically. Usually, a person uses the term when they describe having spent too much time on something or getting too involved. [3] With the advent of the internet, the term has taken on the meaning of getting lost in a topic or researching one topic and ending up in another. [1] It has become a metaphor for distraction. It has come to mean that someone has become interested in something, usually by accident; and often the subject does not deserve the amount of attention that a person gives. [1]

English language uses

The idiom is often used to describe a person who is researching a topic on the internet or exploring new things on the web. [5] [6] Many websites are designed to keep users engaged. Websites which are most successful at keeping a user's attention are described as "rabbit holes". The term often has a positive connotation: falling down a rabbit hole often suggests that a person engaged in a guilty pleasure. [1] It has also come to mean that a person ended up in a strange or difficult situation. [4] "A complexly bizarre or difficult state or situation conceived of as a hole into which one falls or descends". [7]

The idiom is also used to describe drug use, and the experience of an addict. [8] The term can also be used to describe an individual's psychedelic experience. [3]

Pop culture

In the movie The Matrix , Morpheus offers Neo the red pill and says, "You stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." [1] [9] A former Playboy Bunny, Holly Madison, wrote a book called Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, and in 2021 Sony TV decided to produce a TV series from the book. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Alices Adventures in Wonderland</i> 1865 childrens novel by Lewis Carroll

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 English children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics don at Oxford University. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. The artist John Tenniel provided 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the book.

Alice (<i>Alices Adventures in Wonderland</i>) Character from childrens novel

Alice is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). A child in the mid-Victorian era, Alice unintentionally goes on an underground adventure after falling down a rabbit hole into Wonderland; in the sequel, she steps through a mirror into an alternative world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheshire Cat</span> Character from Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland

The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in Alice-related contexts, the association of a "Cheshire cat" with grinning predates the 1865 book. It has transcended the context of literature and become enmeshed in popular culture, appearing in various forms of media, from political cartoons to television, as well as in cross-disciplinary studies, from business to science. Often it is shown in the context of a person or idea that is purposefully confusing or enigmatic. One distinguishing feature of the Alice-style Cheshire Cat is the periodic gradual disappearance of its body, leaving only one last visible trace: its iconic grin. He belongs to the Duchess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice in Wonderland syndrome</span> Neurological disorder that distorts perception of objects size and distance

Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS), also known as Todd's syndrome or dysmetropsia, is a neurological disorder that distorts perception. People with this syndrome may experience distortions in their visual perception of objects, such as appearing smaller (micropsia) or larger (macropsia), or appearing to be closer (pelopsia) or farther (teleopsia) than they are. Distortion may also occur for senses other than vision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Rabbit</span> Fictional character in Alices Adventures in Wonderland

The White Rabbit is a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" Alice follows him down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. Alice encounters him again when he mistakes her for his housemaid Mary Ann and she becomes trapped in his house after growing too large. The Rabbit shows up again in the last few chapters, as a herald-like servant of the King and Queen of Hearts.

Caterpillar (<i>Alices Adventures in Wonderland</i>) Fictional character

The Caterpillar is a fictional character appearing in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red pill and blue pill</span> Dilemma between painful truth and blissful ignorance

The red pill and blue pill represent a choice between the willingness to learn a potentially unsettling or life-changing truth by taking the red pill or remaining in the contented experience of ordinary reality with the blue pill. The terms originate from the 1999 film The Matrix.

<i>Adventures in Wonderland</i> (1992 TV series) American TV series or program

Adventures in Wonderland is a 1992–1995 American live-action/puppet musical television series based on the novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) by Lewis Carroll as well as the 1951 animated film. In the series, Alice, is portrayed as a girl who can come and go from Wonderland simply by walking through her mirror.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Rabbit (song)</span> Single by Jefferson Airplane

"White Rabbit" is a song written by Grace Slick and recorded by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane for their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It draws on imagery from Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass.

<i>Alice in Wonderland</i> (1903 film) 1903 British film

Alice in Wonderland is a 1903 British silent fantasy film directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow. Only one copy of the original film is known to exist. The British Film Institute (BFI) partially restored the movie and its original film tinting and released it in 2010. According to BFI, the original film ran about 12 minutes; the restoration runs 9 minutes and 35 seconds. At the beginning of the restoration, it states that this is the first movie adaptation of Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It was filmed mostly at Port Meadow in Oxford.

Works based on <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>

Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) have been highly popular in their original forms, and have served as the basis for many subsequent works since they were published. They have been adapted directly into other media, their characters and situations have been appropriated into other works, and these elements have been referenced innumerable times as familiar elements of shared culture. Simple references to the two books are too numerous to list; this list of works based on Alice in Wonderland focuses on works based specifically and substantially on Carroll's two books about the character of Alice.

<i>Fushigi no Kuni no Alice</i> Japanese anime television series

Fushigi no Kuni no Alice is an anime adaptation of the 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which ran on the TV Tokyo network and other local stations across Japan from October 10, 1983 to March 26, 1984. The series was a Japanese-German co-production between Nippon Animation, TV Tokyo and Apollo Films. The series consists of 52 episodes, however, only 26 made it to the US.

Down the Rabbit Hole is a metaphor for adventure into the unknown, from its use in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It may also refer to:

Knave of Hearts (<i>Alices Adventures in Wonderland</i>) Fictional character

The Knave of Hearts is a character from the 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

<i>Alices Adventures in Wonderland</i> (1910 film) 1910 American film

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a 10-minute black-and-white silent film made in the United States in 1910, and is based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 book of the same name.

<i>Alice in Wonderland</i> (2000 video game) 2000 video game

Alice in Wonderland is a platform video game developed by Digital Eclipse Software and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color. It was released in North America on October 4, 2000. The game follows the plot of the 1951 animated Disney film of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wonderland (fictional country)</span> Setting of Alices Adventures in Wonderland

Wonderland is the setting for Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

<i>Malice in Wonderland: The Dolls Movie</i> 2010 American film

Malice in Wonderland: The Dolls Movie is a 2010 drag comedy produced by Delicious Productions LLC, directed by Russell Maynor, written by Kenneth Ansloan and performed by The Dolls, the notorious drag troupe from Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is a psychedelic mash-up of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Mommie Dearest, with additional parody references to The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, A Clockwork Orange and numerous other films. It is based on the original 2008 stage show of the same name and performed by The Dolls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiki rabbit hole</span> Navigating from topic to topic while browsing wikis

The wiki rabbit hole is the learning pathway which a reader travels by navigating from topic to topic while browsing Wikipedia and other wikis. The metaphor of a rabbit hole comes from Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which Alice begins an adventure by following the White Rabbit into his burrow. The black hole metaphor comes from the idea that the reader is powerfully sucked into a hole from which they cannot escape.

"Alice" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga recorded for her sixth studio album, Chromatica (2020). It appears as the album's second track, preceded by a string arrangement titled "Chromatica I". It was written by Lady Gaga, BloodPop, Axwell, Justin Tranter, and Johannes Klahr, and produced by BloodPop, Axwell, and Klahr. The song references Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Schulz, Kathryn (4 June 2015). "The Rabbit-Hole Rabbit Hole". New Yorker. Archived from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  2. ↑ Carroll, Lewis (1865). Alice in Wonderland. Auckland, New Zealand: The Floating Press. pp. 4, 5. ISBN   978-1-77556-583-3 . Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 Zelby, Elaine (29 January 2019). "History of the Idiom 'Down the Rabbit Hole'". Medium. Archived from the original on 14 March 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  4. 1 2 Hawthorne, Mark (2021). The way of the rabbit. Winchester, UK: O-Books. ISBN   978-1789047936 . Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  5. ↑ Eggert, Bill (7 January 2022). "Time flies ... except when it doesn't". The Tribune-Democrat. Archived from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  6. ↑ Gillespie, Lane (30 April 2021). "Heights bar owners want new space to become part of neighborhood". Houston Business Journal. Archived from the original on 30 April 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  7. ↑ "Definition of RABBIT HOLE". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  8. ↑ Merrell, Lex (6 May 2022). "Speaker: Opioid dependency requires compassion". Bennington Banner. Archived from the original on 6 May 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  9. ↑ Breznican, Anthony (11 September 2021). "How Alice in Wonderland Explains The Matrix Resurrections Trailer". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 12 September 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  10. ↑ Goldberg, Lesley (19 February 2021). "Samara Weaving to Play Holly Madison in Sony TV Limited Series". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
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