John Kendrick Bangs

Alice in Blunderland: a Parable for Our Times John Kendrick Bangs

"An Underground Best-Seller" - "Animal Farm for 21st Century Politics" - What would happen if Alice, of Wonderland fame, were dropped into a political system where the government runs every aspect of life? You would have Alice in Blunderland, a 1907 classic, brought back to life-with even more meaning for our modern times. Join Alice as she explores a city where: The town has an official beggar-who is on government salary. - Boys are required to dance with homely girls-or get arrested. - They have the safest, most fuel-efficient, mass transit system in the world-because it doesn't go anywhere. - Teeth are public property. - The Commissioner of Public Verse has 16,743 poets working for him-and words that don't rhyme are made to rhyme by civic decree. - And, the official government monetary policy is expressed as follows: We promise to pay / This bond some day / If of the stuff / We've got enough. / And if we haven't, pray don't despond, / For we'll pay it off with another bond. - "This would be one of the funniest political satires I've ever read-if it weren't so close to current reality."