White Swirl

Can you clue us into what the statue holding the wrench in many Raconteurs posters symbolizes?

Rob Jones: It’s pretty straight-forward. The clues are all there (especially in the dodo button set).

OK people post pics from that statue
I am in the dark here

trickster wrote:OK people post pics from that statue
I am in the dark here

It's in several posters: most notably the 1st set of Nashville 08 copper and silver Alice handbills, Columbus 08, NYC 08, Bonnaroo 08, and maybe more..



Well this must be the button set Rob is referring to, what do you guys think it's all about? Statue is bottom left of course, but Alice is handing it to the dodo in the first one.



Here's the original Tennial drawing for the image in that first button top left:

I always assumed it was a play on Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee, but I cannot remember how well it fits the illustrations of them from the original Alice.

I just read through Chapter 3: A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale, which is where the above image appears with the exchange between Alice and the Dodo bird. To summarize: Alice is being given (back) her own thimble as a prize for running in the bizarre race described. Alice has just given each of the animals from the race "comfits" as a prize, but having none left for herself, the Dodo asks what else she has in her pocket and she produces the thimble which the Dodo then gives back to her as a prize. In the image, the thimble (which is very small) is replaced by the statue.

Perhaps the "monkey wrench" statue (as I usually think of it) represents something that you already have, but needs to be appreciated or nurtured.

I was also exploring the monkey wrench as a symbol and came across a quote by Ken Sleight that reads, "The monkey wrench is not a symbol of destruction...the monkey wrench is a symbol of restoration."

I could be way off.

I just scanned the first part of the book, where Alice finds the "drink me" bottle on the table, and figured I'd summarize in case it helps any of you clever fellows figure this out. In the Nashville handbills, the "drink me" bottle is replaced with the monkey wrench statue thingy.

So after Alice goes down the rabbit hole, she finds herself in a long hallway with many locked doors. She tries to open several of the doors and starts wondering how she'll ever get out of there, when suddenly she comes across a table with nothing on it except a key. She tries the key in all of the doors, but it only fits into a tiny little door hidden behind a curtain. She peers through the door and sees the most beautiful garden she's ever seen, and she wishes and wishes she could squeeze through the door to get to the beautiful garden, but she can't. So she goes back to the table, and finds the little "drink me" bottle, which was most certainly not there before. She drinks the potion and it causes her to shrink so that she is small enough to fit through the little door. But unfortunately she left the key to the little door on the table, and can no longer reach it.

So in this case, the monkey wrench statue replaces the potion, which in the story, acts as a sort of catalyst... It appears suddenly, and serves to fulfil Alice's desire to shrink and get to the garden that she longs to visit. No clue what that all means though!

This was kind of a coincidental find, but apparently Ken Sleight was an inspiration to renegade writer Edward Abbey who created a group of southern Saboteurs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey_Wrench_Gang

I always kind of thought it was somewhat of a key itself but I am sure that is way too simple

7th_son wrote:

trickster wrote:OK people post pics from that statue
I am in the dark here

It's in several posters: most notably the 1st set of Nashville 08 copper and silver Alice handbills, Columbus 08, NYC 08, Bonnaroo 08, and maybe more..

Thanks for these

I've never read "Alice in Wonderland," but my theory is pretty straightforward. The statue of Tweedle-dum (or is it Tweedle-dee?) is Alice's souvenir of her time in Wonderland. Likewise, the Raconteurs poster itself is, for the owner, a souvenir of the show and his/her evening with the band. So Alice is the fan, Wonderland is the show. And I'm not going to go into who the Dodo is. But we know the Walrus was Paul.

Wikipedia says the nursery rhyme about Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee goes: "Tweedledum and Tweedledee Agreed to have a battle; For Tweedledum said Tweedledee Had spoiled his nice new rattle..." so maybe the wrench is just a weapon he's going to use to fight his brother. Or maybe it's the aforementioned rattle.

At any rate, it's a cool set of posters.