(no subject)

[swatkat]

My pretty red coffee mug has a chink. WOE!

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*Why* do I feel so exhausted?

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I went browsing at Amazon, and there are some very - shall we say interesting? - reviews of Wicked out there. Most of them are good, but some reviewers seem to feel that the book fails to 'empower women' and therefore we should watch the musical instead. *dies laughing*

Another reviewer said:But you will wrestle, long afterward, with Maguire's moral pessimism and the snarl of grace and doom that underlies this novel. (emphasis mine)

'Moral pessimism'? Is Maguire pessimistic? I'll have to think some more on this. Thoughts, jaybee65?

Comments

[jaybee65.livejournal.com]

Now you made me go read the Amazon reviews, which was good for a laugh. As you said, most people liked it, but there were the occasional reviews where people shrieked about porn or complained that Maguire uses too many big words. *Rolls eyes*

I read the review you quote above, and I believe an earlier sentence sheds light on what this reviewer thinks "moral pessimism" is:

How is it that Dorothy, the sturdy little nobody from nowhere who committed manslaughter as she landed in Oz, skips down the Yellow Brick Road impervious to danger while Elphaba strives and plots to reap only negative results?

This reviewer seems to be influenced by the idea -- common to a lot of people -- that virtue and hard work should be rewarded. Wicked shows that concept to be false: Elphaba, despite her faults, is in many ways the most virtuous and hardworking character in the novel, and she certainly isn't rewarded. This outcome flies in the face of most contemporary popular narrative, which tends to buy into and reinforce people's belief in that myth. For the sort of reader accustomed to such conventions, tragedy *is* "moral pessimism."

I think this is also what underlies the reaction of the reviewer who felt the book failed to "empower women" like the musical. In this mode of thinking, a woman cannot be empowered if she fails at the end of the story.

Ultimately, what seems to be driving a lot of the bad reviews (aside from people's inability to read beyond 5th grade level and horror of anything sexual) is a hostility toward tragedy as a genre. Many people simply aren't used to it -- Hollywood has trained them to expect something very different, and so it's a foreign and disturbing thing.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I think fandom has desensitized me, because I completely fail to see what's so terrible about the porn, lol! And another reader felt the final section was very badly written and made no sense at all - and here I was getting all teary and overwhelmed by the sheer power of the prose over the last few pages!

This reviewer seems to be influenced by the idea -- common to a lot of people -- that virtue and hard work should be rewarded.

Not just *should be* rewarded, but *is always* rewarded. Or at least, it should be in fiction. I've seen this POV in fandom as well - fans who wail 'unrealistic!' when the story ends in a darker note.

This outcome flies in the face of most contemporary popular narrative, which tends to buy into and reinforce people's belief in that myth.

Ooh, well said.

In this mode of thinking, a woman cannot be empowered if she fails at the end of the story.

Yes, exactly. And here I was thinking empowering women was about treating women like *people* - but no, it always has to be girl power!11!1

is a hostility toward tragedy as a genre. Many people simply aren't used to it -- Hollywood has trained them to expect something very different, and so it's a foreign and disturbing thing.

This is what bothers me, frankly. I understand *not* enjoying tragedy as a genre, or preferring something more uplifting, as many people do. But the cries of 'this is so unrealistic!', 'this isn't the way it should happen!' points to a POV that I find rather disturbing. And I'm not sure if it's entirely Hollywood's fault (a lot of it is, yes. Hollywood and Disney).

Swatkat