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Author
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Comment
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israfel
Unregistered User
(8/8/06 12:43 am)
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Wicked
Is anyone here familiar with Wicked
by Gregory Maguire, about Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West?
It's an interesting interpretation of a well known story, and it
questions the concept of simplistic morality that is very common
in fairy tales. "The Witch" is an almost archetypal figure
in folklore and fantasy, and the idea of the Witch simply being
a person who is labeled evil merely because she is iconoclastic
gives a whole different perspective on fairy tales. There are also
some interesting ideas about Ozian religion. Gregory Maguire has
also written several retellings of classic fairy tales, and Wicked's
sequel, Son of a Witch has just come out. The musical version of
Wicked is on tour right now, and I would highly recommend it, even
though it is very different from the book.
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korin
Unregistered User
(9/2/06 12:16 pm)
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wicked
I haven't read Gregory Maguire's book 'Wicked', but I am familiar with the musical of the same name. I haven't seen a production, but I have the original Broadway cast album and the sheet music. It's a very interesting musical because, while some of the songs seem simplistic, musically they are actually very complex. The songs work on several levels -- as narrative, as songs with popular appeal, and as sophisticated compositions. Karen Lee-Morlang, a well-known Canadian pianist who is CBC radio's first choice to accompany singers, has commented jokingly that you could do your master's degree on a single song from the musical. The musical is interesting because it plays with many archetypes and stereotypes without descending to the level of inane parody -- even the characters who at first appear to have walked straight out of Fairy Tale Central Casting ('the Witch', 'the Wizard', 'the Sister', 'the Good Fairy') are revealed to be more than they appear. The musical examines the very power of the Archetype that is so embedded into our unconscious, we often use it as a way of conveniently classifying things without ambiguity, and bypassing any examination of the layers beneath. I'm sure that many of you who have seen how fairy tales are often relegated to the role of simplistic children's stories will be familiar with that issue already!
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DerekJ
Unregistered User
(9/3/06 1:17 am)
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Re: wicked
Even though MacGuire's book and the musical both operate on the same flawed pop-culture stereotype premise, namely that his Oz seems to be the one from MGM's star-vehicle Technicolor movie:
Specifically, the idea of Glinda being a twittering birdbrain--which had only been written into the movie as a star gag for Billie Burke's trademark persona, like Bert Lahr's cowardly lion--and not Baum's wise and maternally-omnipotent story-guider.
MacGuire wasn't interested in Baum or fairytale archetypes, he seemed to be chiefly interested in how much mileage he could get out of quoting the same movie that always gets a laugh when you quote it.
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cwfaerie
Registered User
(9/3/06 11:08 am)
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Re: wicked
I have to agree with DerekJ--Wicked is not very original or impressive. MacGuire is working with the movie not the books. Baum already had a political commentary working; MacGuire just "updated" it. What I found so disappointing though is that the ending is unsatisfactory in that it doesn't play by the rules MacGuire sets up during the rest of the book. It's as if someone came in and said, "Okay, that's long enough. Time to wrap it up." I felt the same way about all of his books. I kept reading them hoping that they would get better since everyone I know loves them, and I seem to be the lone party-pooper who doesn’t get all of the fuss.
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(9/4/06 1:04 pm)
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Re: wicked
I deeply disagree. Maguire worked with both the movie and books,
combining the most recognizable elements of both. I happen to prefer
the movie of Oz to the book The Wizard of Oz, which is my
least favorite of all the original Oz books.
The whole concept of Wicked requires the use of the movie--the
Wicked Witch of the West in the book is a comical, not frightening,
figure, who barely appears for more than a chapter. The figure that
haunts children's night terrors is the Witch from the movie, a far
more powerful image, in my opinion.
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