Book vs. Musical
About halfway through Wicked and am still boggling at how different it is from the Musical.
Other then the basic surface details and character situations, they seem like two wholey different texts. I was surprised at how thoughtful Galinda was (and then even more so once she's Glinda) and she's *smart* and so different. And Elphaba is so alien, not just a normal girl with green skin, not the kind of racial analogue that the musical makes her, but something more then that. It mostly comes from the chapters when she's a baby, not so much at all later on, except that because of the baby chapters it feels like a subtext that lurks behind everything else and so she still is. And its also weird that the book seems to be from everyone else's point of view but hers, so rather than being revelatory, it just deepens the mystery of her. Which (heh) on the one hand is interesting because it makes wanting to know whats going on with her very compelling, but on the other is very distancing - its not her story exactly.
That said I do love her, you kind of can't but do so.
Everyone's relationships are so different too, its not just that the musical has simplified things, its more that its grafted Wicked onto a standard musical world type of framework which creates a real dissonance when reading the book.
I'm about halfway through at the moment. Fiyero has just started seeing Elphaba in the Emerald City.
Although, omg. (random dork moment) Elphaba's parting from Glinda, and just other stuff, so slashy!
The maddening thing is that I don't remember enough about the Oz books to know how they present things, except taht I remember these little bits and pieces (like there's a 4th Witch right? And her colour is red, so she rules the Quadlings? Maybe? And I remember where Ozma was hidden, but not any of the specifics about her as Baum lays them out. Where there other talking Animals in the books other than the Lion?)
Think I may go for the 100 icon thing when I renew my lj account, because. 100!
Other then the basic surface details and character situations, they seem like two wholey different texts. I was surprised at how thoughtful Galinda was (and then even more so once she's Glinda) and she's *smart* and so different. And Elphaba is so alien, not just a normal girl with green skin, not the kind of racial analogue that the musical makes her, but something more then that. It mostly comes from the chapters when she's a baby, not so much at all later on, except that because of the baby chapters it feels like a subtext that lurks behind everything else and so she still is. And its also weird that the book seems to be from everyone else's point of view but hers, so rather than being revelatory, it just deepens the mystery of her. Which (heh) on the one hand is interesting because it makes wanting to know whats going on with her very compelling, but on the other is very distancing - its not her story exactly.
That said I do love her, you kind of can't but do so.
Everyone's relationships are so different too, its not just that the musical has simplified things, its more that its grafted Wicked onto a standard musical world type of framework which creates a real dissonance when reading the book.
I'm about halfway through at the moment. Fiyero has just started seeing Elphaba in the Emerald City.
Although, omg. (random dork moment) Elphaba's parting from Glinda, and just other stuff, so slashy!
The maddening thing is that I don't remember enough about the Oz books to know how they present things, except taht I remember these little bits and pieces (like there's a 4th Witch right? And her colour is red, so she rules the Quadlings? Maybe? And I remember where Ozma was hidden, but not any of the specifics about her as Baum lays them out. Where there other talking Animals in the books other than the Lion?)
Think I may go for the 100 icon thing when I renew my lj account, because. 100!