Wickedest Witch There Ever Was
So, I've finished reading Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It was truly bizarre and - pardon me, those of you who know the musical - wonderful. I've been describing it as a novel length Grimm's fairytale with a dash or six of social and political commentary, a dollop of dark humor, and a pinch of sex. Throw in a book-long sometimes subtle, sometimes not meandering on the nature of Good and Evil. While I have not seen the musical, it sounds as though it has been somewhat Disney-tized. Much of the story seems to have been compressed and some things were completely changed. (Boq, for instance, never had anything going with Nessarose.) The character of Fiyero is unrecognizable in the song "Dancing Through Life" but resembles the original a bit more by the time he gets to "As Long As You're Mine." And Nessarose, rather than being in a wheelchair, has no arms. Even so, things that I paid no attention to in the lyrics before have taken on a different light.
Eh, I love both book and musical for entirely different reasons. I leave you with a few quotes...
On children: "Bleeding is good for them, makes them less hungry."
On infidelity: "If you can't remember whether your marriage vows have been broken or not, there's not much good in acting like an offended saint."
On the death of the Wicked Witch of the East: "That Nessarose, she was giving such a good speech about religious lessons, she really brought down the house!"
On Dorothy and Toto: The alien girl--she called herself Dorothy--was by virtue of her survival elevated to living sainthood. The dog was merely annoying.
Eh, I love both book and musical for entirely different reasons. I leave you with a few quotes...
On children: "Bleeding is good for them, makes them less hungry."
On infidelity: "If you can't remember whether your marriage vows have been broken or not, there's not much good in acting like an offended saint."
On the death of the Wicked Witch of the East: "That Nessarose, she was giving such a good speech about religious lessons, she really brought down the house!"
On Dorothy and Toto: The alien girl--she called herself Dorothy--was by virtue of her survival elevated to living sainthood. The dog was merely annoying.