Both Heidi and Trish have recently mentioned heros and villians and that's gotten me thinking about a little problem I've developed. I've been reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire and I'm very nearly done but I've reached a point where I don't want to read anymore, in fact I haven't cracked it open since before Christmas. Not because, I lost interest or I didn't care about the characters. Quite the opposite. I care too much about the characters. Both Elphie and Glinda. I obviously know how the story ends and I just can't bring myself to read about the death of the Wicked Witch of the West. Last week, the Wizard of Oz was on TV, looped for twenty-four hours for the holidays. I found that I couldn't bring myself to watch. Maguire has taken one of the most evil characters from my childhood that had not a shred of goodness in her and made her so real and sympathetic that I get mad at the good guys for offing her! I'm not sure how this will affect me reading other works by the talented Maguire, I don't want any more of my fairy tales messed with. But it brings me to an interesting question...can a villian be too sympathetic that it destroys their badness? Thinking that hard makes my head hurt :)
Mandy
PS I should mention that I'm also reading What-the-Dickens, Maguires childrens offering and am greatly enjoying it and not having my good and evil roles challenged in the process.
3 comments:
Maybe but I love it when a villiam is someone I can sympathize with. After all, there is evil and good in all of us, it's just how we deal with it I suppose. Besides, it makes the characters more real, more believable.
I saw Wicked, the play. I should read the book, huh?
I haven't seen the play, but I've enjoyed the book up to the ending, which I don't think I'm gonna read. Silly me :)
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