The Watchman, and also On Fiction

[tealin]

I may have mentioned in the past that for a long time, whenever I tried to focus on how I pictured Vimes in my head, I'd end up with Bruce Willis, which really wasn't what I was going for. Well, I watched Unbreakable for the first time in a while last night, and noticed that the number of the train that derails at the beginning ... is 177. That, unless I am much mistaken, is Vimes' badge number. And Bruce Willis' character in the movie is, in a way, a watchman, and very good at spotting when Something Is Up (though admittedly in a different manner than Vimes just relying on being 'a suspicious bastard') ... and ... yeah. So I thought ... has Mr Shyamalan read any Discworld books? And would he please make Thud! if ever it is to be made? Even though it'd be a bit of a stretch to set it in Philadelphia.

So, continuing, in the manner of someone reading out interesting things from the newspaper to anyone seated nearby who might be interested ...

I found this in May's issue of Locus, a trade magazine for publishers of SciFi/Fantasy. It's Garth Nix, talking about characteristics of age-based genres in literature. Under 'Children's Novel' is the following:

It will be told in a prose style that does not break the reader out of the story, nor seek attention at the expense of the story. The text will not gladden the hearts of semioticians with regular halts every few pages to admire the author's coruscatingly brilliant sentence construction; or to puzzle through the author's obtuse but remarkable vocabulary.

I wonder if he's ever read Wicked... I mean, obviously, that's not even trying to be a children's book, but if you omit all the 'not's from that paragraph, you've got pretty much everything I dislike about Gregory Maguire's writing style.

Simple pleasures for simple minds, hmm hm hmmm...

Comments

[fryingpanofdoom.livejournal.com]

Add to the Problems with Wicked List:
way too much obscure symbolism. Apparently, things like the Time Dragon or that virtually pornographic scene at the nightclub are symbolic of everything from Death to Destruction, Desolation, Inner Truth, Mom's chicken soup... the list never ends.
And he thinks his books are a great work of art, which would doom a much better writer than him.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Well, they'd have to be symbols, because they sure don't work as part of the story! Symbols work so much better when they work on multiple levels – it's all well and good to have symbolism but it has to be part of the story first, you can't just jump right to the Higher Meaning. People seem to get so wrapped up in the deeper layers of meaning in a book that they forget it has to have the top layer to start with, otherwise it all falls apart.

Funny how much 'art' writing has in common with 'fine art' (contemporary fine art, I mean) with its lack of structure and spurning of established rules and techniques... and consequent alienation of most of your prospective audience ... I guess if you aren't 'enlightened' enough to get it, you don't deserve to partake of the artist's wisdom. Will someone please tell the emperor he's naked?

[fryingpanofdoom.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be fun to walk up to Maguire and tell him that? "Hi, sir. Just wanted to let you know that the emperor has no clothes." Just out of the blue.

However, I don't think that people are really fans of the book. They are fans of the musical, which is an entirely different thing. Personally, I love how the musical effectively destroyed all of the doom, gloom, and desolation that Maguire so carefully sets up. Usually, I hate it when movies / musicals change anything about a book, but there are a few exceptions.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Hah, the musical gave the story a plot as well as interesting and developed characters – those aren't changes, those are improvements.

Er ... okay, actually they are changes. I'm trying to play on the whole '[natural disaster] struck [location notorious for being ugly] and wreaked $5m worth of improvements.' joke.

[crickets chirping]

Anyway, what I mean to say is, it made Wicked into a story, as opposed to an Exploration of the Human Condition – a spoonful of story makes the Statement go down.

To repeat that old refrain, STORY STORY STORY.

[aurorawest.livejournal.com]

I won't try to defend Wicked or Maguire because obviously liking him is a matter of personal taste, but I do want to say that people DO like the book. I read it years before the musical came out and loved it.