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

[tannhaeuser.livejournal.com]

[linda-lupos.livejournal.com]

And that's why I like the premise of the book much more than the book itself. The idea of seeing a well-known story from the villain's POV is utterly fascinating to me, it's just that Maguire did it so... badly. Hardly any of the characters are sympathetic, and if they are they get killed off, and off-screen at that *coughcougFiyerocoughcough*, and there are some random time jumps that REALLY annoyed the crap out of me.
I'll take the musical any time. :) *belts out Defying Gravity and gets glared at for lack of singing abilities*

Bruce Willis as Vimes? I always pictured a kind of Pete Postletwaite (spelling?!), and that was before I read The Art of Discworld. It just seems to fit him. Bruce seems too... action hero-y and, uhm, American to me. No offence meant with that last bit! I dunno.

May I take a moment to beg you to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE draw Vetinari again? You have about two drawings of him on your site and that's way too few (eh, yes, I am a Vetinari fan, why d'you ask?). I'm not really picky about which book it's from, or even from no book at all. Just Vetinari being snarky, please. :) If you'd be so nice.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I inferred from the Nix paragraph – he seems a bit scornful of text that is as obviously self-congratulatory as Maguire's, he (and you) sums it up much better than my appraisal of his writing style, which is that between the lines is written 'I have a doctorate! Look at my doctorate! Dr Maguire over here! I have a doctorate!' It also annoys me that he gets so much praise for basically writing pompous fanfiction.

Children's literature is obviously not the place for ostentatious prose, and a fair amount of delight in language is nice to see in a more mature novel. But it should enhance the reading experience, not detract from it, either by superfluous ornamentation or deliberate austerity for the purposes of making a Statement.

It's nice to know someone's in my corner on the Hemingway thing ... urgh, can't stand him.

[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?

Yeah, right

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

Simple minds? Yep. Uh-huh. Sure.

[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.

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

I've never really had a mental image of Vimes, outside of Paul Kidby's drawings. I'm astonishingly bad at having mental images of characters if a) They aren't mine or b) there are no pictures.

Nor have I ever heard of Gregory Maguire. From what you said this may be a good thing.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Well, I thought everyone liked Gregory Maguire except me ... but the show of support here is rather encouraging.

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

Is 'Never heard of him' really a show of support?

Also: what's a 'syntax error'? I'm using an 11-year-old computer that keeps giving me that.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Those who have heard of him seem to be on my side, is what I mean.

Syntax error ... the words in your sentence are out of order? ;) I dunno, sounds like something computereek to me.

[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.

[gilded-garb.livejournal.com]

Wicked does indeed suffer from "Look at me! Look at me! I am an AWESOME writer!" syndrome. The musical is way better (especially the ending). In Maguire's defense, however, I think Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is awesome on both the plot AND symbolism levels. Unfortunately, I've never been able to finish either Lost or Mirror, Mirror and I have very little desire to even pick up Son of a Witch. I have to read enough ponderous literature in school; I don't need it in the books I read for pleasure.

*goes back to lurking*

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Error windows kept coming up telling me there was a syntax error on the page.

[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.