Wicked (the book): A review.

Half a year ago (so long, already?), a friend of mine went and saw the musical Wicked! down in Toronto. he LOVED it, and raved about it to me. So, slow creature that I am, I started to check into it this past week. The musical looks AMAZING and like a lot of fun, and I really, REALLY want to see it now (Come back to Toronto soon!!). So, naturally, since the musical looks like such a smash, and I cannot see it yet, I went and bought the book. People had raved about that too, after all, and promised to be better than the musical ever was.

It's not as good as I hoped it was.

It falls very, very short.

The only saving grace about the book is... the musical. Wow. I never, EVER thought I'd say that about a book.

Okay, maybe after reading authors such as Agatha Christie, Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, P.D. James, P.G. Wodehouse I may be a bit spoiled and picky. But before you go tearing me to bits over how horrible I am for not liking the book that spawned the musical, the first thing you should know about Wicked the book is: the musical is NOT the same as the book!

WARNING: spoilers for the book ahead. However, you might do better to read a summary anyway.

The book is indeed set in Oz. The girls, Galinda and Elphaba, indeed meet and room together at university. They do become friends. Boq does have a massive crush on Galinda. Elphaba and Fiyero do fall in love and Elphaba does wind up at castle Kiamo Ko, where Dorothy hits her with a pail of water, in accordance with Frank Baum's tale. There the similarities end. It's a very gritty tale, full of politics, religion, sex, struggle to find oneself, sex, oppression by and resistance to an ugly superpower, and, of course, sex. Oh, and did I mention sex? If you're getting a little tired of Playboy or Harlequin fare, this book is an excellent alternative. Kinky, inter-species sex (a threesome, no less!), peeking into the girls' dorms while they undress (seems rather tame now), Elphaba and Fiyero's steamy affair (yes, Fiyero is already married when we meet him in the book), Elphaba's loose mother's affairs, homosexuality, the works. The first half of the book seems to alternate between the life of Elphaba and someone screwing around. It's not even particularly well-written sex, is graphic at times, comes on too fast, leaves just as quickly, and is rather boring altogether.

So, parents, even if you loved the musical - DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR KID. unless perhaps he/she is 18+. And you don't care if they read that sort of thing. This is why the book isn't in the Children's Fiction section of the bookstore. If it is, you should be seriously lobbying the store to remove it from there.

in addition to sex, Death also features prominently in the book: the witch dies. Fiyero dies in a spray of blood. Doctor Dillamond, the Goat, is MURDERED (also bloody). Madame Morible is murdered. The original inhabitants of Kiamo Ko, Fiyero's family - murdered! There is a subsequent elimination of minority people/species groups throughout the book. Bloody battles and killing are seen throughout. The only satisfying deaths are of people who are set up as shallow, cruel, and only appear briefly, as to provide some sense of satisfaction for all the senseless killing in the book.

The one good thing is the friendship ring that develops at the university - Elphaba and Glinda actually are part of a group of students who become friends, in spite of status or race. A touching homage to past memories, perhaps? It comes early in the book, and is over all too soon. All of a sudden, Elphaba decides to cut away and disappears for 5 years. Another nice thing is that the sex peters out for most of the last chapter of the book.

As Elphaba searches (unknowingly) for a soul, so does the book - it has no cohesive plot line running through. The ending is anticlimactic and hurried. Though the book questions the nature of Evil, it gets so tangled up in itself that it never gets around to the author's conclusions on the matter. Perhaps he had none. It does have the feel of Star Wars ep. III to it - waiting to meet up with an ending already written, with commentary on the miserable state of affairs of our world. Characters are flippant, shallow, show up to give a point of view rather than more insight into Oz itself - something sadly missing in the book. I wanted to explore the emerald mines of Glikkus, hear more of the beauty of the flora and fauna of the mountain and plain, rather than have them abruptly enter, perform their function, and leave. What exactly does a skark look like? I wanted to wander around the countryside of Oz, not wallow in gritty intrigues of the cities and towns.

It also seems that the author had trouble picking a viewpoint and sticking to it. we see more than Elphaba's life and what affects it, either directly or indirectly. we get insight into the mind of Boq, Glinda, and Fiyero's wife and family, but not into Nessarose (interestingly), or Madame Morible. Yackle appears, but more as a plot device, and we never find out who she is. There is no confirmation of the story, no perspective (why was this tale preserved? who tells it?).

To conclude: This book is a sad, gritty, shallow tale and is not really worth a read. Makes me wonder how many of the raving reviews are truly mad, or just never read the book. Hold off buying it and save the money for the musical instead.

When a Slave is Ruler, the Earth trembles....

DISCLAIMER: Rant following. DO NOT READ if you cannot accept someone else's point of view as just that.

Now that we've got that out of the way....

I think this will be the last degree I do for a while.

Not because I couldn't go further - I love learning and research. Problem solving, for me, is fun. No, it's the politics that are, well, angering me. actually, its more like blinding rage.

Okay, here's what has tipped this particular rant off: I'm chatting with one of my fellow grads when her supervisor walks in. He lips off about how not to mind him, he's being a prick - his own words. I respond by saying "I know" and I do know - he sexually harasses the female students and generally acts insecure. He then says threateningly "...What?!". The guy obviously cannot take even his own joke. And I'll likely be made to pay over and over for it. I know - I lived at home with a mother who was like that. Except she was slightly less insecure. The worst bit: he is receiving tenure THIS YEAR. That means that the behaviour will only GET WORSE.

There are no words strong enough for the feeling I get inside for people who are pitiful enough to abuse their position to look for ego stroking, play power games, and cannot stand to hear a word spoken against them by those they consider to be "beneath them". In my eyes, every human being has an intrinsic value for just being human that cannot be stripped away. things like age and character play into whether or not your value is greater or lesser, but as far as I see, people, unless they show themselves to be otherwise, are pretty much my peers or betters in my eyes. Even children have a right to be respected by adults.

It's funny - I seem to be able to get a pretty good first approximation of the charater (and by extension, respectability) of a person in the first few minutes of meeting them. Something about the eyes, posture and how they move just gives it away... Most people do not give a strong signal either way. A few I recognise as people I will get along really well with. But a few send red flags flying up everywhere. Believe me, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt if I get the impression that they are not "nice people", but, unfortunately, they have time and again proven me wrong. I really, really hate it when I'm right -prove me wrong, people (dammit)!

I cannot stand insecure, power hungry, childish people. They make me see red and my heart burns in black flames. They draw out all the angry shadows that have flickered in my heart since I've dealt with people like this (ie: very early childhood). You think you're something, just because you have an education, eh? You think you're all that? Think you can demand respect in spite of acting irresponsibly?? Well, guess what -I grew up surrounded by uneduacted, common adults and guess what - they acted -just - like - YOU!!! That's right - you act NO DIFFERENT than those undeucated, working-class group you consider so "beneath you"!

Don't get me wrong - I will give credit where credit is due. However, if you choose to act like a child and have a temper tantrum every time someone says something you don't like, what makes you think that you have any respect at all? You just gave it up by acting like you're 3. Grow up - you want respect, you maintain it by acting like a person deserving of the position. Defending yourself against slander is absolutely fine - but it had beter be slander, not the truth.

I've already been threatened and bullied anough here. I am getting tired of the petty game this faculty plays. Sure, politics exists everywhere - but you are not in control of my life, just my education. If you wish to act this way, I will go and find people who do not act as childishly as you and will work with them instead. I'd tell you it's your loss... but then again, I doubt you'd even notice my absence.