City of Emeralds

Just got to my favorite moment in “Wicked,” and decided to take a picture to mark the ocasion. This scene is why, despite all the differences in characterization, plot, and circumstance, I like Elphaba and Fiyero’s very different story arc in the novel every bit as much as I enjoy them in the musical. Despite knowing how the novel ends (in full), I’m resonating with their story quite a bit after reading the novel properly, because I see how it fits into her story arc. To put it simply, I’ve always seen Elphaba’s relationship with Fiyero, at least in book verse, as ultimately being the one good thing in her life. It was, to quote another character that I adore quite a bit quite literally her “brief flicker of light amidst an ocean of darkness.”  (It’s always a good day when I can find connections between my favorite pairings).

And, because Elphaba is less innocent, more closed-off, and much more jaded and cynical than her musical counterpart, this aspect of their relationship comes across very strongly in “City of Emeralds.” In a way, Elphaba in the musical was often denied, yet always very ready for love and affection, whether from Glinda’s friendship, her attraction to Fiyero, or from mentor figures such as Dillamond and even Morrible and the Wizard at points in her life. In that way, she and Fiyero fall for each other and come together very naturally, which is charming and heartwarming to watch.

This Elphaba, however, is resigned to being alone, and as a result, she and Fieyro work much harder at their relationship, which in turn becomes beautifully layered and complex because of its difficulty. This moment especially, “No! I’m not a harem, I’m not a woman, I’m not a person, no,” is so indicative of somebody who has accepted being alone so thoroughly that she’s begun to reject her own personhood suddenly letting somebody into her life. And it’s not romantic as much as it is jarring, difficult and frightening for her, and she’s not sweet as much as she’s often even more cynical and on the defensive. She struggles with being vulnerable, she questions her feelings every step of the way, and she’s far from perfect, but their relationship still becomes the point in her life when she is the happiest. 

"Why should I keep myself so safe?" he asked her, but he was almost asking himself…What is there that makes my life worth preserving? "I love you," said Elphaba." So that’s that then, and that’s it," he answered her, and himself. "And I love you.  So I promise to be careful." Careful enough for both of us, he thought.

What I love particularly love about this moment, though, is that it offers a glimpse of how Fiyero develops, and how he is affected by this relationship. Often with a pairing, when one character takes more of a central role in the plot, the other character become easy to overlook as merely an aspect of their partner’s plot arc. Here, though, the focus is solely on Fiyero, and how her realizes that Elphaba is also his brief flicker of light in an otherwise jaded existence. After seeing so much of Elphaba opening up to another individual and having her loneliness and otherness alleviated, it’s poignant to see the effect she has on him as well.

I love that there is an entire section of “Wicked” dedicated to their story; considering that the book is divided into stages of Elphaba’s life, I feel like that goes a long way in showing how important this period is to her. I genuinely think that any writer trying to write a very human and very layered relationship should read at least this chapter to see how to write characters that get into your head and make you care fiercely about their stories.

One year ago, I saw “Wicked” in Singapore. This winter break, I’m finally reading the novel for real this time. No skimming, no re-reading “City of Emeralds” over and over again, wishing it ended differently, no skipping ahead. I’m definitely liking this darker, more conflicted version of Elphaba, who is much more of a compelling revolutionary figure than an idealistic, spunky schoolgirl. When I saw the musical, I picked up on the conflict between internal change vs. external change; this theme is even more prevalent in the book. And as much as I love Elphaba and Fiyero in the musical, I also enjoy their arguably more mature and conflicted story arcs in the novel. 

Also seeing “Les Misérables” later today. It’s a good day for musicals. 

I’ve been meaning to watch “Sherlock” for some time now and it took seeing Martin Freeman in “The Hobbit” to give me that last bit of motivation. Needless to say, I’m loving that TV series thus far. This is genius. Can’t wait for their upcoming verbal sparring.

End-of-the-Quarter

My friend is an exceptionally talented photographer. We did an impromptu photo shoot in the Haggett Grey Lounge last week before her end-of-the-quarter dinner. 

I think they turned out pretty fantastically.

Didn’t know the Grey Lounge could look that classy. We look pretty good ourselves :)

The Hobbit

I saw “The Hobbit” a few days ago and pretty went through the entire movie feeling like I was back in 7th grade, excitedly watching “The Return of the King” when it came out in theaters, wishing I could escape to Middle Earth (or New Zealand). Needless to say, I loved the movie, and I personally loved how many times the filmmakers deliberately played up the tie-ins and nostalgia factor in the movie. Hearing all the familiar leitmotifs for the Shire, the Ring, Rivendell, and even Gandalf calling the Great Eagles made me smile. I loved how the Misty Mountain theme takes the place of the Fellowship theme in highlighting the dwarves’ crowning moments of awesome, to quote a TV trope term. I loved seeing the old actors reprise their roles, and I grinned like an idiot when Ian Holm’s Bilbo and Elijah Wood’s Frodo interacted on screen again. 

Also, I could just go on and on about wonderful I found Martin Freeman’s portrayal of Bilbo. He does it all so well: adorably awkward, brave, scared, conflicted, clever, fussy. I nearly shed a tear when he decides against killing Gollum in the cave. Despite being a silent scene, his acting was just that good. “Riddles in the Dark” was easily one of my favorite scenes, and poor, conflicted Gollum has even better CGI this time around. I thought Martin Freeman was spot-on with his characterization and it’s made Bilbo pull on my heartstrings in a way that the four hobbits in the original trilogy didn’t quite do, as good as they were. 

Also, the dwarves. Humorously, I distinctly recalled thinking back in the seventh grade that if they ever made a Hobbit movie, I’d miss all the eye candy that the cast of the Fellowship provided. I was very wrong. Can I just mention for a second how Bryonic Thorin is? He’s dark, brooding, suffering from a tragic past, and he acts like a proper Bryonic hero, complete with moments of staring out over a cliff top. I’m sure some viewers find that overdone, but I’m a sucker for anything that hints at that Romantic “Wanderer above a Sea of Fog” aesthetic. And that unflinching walk towards the Pale Orc… definitely goosebumps during that scene. I love that they went that direction with his characterization. I’m a bad Tolkien fan who didn’t reread “The Hobbit,” so I haven’t read that book for over ten years. I wasn’t particularly drawn to Thorin at that age, but this time around, I was mesmerized by his character onscreen. I enjoyed his adaptational attractiveness quite a bit, and I loved the time they spent developing his backstory. Balin’s loyalty to Thorin is sweet. Additionally, Fili and Kili are complete, adorable, attractive female fan service. It has got to be intentional. They even act like the Weasley twins. Not that I mind :) 

I suppose if I were to do a full-in depth review of the movie, or if I were watching it critically, I’d notice its various flaws and pacing issues more. But I pretty much watched it with the mindset and the expectations of an excited fan and as such, was pretty much swept away by the experience.

Escape

This evening, I went to a Lord of the Rings themed pub quiz with a group of friends. I haven’t touched, read, watched or thought much about Tolkien for the past few years, and realizing how much trivia I remembered from my days of being a thirteen-year-old discovering the fantasy genre and the existence of fan fiction and the online internet fandom was incredibly nostalgic, to say the least. Apparently, I still remember who most of the characters’ fathers are, even if “Frodo, son of Drogo” now conjures up a funny mental image of Frodo leading a khalasar. (Intertextuality for the win?) I’m pretty amused that I still remember what “Tig” is, and that I retained good bit of the trivia I picked up reading the transcripts of “Fellowship of the Ring” over and over again for all the spoof fanfictions I wrote. Also, I’m pretty proud that I remembered that Faenor created the silmirlis.

Nostalgia is a strange thing and I’m pretty sure that in general, re-living that nerdiness, or even seeing the Hobbit trailer reminds me of being that age and viewing literature, and probably a bit of the online fandom, as an escape from mundane reality. It reminds me of coming home from school on Friday, running up to my room and getting on my computer to read, write, discuss and generally immerse myself in an alternate reality. Though really, it was never so much losing track of reality as much as needing the occasional escape from it.

In any case, reading through my old scribbles is so much like going back in time and reading notes from a past self that it’s uncanny. When I reset “The Fellowship of the Ring” in a junior high school, which apparently earned me quite a few reviews on FF.net, it’s pretty amusing to realize how much that was essentially me re-imagining my current situation at the time as something more exciting and fantastical than it was. And yet, I definitely see a good bit of snark and my attempts to satirize the inane aspects of school (stress, social cliques, faulty vending machines, band parties) and then I’m sort of proud of my younger self. I’m most definitely looking forward to “The Hobbit”, if for nothing else, because it’s going to be a good two hours of straight-on nostalgic feelings and happiness. 

Eight Books

1. One book that changed your life: “Tam Lin” by Pamela Dean; I can’t count how many times I’ve mentioned this novel on personal statements and scholarship applications as one of the large reasons I ended up in the English major. 

2. One book you have read more than once: “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger. Going on five times now, if only counting cover-to-cover reads. Gets better every time. 

3. One book you would want on a desert island: “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. It might be instructive, but mostly ironic. 

4. One book that made you laugh: “Cat’s Cradle” by Kurt Vonnegut. So much sardonic humor. 

5. One book that made you cry: “Atonement” by Ian McEwan. That coda ending ripped my heart out. What-do-you-mean-they-didn’t-have-a-happy-ending? (Is it sad that I could come up with a quick list of at least 10 books that made, or nearly made me cry but I had to sit and think of a book that made me laugh?)

6. One book you wish hadn’t been written: I honestly can’t think of a book I dislike enough to wish it hadn’t been written. So, I’ll cheat and use another art form. I wish “Love Never Dies” had never been done. It destroyed all vestiges of my head canon and my interpretation of the “Phantom of the Opera” characters.

7. One book you are currently reading: “The Uses of Enchantment” by Bruno Bettelheim 

8. One book you have been meaning to read: “Wicked, the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire. I’ve seen the musical. I’ve read parts of the book (“City of Emeralds”, specifically. My goodness… tragic love story much?) I know how it ends. I haven’t read it cover-to-cover because I know it’s just going to be an emotional trial. I still mean to, with a mug of hot chocolate handy.

(Picture via sixbluemarbles)

Autumn

The UW campus is so lovely during the fall. Dead week is shaping up to be crazy between work and two research papers and I wanted to take a moment to pause and appreciate these little moments. 

Outside the law building on a sunny day + new phone

Quad on a foggy morning… love it!

Atonement

This seriously just made my day. According to the New York Times, the production is set to premiere in 2013 (!) and will be worked on by Michael Berkeley, who will provide the music,Craig Raine who will write the libretto and McEwan who will be giving creative input. While I have yet to research either of the other two individuals involved, I’m excited that McEwan will be directly involved in this project and appears to be friends with the other two.

"Atonement, the bestselling novel about class and love set in the second World War by Ian McEwan, is to be made into an opera. "

The Telegraph article gives some fantastic quotes regarding the direction of the production, which happily matches exactly how I would have envisioned the transition from text to opera. The basic plot of “Atonement,” (for those who haven’t been following my ramblings on the novel last year), revolves around “the doomed love affair between the aristocratic Cecilia Tallis and Robbie Turner, her bright but socially inferior lover. Cecilia’s younger sister, consumed with jealousy, makes a disastrous mistake that changes all their lives.” McEwan comments, “It’s not a chamber piece, that’s for sure. You can do some very dramatic things with this. If you were thinking of a large scale opera then what springs to mind is 380,000 troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. That would be quite a choir.” So, it’s going to be a grandiose choral work? Yes please! 

Given some of the other quotes coming from Berkeley and Raine, it sounds like I’m going to absolutely love the tragic, romantic direction they take the material.

From Berekley, “The love affair between Robbie and Cecilia is at a distance, in letters and the mind. (Sounds like my thesis all over again!) That’s something that music can do that no other art form can. You can have them on stage together singing a duet while he’s in France (fighting in the Second World War) and she’s in a hospital in England (working as a nurse)…The main challenge is to strip it down to something that is still very moving but more skeletal, that leaves room for the music to add another dimension.”

The concept of having Robbie and Cecelia singing a long-distance duet on stage is so lovely and very appropriate for conveying the theme of their prolonged separation. There is so much content to work through in portraying their distanced love affair that I’m wondering what’s going to make the cut? Their letters, with references to literary characters? Cecelia leaving her family? The half-an-hour coffee meeting? Am I the only one who wants to hear an aria or duet built around their constant “I’ll wait for you?” 

Admittedly, I suspect the theme of literary reality with the coda ending is going to get a bit lost in translation, as it did in the movie, simply because while the heart wrenching nature of the twist ending works in any format, it took on a very theoretical nature in book form and prompted me to wonder “what did I just read?” “Who’s thoughts did I just inhabit and which characters did I just get attached to?” A large part of the novel’s strength is its exquisite ability to explore interiority and inner emotions. You feel the headiness of young love and the shock of separation right along with Robbie and Cecelia, you feel Briony’s life-long guilt, you feel Robbie’s fatigue, anger and despair. As such, when Robbie and Cecelia finally reunite, no matter how briefly, you celebrate right along with them. When the ending came around, revealing that a large part of the interiority and thoughts of the characters was a fantasy invented by Briony’s guilty conscience, it was one of the few times a book moved me to tears and left me with the very uncomfortable feeling of not knowing who these (fictional) characters were or what they actually thought, as if they were real on some level. This reaction didn’t quite come through in the movie, even if they faithfully translated the reveal. 

But nevertheless, maybe it’s the romantic in me who devoured Robbie and Cecelia’s story with a spoon, but I’m not feeling too bad about the love story getting center-stage. I will say though, along the lines of sacrificing the theoretical “nature of literary reality” vs. the romantic plot, I do hope Briony isn’t portrayed as being motivated by jealousy, and I trust that McEwan will keep a close eye on that aspect. While that sounds like a common romance plot trope, it’s quite far from the reasons for her mistake, which had much more to do with her inability to identify between the characters in her writing and the interiority of the people around her. I almost want the opera companies to omit the twist ending from the program synopsis. I’m not sure they will, but honestly, reading about that twist in a brief synopsis is no way to experience it in full. 

Unfortunately, I doubt that this opera will be coming to the US, or Seattle for that matter, anytime soon, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get my hands on either a CD of the music, or a DVD release of the production. I’m sure that as beautiful as the music is sure to be, it’s going to make me feel like my heart’s been ripped at several points.