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wow, Wicked is gayer than i remember
Aug. 21st, 2023 04:54 pmi was SORTA aware, from the last time i read Maguire's Wicked probably in high school, that Elphie and Galinda had a little something homoerotic going on, but i had forgotten that Elphaba is sort of intersex? or that her parents briefly had a third, shared partner? or that crope and tibbett were in mlm with each other? or the EXTENT to which elphie and galinda had something homoerotic going on?
i also learned on this read-through that maguire himself is also gay. which explains some things.
in reading the wikipedia entries for the sequel books i discovered that many reviewers describe them as disjointed and a little manic. i definitely felt that way about the end of the book--everything after elphie goes to visit nessarose in munchkinland. her grief was... i mean, i KNOW that grief is illogical. that's largely the premise of the book--elphaba's trauma causes her to act in ways that don't make sense to the outside world, leading her to being labeled as an evil witch when she's trying to do good in the world. but i think the reason why the narrative falls apart when she reaches her 40s is because she just... stops trying to do good in the world. her research into Animals or into rescuing Nor just falls away and she becomes single-mindedly focused on the shoes and on personal revenge. it's almost like her mind goes. i guess grief can do that to a person but my ability to have empathy with her fell away at that point.
the first 75% of the book is still really solid though.
i also learned on this read-through that maguire himself is also gay. which explains some things.
in reading the wikipedia entries for the sequel books i discovered that many reviewers describe them as disjointed and a little manic. i definitely felt that way about the end of the book--everything after elphie goes to visit nessarose in munchkinland. her grief was... i mean, i KNOW that grief is illogical. that's largely the premise of the book--elphaba's trauma causes her to act in ways that don't make sense to the outside world, leading her to being labeled as an evil witch when she's trying to do good in the world. but i think the reason why the narrative falls apart when she reaches her 40s is because she just... stops trying to do good in the world. her research into Animals or into rescuing Nor just falls away and she becomes single-mindedly focused on the shoes and on personal revenge. it's almost like her mind goes. i guess grief can do that to a person but my ability to have empathy with her fell away at that point.
the first 75% of the book is still really solid though.
