"Wicked" by Gregory Maguire

Constance963 · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:51 pm Post subject: "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire

Since some of us expressed interest in discussing Wicked even though it has been axed, I thought I might get the ball rolling and start a discussion thread.

Just to get things started, those of us who have read the book or even seen the Broadway show, how do you feel about Elphaba? Was she born wicked? Did she become wicked? Was she in fact, not wicked at all but was simply misunderstood?

Chris OConnor · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 2:31 pm Post subject:

This is a great idea, Constance. Smile

If you can stir up some interest in this book it can go back up top as an official selection for one of the upcoming fiction book discussion periods.

Chris OConnor · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 2:31 pm Post subject:

And from the type of questions I see you asking I believe you'd make a great discussion leader for Wicked. Smile

Ophelia · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 2:44 pm Post subject:

Thanks for getting things going, Constance.

I've only read the first 57 pages (the last chapter being "Geography of the Seen and Unseen) , but of course I'll carry on.
Due to some unfortunate gap in my education, I know absolutely nothing about films or shows. Wink

So, it will take me a while to catch up and be able to answer your question, and I have no topic suggestions of my own for the moment.

Now if you or anybody else could suggest a discussion topic for something in pages 1 to 56 I'd be happy to join you.

Constance963 · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:16 pm Post subject:

Thanks Chris, I'll do my best.

Ophelia, since you are just starting how about the question of religion which I believe is raised immediately in the novel. The author brings up the religions Unionist, Paganism, and Pleasure Faith. Elphaba's father Frex is a minister who believes in the Unnamed God, names his daughter after a saint, and yet his daughter is then born green. Do you feel that the author is making a relation between religious beliefs and punishment? What kind of foreshadowing do you feel is being set up for the rest of the novel?

Ophelia · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:31 pm Post subject:

Very good suggestion Constance.
From a literary point of view, this is something which attracted my attention immediately as I thought the style was such a delight. Smile

I'll go back and read this again.

Now, the details of your question brings me to another of those gaps in my education: to me religion means "Catholics", "Protestants" "Muslims", and all subtleties are lost on people like me, but this is a challenge, I'll go for it.

Ophelia · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:43 pm Post subject:

Constance:

I would normally not post this here but I went back to your intro and... at last I found somebody on this forum who mentioned Harry Potter.

So this is my chance to state publicly that I LOVE Harry Potter. I found that reading the whole series backwards (7 to 1) or at random also worked very well.

Constance963 · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:56 pm Post subject:

Maybe we can start a Harry Potter thread Ophelia Wink

Oh, and I initially directed the religion question to Ophelia but it can go out to anyone who has read the novel or the first few chapters Very Happy

JulianTheApostate · Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:21 am Post subject:

I really enjoyed the musical version of Wicked, which I saw in San Francisco last year. When I tried reading the novel, I gave up after a couple of pages, but I didn't give it much of a chance.

The whole point of the musical was that Elphaba wasn't really wicked. Wicked was a revisionist take on The Wizard of Oz, in which the "Wicked Witch of the West" was a somewhat heroic figure fighting a corrupt and flawed system. The main theme was that good and evil are subjective, and that people don't conform to the simplistic black-and-white view of The Wizard of Oz, a mentality that comes up far too often in the real world.

Ophelia · Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:07 am Post subject:

Constance wrote:

Constance963 · Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:52 am Post subject:

Constance963 · Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:00 pm Post subject:

Ophelia · Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:19 pm Post subject: religion

Thanks Constance.
That's the trouble with blissful ignorance, having no clue whether "Unionist" is like "Baptist" or a writer's invention!

[When I studied English lit at university, a knowledge of the Bible would have been very useful (as opposed to studying French literature). All I had was a year's weekly instruction with the Catholic Church when I was 11, and even with that I knew much more than everybody else in my classes. I think our professors had no expectations from us in that field, so it never became an obvious problem.
My parents were raised as Catholics but the only reason we had a Bible at home was that a Protestant minister once came visiting everybody in the street and gave my Mom a Bible-- I still have it on a shelf with my reference books from all those years ago. Smile

]

Constance963 · Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:35 pm Post subject: Re: religion

JulianTheApostate · Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:46 pm Post subject:


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