Welcome, readers. Today marks the end of the second week of the Read-Along, and completion of Part 2 of
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The floor is now open for insightful criticism and analysis (yours) and semi-coherent ramblings (mine). As seems to be becoming my habit, I am sitting down to write this having just now finished reading this week's assignment, and so if you'll follow me below the fold, I'll do my stream-of-consciousness, off-the-cuff bit.
I'm again half-wishing I could cheat and read ahead, although I'm respecting the process and not allowing myself to do that. (I also sneak peeks at Christmas presents before I'm supposed to -- delayed gratification suxxors.)
I wish I could read ahead because this novel is both episodic and threadlike in its construction, and I'm becoming impatient for the threads to begin to interweave -- as I assume they will, sooner or later.
Part 2 jumps from Elphaba as a three-year old, to Elphaba as a teenaged university student. In Part 1 we saw her mostly through her parents' eyes; in Part 2, we mostly see her through Galinda's. I appreciate the different prisms through which we get to see Elphaba, but find myself impatient to get under her skin. I would rather see the world of Oz, and Elphaba herself, through her eyes, than to see her through the eyes of others. I'm more and more intrigued by her, but I still don't know her.
Still lots of unanswered questions. I'm still wondering about Elphaba herself -- the burning questions last week were things like why she's green, why the aversion to water, things like that. I still wonder about that, but now I've got other things to wonder about, too. Why the ten-plus-year gap in her story? What is the significance of her being raised mostly in Quadling Country (other than the apparent need to have Nessarose have roots in that part of Oz?) Why is there a younger brother who is, as Elphaba says, "Male, and white, and whole", but who has yet to make an appearance in the book other than this almost throwaway mention? Why does Nessarose not have arms?
Questions about others. Apparently Frex and Melena have served their purpose in the story and have vanished from the landscape. Melena, certainly, since she's dead. I dunno, maybe Frex will make a comeback. I thought Turtle Heart was going to become an important character in the book, but we find that he's been killed. I'm guessing that Elphaba's brother Shell was fathered by Turtle Heart and not Frex.
It's obvious who Galinda/Glinda is. Surprising (and kinda refreshing) that she and Elphaba's relationship begins as it does. I of course wonder where that's going.
The world of Gilliken. I actually laughed when I realized that "the old goat" that Galinda was sharing her railway car with was actually a goat. Clever.
I'm absolutely fascinated by the animal/Animal dichotomy, and it's not a stretch to see parallels between that and, say, the early years of Nazi Germany and their views toward Jews (and other "suspect" classes). Doctor Dillamond's research struck me as being eerily antithetical to Josef Mengele's "research" using Jews as test subjects, treating them as if they were a separate and inferior species.
The Philosopher's Club made me think of the cabarets of the German Weimar Republic. (Joel Grey, anyone?)
There were things that reminded me of the modern (post-WWII) world, too. The description of Elphaba's and Glinda's entry into the Emerald City sent my mind to Baghdad's "Green Zone" - a sheltered world outside of which is chaos and squalor. Oz made me think of Iraq more than once -- there was a reference at one point to a splintered country that could have been a description of Iraq. I can't find the passage, now.
I'm intrigued by the religious and mythological 'history' that's beginning to be revealed; various versions of the creation myth were fascinating. I'm beginning to wonder if Elphaba doesn't turn out to be a Kumbric Witch or something. I'm not sure how it could, or would, happen, but I can't help but think that it's going to be the religions that are going to somehow tie all of the threads of this book together.
Them's my thoughts, observations and questions, and I'm sticking to them. What do you think?
Next week: Part 3 -- The City of Emeralds.