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sophia_sol) wrote2011-08-25 08:23 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2011-08-25 08:23 pm
The Magicians, by Lev Grossman: my thoughts thereupon
So today I finished reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Yup, the book by the dude who wrote the article about fandom! And yup, that's why I picked it up!
I started reading this book a while ago, and read two thirds of it in two days and then just...set it aside and didn't keep going. Because in the bit after they graduate from Brakebills, it started becoming more obvious just how much of an ass Quentin is and I really didn't want to keep hanging out with him.
This is the biggest flaw in the book: UNLIKEABLE MAIN CHARACTER. I was fascinated by all sorts of the secondary characters. I bear huge fondness for Eliot, for instance, who is by no means a perfect person but is still endearing in a way that Quentin utterly fails to be. And Alice is awesome except for her extremely questionable taste in guys.
The book is a very good book, is what I think I am saying. Well written, engaging, great characterisations, great worldbuilding, some wonderful lines and descriptions, all that.
But the thing where it falls into the Literature trap of thinking the main character needs to be kind of a terrible person? And that the whole thing should be towards the Realistic And Gritty side of things? That made me sad. Because it was very nearly an AMAZING book, not just a very good one.
Also, the book? Is totally Harry Potter/Narnia crossover fanfic with the serial numbers filed off. SO MUCH. Which...makes it something less surprising that Grossman is the sort of dude who's able to look at fandom from a non-judgmental perspective.* <3
Except that meant I kept on reading it through a more fannish perspective and it...does not fit the genre conventions of fanfic. What with, y'know, killing off the love interest and having an unlikeable main character and all that. Because, okay, love interests are sometimes killed off in fanfic but not often, but as to the second point -- we write fic out of LOVE, right, and generally included in that love is a love of the characters, and even if the characters are awful people in one way or another, we still love them, we know what is loveable about them, and that comes through in the fic. Whereas in The Magicians, I could tell that we were supposed to be at least somewhat sympathetic towards Quentin, but it FAILED.
(speaking of fannish perspective: Eliot/Quentin, anyone?)
I was really intrigued by the whole Watcherwoman thing, how she turned out to be Jane Chatwin just trying to figure things out and set everything in Fillory to rights after her brother went all monstery. I loved that, actually.
(...say: Jane/Alice, anyone?)
I was also just intrigued by the Fillory thing in general. I appreciated it right from the beginning, the fact that Quentin and so many other people used a fantasy book they all knew and loved as their point of reference in the magical world. Because that is EXACTLY what would happen if an actual real life person ended up in a magical world: they'd think of Narnia, or Middle Earth, or something.
And I liked that Fillory turned out to be real, and that the reality wasn't quite what Plover'd written into his books.
And I loved that people in The Magicians were recognizable as genuine fans of Fillory. That's the one part of Quentin I found endearing/relatable: his genuine love for and fascination with Fillory (at least in the earlier Brakebills part of the book. By the time we actually reached Fillory I was all out of patience with him.). They had arguments about which is the best book, and which is their favourite character! They debate events in the books! They complain about weird plot choices! They critique the flaws, out of a place of love! IT IS SO GREAT.
And what this means is that I kind of really want to see Fillory fanfic. Not, like, fic for The Magicians about the actual Fillory. But fanfic that people in the (mundane) world of The Magicians would have written about the Fillory books. Because you KNOW that it must exist. And really we're given quite a few details about the Fillory books, more than enough to construct something to write fic about. I think that it would be fascinating if done well.
And that's more or less what I have to say about the book. In conclusion: definitely worth reading, but has its flaws.
*although, I mean, there is the whole thing with Diana Gabaldon and her Doctor-Who-companion inspired character and her violent outrage at the idea of fanfic. So.
I started reading this book a while ago, and read two thirds of it in two days and then just...set it aside and didn't keep going. Because in the bit after they graduate from Brakebills, it started becoming more obvious just how much of an ass Quentin is and I really didn't want to keep hanging out with him.
This is the biggest flaw in the book: UNLIKEABLE MAIN CHARACTER. I was fascinated by all sorts of the secondary characters. I bear huge fondness for Eliot, for instance, who is by no means a perfect person but is still endearing in a way that Quentin utterly fails to be. And Alice is awesome except for her extremely questionable taste in guys.
The book is a very good book, is what I think I am saying. Well written, engaging, great characterisations, great worldbuilding, some wonderful lines and descriptions, all that.
But the thing where it falls into the Literature trap of thinking the main character needs to be kind of a terrible person? And that the whole thing should be towards the Realistic And Gritty side of things? That made me sad. Because it was very nearly an AMAZING book, not just a very good one.
Also, the book? Is totally Harry Potter/Narnia crossover fanfic with the serial numbers filed off. SO MUCH. Which...makes it something less surprising that Grossman is the sort of dude who's able to look at fandom from a non-judgmental perspective.* <3
Except that meant I kept on reading it through a more fannish perspective and it...does not fit the genre conventions of fanfic. What with, y'know, killing off the love interest and having an unlikeable main character and all that. Because, okay, love interests are sometimes killed off in fanfic but not often, but as to the second point -- we write fic out of LOVE, right, and generally included in that love is a love of the characters, and even if the characters are awful people in one way or another, we still love them, we know what is loveable about them, and that comes through in the fic. Whereas in The Magicians, I could tell that we were supposed to be at least somewhat sympathetic towards Quentin, but it FAILED.
(speaking of fannish perspective: Eliot/Quentin, anyone?)
I was really intrigued by the whole Watcherwoman thing, how she turned out to be Jane Chatwin just trying to figure things out and set everything in Fillory to rights after her brother went all monstery. I loved that, actually.
(...say: Jane/Alice, anyone?)
I was also just intrigued by the Fillory thing in general. I appreciated it right from the beginning, the fact that Quentin and so many other people used a fantasy book they all knew and loved as their point of reference in the magical world. Because that is EXACTLY what would happen if an actual real life person ended up in a magical world: they'd think of Narnia, or Middle Earth, or something.
And I liked that Fillory turned out to be real, and that the reality wasn't quite what Plover'd written into his books.
And I loved that people in The Magicians were recognizable as genuine fans of Fillory. That's the one part of Quentin I found endearing/relatable: his genuine love for and fascination with Fillory (at least in the earlier Brakebills part of the book. By the time we actually reached Fillory I was all out of patience with him.). They had arguments about which is the best book, and which is their favourite character! They debate events in the books! They complain about weird plot choices! They critique the flaws, out of a place of love! IT IS SO GREAT.
And what this means is that I kind of really want to see Fillory fanfic. Not, like, fic for The Magicians about the actual Fillory. But fanfic that people in the (mundane) world of The Magicians would have written about the Fillory books. Because you KNOW that it must exist. And really we're given quite a few details about the Fillory books, more than enough to construct something to write fic about. I think that it would be fascinating if done well.
And that's more or less what I have to say about the book. In conclusion: definitely worth reading, but has its flaws.
*although, I mean, there is the whole thing with Diana Gabaldon and her Doctor-Who-companion inspired character and her violent outrage at the idea of fanfic. So.