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| Image @Jesse La Tour |
Stephan Lee from EWs Shelf Life interviewed Gregory Maquire, author of Wicked and his latest installment of the franchise, Out of Oz. The following was one of his questions:
What’s a classic or much-hyped book that you’ve never quite understood the merits of?
That’s an easy one to answer. I don’t get everybody’s devotion to Jane Austen. I think Jane Austen makes great movies [laughs]. For a long time, I would have answered Pride and Prejudice as the book that I said I’d read but hadn’t, but I finally read it about a year ago, and I think Pride and Prejudice has some very funny parts, but to me, it’s about three times too long — and look who’s talking, somebody who writes 500-page novels! The humor in it is funny, but the situations seem to me very repetitive and run into one another, yet almost all the critics I know think that the great writers who I really do admire from the 19th and 20th century descended from Jane Austen — and we must all bow to her and kiss the hem of her garment — but I’ve never gotten it. I think I’m missing the Jane Austen molecule or something.
Huh?!! Try reading her books again, mister, and throw some Persuasion into the mix.
Image from the Internet Web Log of Jesse La Tour
What’s a classic or much-hyped book that you’ve never quite understood the merits of?
That’s an easy one to answer. I don’t get everybody’s devotion to Jane Austen. I think Jane Austen makes great movies [laughs]. For a long time, I would have answered Pride and Prejudice as the book that I said I’d read but hadn’t, but I finally read it about a year ago, and I think Pride and Prejudice has some very funny parts, but to me, it’s about three times too long — and look who’s talking, somebody who writes 500-page novels! The humor in it is funny, but the situations seem to me very repetitive and run into one another, yet almost all the critics I know think that the great writers who I really do admire from the 19th and 20th century descended from Jane Austen — and we must all bow to her and kiss the hem of her garment — but I’ve never gotten it. I think I’m missing the Jane Austen molecule or something.
Huh?!! Try reading her books again, mister, and throw some Persuasion into the mix.
Image from the Internet Web Log of Jesse La Tour
3 comments:
Let me see:
a) said you'd read, but you hadn’t P&P
b) you read it at last, but it's too long
b) you think Jane Austen makes great movies
hummm... I think I know you Mr. Wicked! LOL
ops! I mean Mr. Maguire
Wicked was a good show, and hyad some good ideas, but a terrible book. His books are cumbersome and unreadable, so I don't value his opinion.
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