Standing Tall #2

This is number two of the Standing Tall Giraffe display that's currently dotted around the city. This one is called Imagine by Gwilym Devey and is located (along with one other) outside the half-ruined Cathedral.

I loved the patterns on this one, for despite the absence of autumnal colours, it reminded me of falling leaves and cold sunsets.

 

 

Review: Oz the Great and Powerful

If you were to cover a billboard with the names of all the main characters to appear throughout Frank L. Baum's Oz series, and then blindfold yourself and throw a dart at the board, I'd say there would be a 70% chance that you would hit the name of a female character.

To say that the Oz books have feminist subtext is not an exaggeration. Baum's mother-in-law was a renowned woman's rights activist, and Baum himself was the secretary of Aberdeen's Woman's Suffrage Club. It's no coincidence that the most powerful characters in Oz – for good or evil – are women, that most of the societies there are matriarchal, and that its chief explorer is a Plucky Girl from Kansas.

So naturally, Hollywood decided to forego all this girl-power nonsense and concentrate on the backstory of the Wizard instead.

Railing aside, I watched Oz the Great and Powerful after writing my meta on Glinda and Elphaba, out of sheer interest in what this film would do with these characters. Let's keep this short: it's bad. Not just how they characterize the Witches, but the whole film in general.

Review: Clariel

Whether he's writing YA or Middle Grade, Garth Nix is one of my favourite fantasy authors. There are three reasons as to why I find his work so engrossing: amazing female characters (always protagonists), fascinating world-building, and sheer originality.

Bells of diminishing size that are used to subdue the dead, the personified days of the week, monstrous creatures posing as little white cats, houses that are as large as countries, familiar aspects of folklore that are reshaped to fit the contours of his own original worlds – these are just some of the marvels that Nix mixes into his stories, but his real gift is in describing them in such a way that makes them feel both wonderful and organic.

It's hard to describe, but he has this knack of pouring intense creativity into prose that contains and controls it. As a result, nothing ever feels outlandish or cumbersome, even when certain concepts technically are outlandish or cumbersome. Perhaps those who've already read some of his work know what I'm driving at here, but Nix really does have a gift when it comes to shaping his imaginary worlds, and it's in making the weird seem extraordinarily normal.

SPOILERS FOLLOW...

Woman of the Month: Stella Gibson

Stella Gibson from The Fall      

  
There's only one more episode of The Fall's second season left, and it's managed to maintain the quality and suspense of its first. Detailing the police investigation surrounding the search for a serial killer in Belfast who targets attractive brunettes with high-earning jobs, Stella Gibson is called in from London to help reinvigorate proceedings.

Gillian Anderson is amazing as Stella, bringing a demeanour to the character that caught me completely off-guard. On my initial watch, I was surprised by just how cold Stella was, almost to the point of finding her difficult to empathise with.

But then, that’s the point. Because Stella Gibson doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her. This level of detached calm on a male character would either be considered normal or demonstrative of his commitment to the job, but on a female character it’s actually rather unnerving. What becomes clear over the course of the show is that Stella is totally, utterly, indescribably unapologetic about who she is and what she wants. Whether it’s in her professional or private life, chasing leads or propositioning a co-worker for a one-night-stand, she’s utterly confident and unashamed.

Furthermore, the writing doesn’t seem particularly interested in giving her any clichéd “flaws” just to give her “obstacles to surmount” (let’s be honest here, on most other shows the temptation to make their female lead an ex-drug addict or socially inept or a recovering victim of domestic abuse or hobbled by rampant misogyny in the work-force is usually too great to ignore). Instead Stella is allowed to handle the case and her sex life with complete autonomy. No slip-ups. No attempt to “take her down a peg.” No personal demons that threaten to overwhelm her.

She’s in charge and she’s practically infallible. And why shouldn’t she be? It’s awesome, and she’s so comfortable in her abilities and her own skin that it makes many of her male colleges visibly unsettled. Not that she gives a shit.

Meta: The Evolution of Glinda and Elphaba

This is probably only the twelfth or so time that I've mentioned going to see Wicked in Sydney last month, but now at last I have something more substantial to say about it. After watching the stage musical it struck me just how much L. Frank Baum's original story has been reconfigured, reshaped and restructured since its publication in 1900, especially regarding the Good Witch of the South and the Wicked Witch of the West.

The gradual change is reminiscent of our treatment of the Robin Hood legends. They began as an oral tradition in which Robin Hood was originally a serf and/or a rather dark figure of folklore. Anonymous balladeers shifted the action from Barnesdale Forest in York to Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire. Friar Tuck and Maid Marian were late additions, included to counter the pagan influences of the old tales. The Elizabethan upperclass appropriated and reimagined him as one of their own: the Earl of Huntingdon who willingly gave up his wealth and title in order to fight for justice.

The old songs and folktales eventually gave way to the printed word, each new writer changing, adding or expanding various components of the stories. Sir Walter Scott popularized the idea of setting the story in the time of King Richard and Prince John; later writers took this further and made Robin a Crusader who fought in the Holy Land only to return home and find corruption had flourished in the King's absence.

The 1938 film brought Guy of Gisborne to the fore as one of Robin's more dangerous enemies. In the 1980s, Richard Carpenter's Robin of Sherwood introduced the idea of a Saracen as part of the outlaw band, a trend that has continued into most subsequent adaptations. Most recently, the character has appeared in rather questionable circumstances on both Doctor Who and Once Upon a Time.

My point in sharing all this is to illustrate that a similar phenomenon has occurred over time with The Wizard of Oz. As each generation goes by, more new content is grafted to Baum's books until it's near-impossible to separate the content of the adaptations from the original story. The Broadway musical is based on Gregory Maguire's novel, which was inspired by the 1939 MGM film, which was adapted from L. Frank Baum's original book, which was drawn (at least in part) from traditional fairy tales. All four versions of the story have their roots in the same watering hole, but each one is drastically different.

But one thing remains the same. Despite all the revisions and variations of the story that have saturated popular culture, each one is structured (to some extent) around and between two poles: the Good Witch and the Evil Witch – the women we now know as Elphaba and Glinda.

Out of simple curiosity, I want to track the evolution of these two characters from start to finish; from book to stage musical. Moving through the compendium of Oz-related material, it's fascinating to see the progress of these two women, and how the years have shaped them.

The Legend of Korra: Operation: Beifong

Things are certainly heading toward the grand finale now, with the Beifong clan reunited (and reconciled) and Kuvira demonstrating the power of her super-weapon. Once again Korra takes a bit of a backseat, with most of the action focused on Lin, Suyin, Toph, Opal, and other assorted Beifongs.

Sleepy Hollow: The Akeda

Well, we made it. Sleepy Hollow is on hiatus.

It's been a pretty rocky road, especially when compared to the smooth sailing of season one. It's easy to say that any first season of a new show has the advantages of innovation and novelty to recommend it (Once Upon a Time and Heroes spring to mind), but more often than not a show improves as it goes on, usually peaking in the third or fourth season (after which the writers run out of ideas).