7 Comments
Aug 1Liked by Eleanor Konik

The first time I saw ads in a theater was in the late 1970’s. The lights go down, the projector turns on, everyone quietens to watch the previews, and an ad comes on instead. Everyone in the theater started booing.

Expand full comment
author

Honestly there's a drive in theater near me and I might start holding out for chances to go there, but it wasn't a viable for a mid-afternoon date :(

Expand full comment
Aug 1Liked by Eleanor Konik

Found this interesting! I remember a friend talking about the reason Star Wars became so popular was that all the other lit and movies were depressing. Do you think we're in that kind of era again?

Expand full comment
author

It certainly does seem like a lot of the movies and stuff lately have been going hard for GRITTY and DARK and whatever. Wholesome stuff is out there, though, at least for books. I just wish I knew where to find stuff like my chill fiction reviews ( https://www.eleanorkonik.com/p/reading-roundup-chill-fiction ) that works for a date night.

Expand full comment

It's been at least two decades since I read Wicked, but I don't remember that being the takeaway from it at all. I wonder if the musical and/or movie have warped the story a bit. The everything-is-dark-and-horrible cult is powerful.

Expand full comment
author

It's possible the movie itself has a different moral / plot than what the trailer seemed to be setting up, but if you check it out on YouTube (it's short) I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it matches the vibe of the book!

Expand full comment

That looks... pretty different from the book I remember--which, to be fair, was quieter and slower than any movie musical will be able to manage. The complexity of the characters seems gone--Glinda in particular looks a lot flatter, and at least half of the plot wasn't even there.

Skimming the Wikipedia entry for the musical it says that it was only loosely based on the book. They seem to have kept the Elphaba-Glinda troubled friendship (which in the book treads the line between humanity and allegory) and the fascist Wizard anti-Animal pogrom elements and lost the whole meditation on the origins of evil and the interplay between the free will of nurture and the predestination of nature.

I think I need to read the book again.

Expand full comment