LOST. No, not the television show.Lost by Gregory Maguire of Wicked fame. He works with pre-existing stories here, too. This novel supposedly ties together Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, Lewis Carroll’s “Alice Adventures” and also, yes, Sir J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.
So far it’s clever in how they show up. As of right now, they are merely referenced by the character, a writer. Such as Pan having been brought to mind by something and then later, when she’s alone in a storm and freaked out, the window shade goes up and she wonders if Peter is trying to get in…as an amusing thought, not wondering in earnest. It also certainly seems like she is a descendant of the real Scrooge on whom Dickens based his story. It has the potential to be rather fun. Especially now, as it's ghost story in some capacity.
I have noticed, though, that he misspells the name of Barrie’s famous fairy. Frankly, this appalls me. Either Maguire or an editor should have checked on that, don’t you think? I believe Maguire should have, as he is the one referencing the character.
I’m not very far into it. I’ll give a report when I’m done. It will probably be a while. It’s a pretty good-sized book and as I’ve said, I primarily read in transit.
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7 comments:
Maybe the author changed the spelling on purpose. Maguire has been known to take liberties with his source material, no?
Actually, yes. Although Wicked is amazing, I must confess that his 'pay attention to this fact but not this one' really wore on me. He ingeniously solved some of the "problems" inherent in combining MGM and Baum, such as the silver/ruby slippers...silver but opalescent, almost ruby in the right light [and the musical "fixed" this even more perfectly, I might add] but with other factors he just let it be inconsistent. Personally, I would have taken the time to bridge all the incongruities with some kind of logic. Oh well. But as for Tink, you could be right. But I'm guessing it chalks up tot he fact that MOST people don't write her name correctly.
... and that's why we love you, Pete.
Honestly, she always seemed more of a Belle (think fussy southern plantation gal) than a Bell to me. (I'm assuming that's the misspelling?)
And I can't get on anyone too much for picking and choosing like that... ol' Shakespeare did that with HISTORY! As Homer Simpson said, "Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true."
Actually, that's not how he misspelled it.
Do you mean he wrote "Tinkerbell" instead of "Tinker Bell"?
Even as an editor, I would have to say that's awfully picky of you!
I'm the anonymous above.
Tried to leave my name but somehow messed it up.
-Katharine
It's not picky. It's accurate. If you are using/referring to another author's work, by all means, get it right. It's disrespectful to just assume you know how to spell a character's name and then publish it? Perhaps you wouldn't mind being spelled Catheryn? ;)
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