tunes: Songs for the Wanderer
So,
first things first: I'm a sucker for a good opener. “And in
everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that
maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one” (p8). I knew
right away that I was going to fall fully in love with this one.
After
this, I went through a lot of feelings about this story. One of the
first things that caught me, though, is John Green's ability to
capture that sweet-but-awkward teenage boy that we know so well. Some
of the characters were a bit unrealistic – more extreme than a
natural person or too mature for an 18-year-old high school student –
but he has got that high school feeling under wraps. “...we rolled
down the one window that worked so the world would know we had good
taste in music” (p138). God. Who doesn't know that feeling? That
thing you think every time but would never admit out loud. I feel
like John Green is shamelessly honest and I love that about him.
Not
too far into the book, I got to the point where I started to be
really annoyed about Margo. Less at her and more at Green for
perpetuating this horrible ideal. Margo is a darker take on the Manic
Pixie Dream Girl – impossibly desirable and way too cool to care.
She is quirky and mysterious and evasive and you just know
there's so much more to her than she shows. In a lot of ways, Margo
is the kind of girl I'd always wished I was. In some ways, she is a
lot like who I used to be...and more so the more I found out about
her. But the problem with the MPDG is that she can't exist in the
real world. She is this character we see and fall in love with, but
in reality she is so one-dimensional. She is an idea of a person. A
perfected, unattainable idea. She's just not a real person. Reading
the book, I kept thinking this and I kept feeling annoyed. I've known
John Green through Vlogbrothers and I thought he was better than
this. And then, beautifully, it turns around. But it doesn't even
turn around, it just reveals itself more. Green takes this ideal and
just completely exposes it. Not only do you get to see
Margo-the-real-person, but you get to see the characters realize that
they have created this character of her. You see Q realize that he
doesn't really know her, that nobody does. You witness him realize
the part he has played in her alienation and characterization. And
you get to hear her say that she had a part in this, too. Because the
thing about this idea of a person is that it is really
appealing. It's a lot harder to be human. And the most beautiful
thing about this story is you get to go on that journey with them.
You get to fall for it and see it unravel right alongside Q. I went
from loving Margo to envying her to wanting them to be together to
legitimately wanting her to be dead. And in the end, that made me
love the book that much more.
I really like the way you saw the book - I didn't think of it in the same way, but you make a really good point about the MOST mentality. I knew Q idealized Margo, but it didn't bother me as much. If I think about it the way you explained it, I like the ending a lot more. I still think it didn't really fit with the feeling of the rest of the book, but at least it seems like it's for a reason when you explain it.
ReplyDeleteUgh, auto correct... that all caps should've been MPDG
DeleteAlso, Aubrey, I got your package. Sharif was seriously creeped out. You will be getting something in return...
DeleteI thought it was a good joke! I don't think I want whatever he sends in return...
DeleteThanks! And yeah, I feel like the whole MPDG is so anti-feminist and damaging to everyone. I got so disappointed in JG and then so excited at how he used it. I do get what you mean about the ending, though. In a lot of ways it being suicide makes sense, it feels like they set you up for that. I thought if she didn't die it would feel like a cop-out, but it didn't feel that way to me. I think a big part of it is that we're seeing it through Q's eyes. Between that and her rushed leaving/incomplete work, it seems like that's the only outcome. But the ultimate ending felt truer to me in a way. It was like Q was so consumed with this that he could only see it one way, all the roads pointed to the same place. And then when she explains it you're like, "oh.... Yeah that makes sense, too." Which to me all fits because we all get like that so often. Especially at that age, but really all the time. We get so set to looking at something a certain way it can be hard to see it for what it really is. Or even to just see it another way. Like that optical illusion of the old & young woman - your brain & eyes just get fixed.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I can't wait till kels reads it. I had such opposite views as you & Kelly, it will be interesting to see what kels thinks.
DeleteP.P.S. You should check out the mix! I think it's perfect 💕
That makes sense, but like I said in my post - I went along with Q the whole time do maybe that's why I didn't see it the way you did. I saw everything the way Q did. I still think the ending felt anticlimactic, but I suppose that's truer to life as well. Very few people or things or stories end with a flourish and are tied up all neatly with a bow and buried in the backyard. Things just kind of peter out or keep going once the story ends. I usually like that... Neil Gaiman does that sometimes, like in Stardust - it was the main difference between the book and the movie: the movie has a big spectacular ending and everyone's story is completed, but the book kinda just says, and then life went on....
DeleteI want her to finish too and I will!
DeleteYeah, I thought of Neil Gaiman as well. I kind of like when books just fade out like that, the way our stories do in real life.
ReplyDeleteI think JG gives us a hint at the very beginning with how Q sees Margo completely different than anything else, including reality. He sees her by her locker laughing her ass off when she tells him she was actually screaming because she had just found out about her boyfriend's cheating. That showed us right at the beginning that Q's perspective was skewed. I think with the ending, JG tries to show us that, that Margo isn't this perfect, untouchable creature, but he sort of failed (in my opinion) with how he has Q react. I think in any other case, when the person we've admired from afar and placed on that pedestal turns out as pedestrian as we are, we get angry, annoyed and we immediately push it from our minds. Because we can't have our gods be human. I agree that some of the kids had that Dawson's Creek thing going - where they seemed unreal a bit.
DeleteI totally agree with that first bit - he does show us that Q sees her in an unrealistic light. But for a long time you don't get any more than that, which was why it gave me the MPDG vibe. And I definitely get what you're saying about the ending. The reason I think that it worked for him to be more accepting of it is that Q discovered it along the way. I think often when it happens in real life & we have those feelings about it, it's much more of a shock. We see this person as untouchable then often all at once they become human & we're left angry & annoyed. I think in the story that unraveling of the idea of Margo Roth Spiegelman is a gradual process instead of a sudden unveiling. If that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteAnd haha Dawson's Creek is a perfect example! Not quite as extreme I'd say, but they so have that vibe at times.