Josipa Lisac new song

Many lives of The Wicked Witch of West

 

The original was of course the fictional character from the beloved children’s book published in 1900. Because the 1939 film adaption became so ubiquitous, we all tend to go back to that  movie over and over again, so to be honest I am not even 100% sure that I ever read the original book - if I did, it was decades ago and probably the time is ripe to re-read it again. I probably should, as the author created the whole fantasy world that continues into other sequels that I am not familiar with. I read somewhere that it might count as the first originally American fairy tale.

Than came the 1995 book “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West “ which I bought, read, loved and talked to everybody all the time - it was the success of this book that catapulted Gregory Maguire to fame and he continued mining similar ideas ever since, with the books like “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister” and “Mirror, Mirror”. It was a wonderful idea to re-invent a famous children’s story and approach it from a different perspective, simultaneously pondering some interesting ideas about the origin of good and evil, etc. The point is (as much as I remember), once you come closer to evil, you understand the behaviour, logic and the reasons - one of the most feared characters in the children’s literature might simply have been misunderstood. 

One way or the other, somebody thought it might make a great musical. Perhaps the shadow of the beloved 1939. movie looms so mighty over the horizon, it looked as a safer bet. The musical turned out to be surprisingly successful but to me it feels more because Broadway is starving for original story and fresh blood, instead of old American Songbook repertoire - I listened the cast recording twice and could not find anything memorable about it.

Than came the movies. 

The director Jon M. Chu explained that the script is so rich, powerful and amazing that it can’t be done in simply one movie, he needed to make two parts. OK, but honestly neither script or musical are such masterpieces that they deserve five hours in the cinema. I watched “Wicked: Part I” (2024) only mildly amused and noted that both Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were good, but everything else was bombastic, pneumatic and overblown. A friend who was sitting next to me loved it, but I was not convinced. Something about this version struck me as totally wrong and I missed the childlike sense of wonder that the original story/film had - this was all like 1930s Busby Berkeley big production, with things whirling around and Witch not riding her broom but running like a formula one, giving me vertigo. “Wicked: For Good” (2025) stumbles really badly, because a) the rest of the story is really not so interesting to need another full-blown movie sequel, b) depressing and darker sequel does not give anything funny to Ariana Grande to do (in the first part, at least she was funny, here the script goes dark so she can’t be) c) both main characters work very well together but second part keeps them separated. So it was two and half hours of same stuff we saw previously, with even more forgettable music. I had a very strange experience of noticing that people on the screen are singing, but was completely unable to remember one single song - and left the cinema wondering how is that even possible? Apparently movie is still very successful anyway and I have feeling they might continue to milk that idea in some more sequels and prequels, kind of Marvel Universe. Long live bombastic CGI and mediocre music that breezes through your head without leaving a trace. 

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe (1841)

I have not forgotten my old plan to read at least one classic per month. Sure, I get distracted from time to time, but here I am, adding another classic to my collection. The inspiration for this came completely accidentally, because I was listening a podcast “Unsolved murders: True Crime Stories” and they had a two-part series about the death of Edgar Allan Poe who might very possibly have been a victim of kidnapping and murder. This was so interesting that it stayed somewhere at the back of my mind, until I decided to read this short story, later immortalised in wonderful 1932. black & white movie with Bela Lugosi. 

Today we remember Edgar Allan Poe mostly as a ghost of forgotten 19th century America and his reputation is based exclusively on posthumous myth that somehow makes him a dark, sinister and supposedly alcoholic literary predecessor of later horror writers. According to this podcast that I have been listening, it is probably just a stupid story that people made after his death and poor guy was possibly just unfortunate soul who struggled to make any money at all and lived his 40 years in hunger & poverty, before he disappeared and was found unconscious on the street (very probably kidnapped and forced to vote, as it all happened during early electoral fraud). There is a very interesting book written about this, that I might even check out in the future. I would not be surprised if the whole myth about a sinister and mysterious writer is just a legend.

Well, I was familiar with Bela Lugosi movie but this was actually better - it precedes Sherlock Holmes so its very important as a one of the very first detective stories and Auguste Dupin clearly works very much like Holmes will do in the future, by paying attention to the smallest details and connecting the dots that lead him to the final conclusion. Its all very clever and enjoyable, I might read more about Dupin (there are apparently three finalised stories).

 

"The Secret of Secrets" by Dan Brown (2025)

 

I have lists on top of the lists what to read and everything got ignored once I heard about the new Dan Brown novel - somehow I have forgotten that years ago I had actually lost interest in his Robert Langdon saga, the only thing I remember is how much I enjoyed his "The Da Vinci Code" so I without any hesitation I dived into this latest novel. Sadly, it seems that in the thunder refuses to struck twice - while it might be interesting (and occasionally even gripping) read, ""The Secret of Secrets" circles around too many well-known clichés: Langdon runs around ancient European city and is pursued by mysterious organisations & weird antagonists. Without intention to be cruel or cynical but this is exactly what Brown brings to the table every time, kind of we already know what to expect.

I noticed with amusement how much Brown loves to spice up his writing with educational informations about everything, from the architecture and history of Prague to more technical details of the plot - not unlike Jules Verne who in his day was best selling author of literary hits and would often go on forever about smallest technical details that used to drive me mad - this particular characteristic might be endearing to some, but it does slow the plot a lot, as we usually stand in the middle of life threatening situation while Langdon muses about some encyclopedic information. It almost 700 pages, the novel feels bloated and overlong - it could have been easily edited and shortened, but ok, it turned a solid thriller with a surprisingly limp ending that just quietly fizzles away after all that pumped up excitement.