I've never seen the either the musicals or the movie, because I'm attracted to women, but I did read the book when it was a much-hyped "Great American Novel" and found it to be derivative trash overflowing with lame and tendentious political allegories for The Current Year political wibbling.
I agree with everything in principle and absolutely agree with the fact that we should never elevate fanfiction to the level of the original work. Wicked isn't even the worst offender here, I'd give that to Rings of Power. If you have a story with a point to get across, you'll always make that point hit harder with your own originality and creativity to back it up. Robert Jordan wrote the best Conan novels that weren't written by REH, but it was Wheel of Time that made him famous.
On the other hand, I can't help but point out that leftist politicians have spent the last four years literally gaslighting Americans into believing that they were in the breathlessly epic tale of a life or death struggle against a diabolical supervillain whose election would herald the end of civilization. Few of these people ever questioned whether or not it was even remotely true, because they were in the grip of their own Campbellian epic journey courtesy of mass media's lies, manufactured half-truths and slick sound bites. Very few of them asked, what if the story I'm hearing isn't really what happened?
The idea that you should always question the established narrative is still a valuable lesson to learn, especially for our nation's young people.
I've never seen the either the musicals or the movie, because I'm attracted to women, but I did read the book when it was a much-hyped "Great American Novel" and found it to be derivative trash overflowing with lame and tendentious political allegories for The Current Year political wibbling.
I agree with everything in principle and absolutely agree with the fact that we should never elevate fanfiction to the level of the original work. Wicked isn't even the worst offender here, I'd give that to Rings of Power. If you have a story with a point to get across, you'll always make that point hit harder with your own originality and creativity to back it up. Robert Jordan wrote the best Conan novels that weren't written by REH, but it was Wheel of Time that made him famous.
On the other hand, I can't help but point out that leftist politicians have spent the last four years literally gaslighting Americans into believing that they were in the breathlessly epic tale of a life or death struggle against a diabolical supervillain whose election would herald the end of civilization. Few of these people ever questioned whether or not it was even remotely true, because they were in the grip of their own Campbellian epic journey courtesy of mass media's lies, manufactured half-truths and slick sound bites. Very few of them asked, what if the story I'm hearing isn't really what happened?
The idea that you should always question the established narrative is still a valuable lesson to learn, especially for our nation's young people.