rachelmanija | The Magicians, by Lev Grossman

Quentin Coldwater is an unhappy, self-absorbed, self-conscious teenager obsessed with a children’s fantasy series set in a magical world called Fillory, which is very clearly meant to evoke Narnia. Then he learns that he has a talent for magic, and is whisked away to a fancy prep school for magicians, Brakebills. At first he thinks his dream has come true. But soon enough, he realizes that he’s still an unhappy, self-absorbed, self-conscious teenager, only now he’s obsessed with real magic.

I read this in preparation for being on a panel on portal fantasy. I had avoided it until then because all I had heard about it was that it was published as a mainstream literary novel rather than as genre fantasy (you can tell because it’s subtitled “a novel,”) was about how fantasy sucks and had the most unlikable protagonist since Thomas Covenant.

All that turned out to be correct. Sort of. But I liked it way more than I expected to, primarily because the “fantasy sucks” and “protagonist is unbearable” elements don’t come in, or at least aren’t major themes, until about the last third of the book. The first two-thirds, which is set in Brakebills, is terrific – distinctly on the cynical side and weighed down by Quentin’s depression and solipsism, but written in absolutely wonderful prose and full of vivid images, funny lines, and a genuine sense of magic.

As I read that part, I couldn’t understand why the book had such a bad reputation among fantasy readers. Sure, it emphasizes that magic is difficult, that magicians are not the most fun people in the world, and that Quentin is using magic to run away from essentially everything else, but it’s also hugely enjoyable to read as fantasy.

I loved the Brakebills section. The prose is to die for. It’s extremely well-structured, with a great use of foreshadowing to create surprising yet beautifully set-up plot twists.

On the con side, the characterization has problems and it isn’t just a lack of likability. Other than Quentin, who is more distinct as he’s seen from the inside, many of the characters are so similar that they blend together. Virtually all of the characters are obsessive, unhappy, self-absorbed, driven, and jaded. The main characters have maybe one or two traits in addition to that set, such as “punk,” “brave,” or “pretentious.”

However, lots of teenagers are unhappy and self-absorbed, so I read the Brakebills part thinking that Quentin and his buddies weren’t that bad and the readers who loathed him probably didn’t remember being a teenager that well.

Then he graduates from Brakebills. Almost immediately, I realized why readers hated him. And soon after, I realized why fantasy readers frequently hate the book. Spoilers ahoy!

The last section did have some very clever plotting. But it was not enjoyable to read. If that list of character traits sounded off-putting, it becomes far more so once the characters are no longer teenagers obsessively studying magic, but are young adults obsessively indulging in joyless hedonism. And the theme of Quentin using magic to avoid engaging with life expands to a hammered-in message that magic and Narnia would suck if they were real, and people who enjoy imagining visiting Narnia are idiots because obviously it never occurred to them that it would suck in real life.

As for the moment that made me realize why everyone hates Quentin: hi there, infidelity, my least favorite plot element of all time! It’s not that I find cheating unforgivable or the worst possible thing anyone can do. It’s that I find the drama associated with it both painful and boring. This was particularly the case here given that Quentin is not only a cheater, but develops a really ugly misogynist streak. It’s clearly written as a bad thing and not something readers should agree with, but it’s still very unpleasant to read.

Fillory felt very slight compared to Brakebills; all suck and no joy. There’s talking animals, but they’re obsessive and boring. (The concept of this was pretty funny – of course a talking bear would be primarily interested in honey – but the execution leaned heavily on “and that’s why it wouldn’t actually be fun to meet a talking animal.”) The humans, again, are under-characterized, with exactly two traits each apart from the pre-set “obsessive, self-absorbed” set.

While Brakebills really did feel magical, Fillory felt thin and dull; less real than regular real life. I’m guessing this was deliberate and the point was that Narnia’s worldbuilding doesn’t hold together, but, again, it didn’t make the section enjoyable reading.

The pay-off of earlier set-up – the niffin, the Beast, the clock-witch – was brilliantly done. But it was all in service of the relentless “everything sucks” theme. Also, the reveal that the Fillory writer – the alt! C. S. Lewis – was a pedophile went beyond anvillicious and into cement truck.

I looked on Goodreads and saw that there are two more books. I attempted to get a sense of what they were like while avoiding spoilers, and was interested to see that the second is partly narrated by the most interesting character in the first book, and that readers seemed to think the third was actually uplifting. It’s not that I require uplift in everything. But I’m not going to read more of the series if it’s all soul-sucking joylessness like the real world and Fillory sections. However, I would definitely read more if it’s more like the Brakebills sections. Also, the moments of uplift in The Magicians were beautiful, so I know Grossman can do that well.

If you can comment without major spoilers, I’d be interested to hear what those of you who’ve read further books thought of them.

The Magicians: A Novel

Crossposts: http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/1156404.html

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Date: 2014-09-12 05:30 pm (UTC)

From:

movingfinger

no subject

I just read this, and I have thought quite a bit about it, but I wouldn't be able to discuss them without spoilers. Later maybe.

I will say that the last time a book pissed me off this much it was Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale --- so you know where I'm coming from on...

Date: 2014-09-12 05:33 pm (UTC)

From:

rachelmanija

no subject

Was it the last book that pissed you off, or the first one, or the entire trilogy?

I actually love A Winter's Tale. It's all over the place and I have no idea what point he was trying to make (maybe that's just as well!), but lots of it is just beautiful to read.

Date: 2014-09-12 06:16 pm (UTC)

From:

kore

no subject

But I’m not going to read more of the series if it’s all soul-sucking joylessness like the real world and Fillory sections.

I loved Brakebills, was meh on Quentin, meh on Fillory, and LOVED the female characters. But. Remember how Alice basically gets fridged at the end of this one? I will just say that kind of plotting continues in the second and third books. There is even more emphasis on Quentin and his manpain and his Learning Stuff, and I was interested in everything else, particularly the women. But the women just get used as occasions for Quentin to Learn Stuff and feel manpain and suffer greater and lesser damage to that end.

The second book has a wonderful female character and half the book is from her POV, but she gets shafted. But, without spoiling you too much, she doesn't go the Gifted Young Wizard-in-Training Gets a Golden Ticket route, and that was fascinating. I love hedgewitches and I love the idea that there's this other way of learning magic besides the regimented Brakebills one.

I didn't find the third....uplifting? The first third or so is quite good and has a BEAUTIFUL payoff, which instantly ruined the whole rest of the book for me because I wanted the story about what happened to a character -- yet another interesting woman who gets dropped in favour of Quentin and his Learning Things -- and no, the rest of the book is about Quentin and his Learning Things, and near the end of the book Grossman just starts baldly spelling out what he thinks people should take away from the trilogy, as if he's desperate that he hasn't communicated it via the people and the events. When people start telling each other what they have Learned in very stilted dialogue in final chapters, that is never a good sign.

I didn't think the idea was that great as a redrafting of Narnia. He maps his three books explicitly to the seven Chronicles, two into one, leaving out Horse and His Boy, and the The Magician's Nephew/The Last Battle attempt especially just falls really flat. I was hoping one thing we might see in this series is something from the POV of the talking beasts or native peoples -- what do they think of these young white bratty kids who just show up and are automatic royalty? -- but no dice. But a lot of the descriptions of magic and how it works are really good -- almost reminded me of Le Guin's stuff. But Quentin is between the reader and everything, and while I didn't hate him as much as some people I know did, I just got frustrated with everything being about him because he was just pretty damn dull. Especially when compared with all the women, who just popped off the page.

tl;dr I'd recommend the second book with extreme reservations because of the (spoiler) but the third wasn't really worth it for me, too frustrating.

Date: 2014-09-12 06:22 pm (UTC)

From:

rachelmanija

no subject

HMMM. I did really love Julia. And his descriptions of magic - they were often incredibly beautiful. I might check the second book out of the library.

I was ambivalent about whether Alice was a fridging, since it was also a moment of glory that no one else could match. I'm sure it did end up being one if it's all just about Quentin learning not to be such a selfish asshole.

I also found the book really frustrating in terms of Grossman obviously having the chops to write a book I'd love, and having that book periodically exist, then get taken over by anvilicious messages and characters I either didn't like or didn't care about.

I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance

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