the girl with the dragon tattoo
5 Feb 2012 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiI usually try to avoid watching film adaptations before I've read the original novel, unless said novel is some gargantuan epic like Lord of the Rings, for example.
But I could never bring myself to read the novel, knowing what bits and pieces one can grasp from reviews and Wikipedia.
And as I watched the movie, the same niggling doubt grew in size rather than retreat whimpering into a corner.
The first I heard of the series is in a context in which Lisbeth is hailed as the new beau and the books and original Swedish movies a champion for women's rights and all literal things great and wonderful.
It's only recently, as the movie was released, that critical voices were raised, and I find myself unable to disagree.
Maybe it's because I can't care for Lisbeth. Maybe it's because I don't agree with her methods. Maybe it's because of the plotholes too big to close one's eyes and step over.
Somehow, I can't shake the suspicion that the books are nowhere near as chivalrous a venture as we're led to believe.
For one thing, and only as a non-parallel example, a novella about a young man raped and subsequently both psychologically and sexually enslaved, who spent his next years carefully devising and exacting his revenge on his tormentor...makes a very bad yaoi story, not a champion of rape victims' rights.
All novels are fantasies and are all entitled to them, but somehow I am not getting the feeling that Lisbeth is a symbol of empowerment, of justice, of strength or other wonderful titles she has been anointed by.
And as people have pointed out, she is not much of a character...and she becomes even less of one on film. That said, many a film or TV show or book has been held aloft by characters who have not much character, such as Boss or Tin Tin or, say, Pirates of the Caribbean. But those shows work because the characters, however thinly sketched they are, are quirky and a joy to watch. Perhaps the joy in watching Lisbeth is too perverse to be had.
Perhaps the books are better, but I'm not sure I can sit through them.
But I could never bring myself to read the novel, knowing what bits and pieces one can grasp from reviews and Wikipedia.
And as I watched the movie, the same niggling doubt grew in size rather than retreat whimpering into a corner.
The first I heard of the series is in a context in which Lisbeth is hailed as the new beau and the books and original Swedish movies a champion for women's rights and all literal things great and wonderful.
It's only recently, as the movie was released, that critical voices were raised, and I find myself unable to disagree.
Maybe it's because I can't care for Lisbeth. Maybe it's because I don't agree with her methods. Maybe it's because of the plotholes too big to close one's eyes and step over.
Somehow, I can't shake the suspicion that the books are nowhere near as chivalrous a venture as we're led to believe.
For one thing, and only as a non-parallel example, a novella about a young man raped and subsequently both psychologically and sexually enslaved, who spent his next years carefully devising and exacting his revenge on his tormentor...makes a very bad yaoi story, not a champion of rape victims' rights.
All novels are fantasies and are all entitled to them, but somehow I am not getting the feeling that Lisbeth is a symbol of empowerment, of justice, of strength or other wonderful titles she has been anointed by.
And as people have pointed out, she is not much of a character...and she becomes even less of one on film. That said, many a film or TV show or book has been held aloft by characters who have not much character, such as Boss or Tin Tin or, say, Pirates of the Caribbean. But those shows work because the characters, however thinly sketched they are, are quirky and a joy to watch. Perhaps the joy in watching Lisbeth is too perverse to be had.
Perhaps the books are better, but I'm not sure I can sit through them.
