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Will Grayson, Will Grayson
May. 25th, 2014 10:02 pmI've been reading John Green and David Levithan's Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which is really two books smushed together. Specifically, it is one book that I like and one book that makes me want to stab somebody with a spoon, and that somebody is definitely, definitely, definitely the main character.
Will Grayson #1 is a reasonably entertaining John Green book about Will Grayson, who is laid-back to the point of passivity. This sounds like an irritating character trait, but I actually find it rather fascinating, simply because I’ve met people like this but haven’t seen this trait reflected in many characters. He's not really sure what he wants, and mostly thinks he wants to be left alone. He has two rules for achieving this: "shut up" and "don't care."
But at the same time, it's clear that he does care. He loves music, he looks after his friends, and he has a ridiculous tiny crush on Jane, whom he definitely doesn't want to date ever because it's really safer to admire from afar. Not actually dating her is almost the same as not caring, right? Right?
But at the same time, he's mostly willing to go along with it when other people drag him into things. He has awesome friends, so mostly they're dragging him into awesome things that he kind of secretly wants to do anyway. I strongly suspect that as the story progresses, Will is going to start going after things he wants without his buddy Tiny Cooper throwing him at opportunities.
Will Grayson #2 is about another boy named Will Grayson, who has joined House, Professor Higgins, and Lila West (from season 2 of Dexter) on the short list of characters who I would happily see strangled with their own socks. He’s basically a gay male Bella Swan, except infinitely worse than Bella because all the flaws people accuse Bella of having are literally true and dialed up to eleven for Will Grayson.
1. Bella's interests in cooking and Jane Austen and Jacob may feel a little tacked on, but at least the narrative gestures toward the fact that she has interests outside of Edward. Meanwhile, Will's boyfriend is honest to God the only thing he cares about in the world. Will's only hobby is mockery. He treats his friend Maura like shit and mocks her emo goth poetry (internally, of course, because he's too much of a coward to actually express the depths of his assholish nature), but at least the poor girl actually does something sometimes, even if she does it badly.
(I am rooting for Maura to punch Will in the face. Hopefully repeatedly. Possibly with an implement.)
2. Bella is indifferent and verging on vaguely disdainful to most people: there are multiple scenes where people (particularly Jessica) talk to her and Bella just tunes them out. But Will actively despises everyone in the world who is not his boyfriend. He goes on for pages and pages and pages about how boring and normal and mediocre everyone else in the whole entire world is, and how dull their lives are, and how ridiculous it is for them to yearn for love and connection.
Will Grayson is a huge, huge hypocrite. He's the dullest, most mediocre person in the book, and I can't stand the way he sneers at other people's desire for love even while he carries on an affair of gag-worthy soppiness with his internet boyfriend. They spend ten minutes saying goodbye to each other at the end of every conversation. Whenever there's a lull in their conversation, they just text "I'm here" back and forth at each other. I think that absolutely destroys his cred for mocking anyone else for sappiness ever again.
Bella, whatever her flaws, doesn’t hypocritically mock the idea of other people finding love even as she writes sappy IMs to Edward. One of the few nice things she does for her friends is encourage their romances.
I've reached the part of the book where Will Grayson has made plans to meet up with his internet boyfriend, whom he's never actually met before. I hope that the internet boyfriend turns out to be a serial killer, and the way the two books are going to intertwine is that Tiny Cooper will drag the other Will Grayson into a murder investigation.
Will Grayson #1 is a reasonably entertaining John Green book about Will Grayson, who is laid-back to the point of passivity. This sounds like an irritating character trait, but I actually find it rather fascinating, simply because I’ve met people like this but haven’t seen this trait reflected in many characters. He's not really sure what he wants, and mostly thinks he wants to be left alone. He has two rules for achieving this: "shut up" and "don't care."
But at the same time, it's clear that he does care. He loves music, he looks after his friends, and he has a ridiculous tiny crush on Jane, whom he definitely doesn't want to date ever because it's really safer to admire from afar. Not actually dating her is almost the same as not caring, right? Right?
But at the same time, he's mostly willing to go along with it when other people drag him into things. He has awesome friends, so mostly they're dragging him into awesome things that he kind of secretly wants to do anyway. I strongly suspect that as the story progresses, Will is going to start going after things he wants without his buddy Tiny Cooper throwing him at opportunities.
Will Grayson #2 is about another boy named Will Grayson, who has joined House, Professor Higgins, and Lila West (from season 2 of Dexter) on the short list of characters who I would happily see strangled with their own socks. He’s basically a gay male Bella Swan, except infinitely worse than Bella because all the flaws people accuse Bella of having are literally true and dialed up to eleven for Will Grayson.
1. Bella's interests in cooking and Jane Austen and Jacob may feel a little tacked on, but at least the narrative gestures toward the fact that she has interests outside of Edward. Meanwhile, Will's boyfriend is honest to God the only thing he cares about in the world. Will's only hobby is mockery. He treats his friend Maura like shit and mocks her emo goth poetry (internally, of course, because he's too much of a coward to actually express the depths of his assholish nature), but at least the poor girl actually does something sometimes, even if she does it badly.
(I am rooting for Maura to punch Will in the face. Hopefully repeatedly. Possibly with an implement.)
2. Bella is indifferent and verging on vaguely disdainful to most people: there are multiple scenes where people (particularly Jessica) talk to her and Bella just tunes them out. But Will actively despises everyone in the world who is not his boyfriend. He goes on for pages and pages and pages about how boring and normal and mediocre everyone else in the whole entire world is, and how dull their lives are, and how ridiculous it is for them to yearn for love and connection.
Will Grayson is a huge, huge hypocrite. He's the dullest, most mediocre person in the book, and I can't stand the way he sneers at other people's desire for love even while he carries on an affair of gag-worthy soppiness with his internet boyfriend. They spend ten minutes saying goodbye to each other at the end of every conversation. Whenever there's a lull in their conversation, they just text "I'm here" back and forth at each other. I think that absolutely destroys his cred for mocking anyone else for sappiness ever again.
Bella, whatever her flaws, doesn’t hypocritically mock the idea of other people finding love even as she writes sappy IMs to Edward. One of the few nice things she does for her friends is encourage their romances.
I've reached the part of the book where Will Grayson has made plans to meet up with his internet boyfriend, whom he's never actually met before. I hope that the internet boyfriend turns out to be a serial killer, and the way the two books are going to intertwine is that Tiny Cooper will drag the other Will Grayson into a murder investigation.
