I have more to say about Ghost World? I’m surprised, too. It’s all the discussion about whether Enid seems like a real teenage girl or not, and what that means.
You know, people have compared me to Enid since this damned book came out. (McBangle mentioned a similar dilemma in a comment on my original Ghost World post.) I don’t know how many people have started talking to me about it, assuming I must love it, or asked me if they should read it, assuming I must love it, or shared their love of it, assuming I must love it. Everyone is surprised to find out that I don’t love it. I will admit that, as a result, I have a bit of a thing about Ghost World. It makes me touchy. Not touchy as in feely, but touchy as in “Fuck you, you people who think I’m Enid.”
My reaction is a kind of horror, wondering what the hell it is about me that makes people come to this conclusion. Without delving too deeply into the psychology of Kinukitty (because nobody wants that, least of all Kinukitty), I will say that people tend to prefer not being translated into shorthand. I prefer that others at least keep up the social convention of pretending that I am an individual and not the edgy, sarcastic girl dork, perfectly symbolized by Enid and therefore requiring no additional analysis. Yes, yes, this is a bit of an overreaction AND a bit of an oversimplification, yadda yadda. The thing about stereotyping isn’t that it doesn’t tell any truth, though, but that the truth it leaves out is likely to be the really important bit. To the stereotype-ee, at the very least.
I think this speaks to the integrity of the character and thus the storytelling. Others may disagree (and do, in fact), but for me, the point of fiction is to do the opposite of fixing a stereotype. I think the point of fiction is to unveil subtleties and nuances and allow the reader to understand something about a character or situation. It really bothers me when the peaks and crannies go unexplored, as it were. (And, given the sexual aspect of the recent discussion, eewwwww – sorry.) I was about to tie that into how unpleasant it is in real life, too, but the peaks and crannies thing has killed my will to go there.
“You know, people have compared me to Enid since this damned book came out…Everyone is surprised to find out that I don’t love it.”
I have a surgeon friend who told me that the nurses in his operating theater all call him “House” (as in House M.D. of the TV series). I can see why though he’s obviously not a complete facsimile of the character. When he was shown an episode of the TV series, however, he found it lacking in humor and couldn’t see the connection at all. As you say, “shorthand”/stereotyping does suck.
I’m guessing that what they mean is that you’re knowledgeable about somewhat “geeky” things, hold strong opinions and have an attitude. As far as I can tell, those are the most superficial qualities of Enid, so those will be the things that people who don’t know you will get hung up on (for the information of readers, I have never met or spoken to Kinukitty).
I’m willing to bet that they mean those things as a compliment as well. It should offer you some cold comfort that most Ghost World readers don’t hold Enid in low regard (I think).
Your annoyance is legitimate, but misdirected. Enid isn’t just snarky, hip-dork angst; that’s how people who maybe half-read Ghost World would read her. They’re projecting that, not Clowes.
Clowes undercuts it in many ways; it doesn’t really work. It’s a dysfunction, it’s not “cool”. That’s the real drama with her, in my mind, not “cool girl can’t stand lame people, figures she should leave town.”
It was kind of you, Suat — who I have also never met or spoken with — to comment as you did. Made me smile, despite my general cloud of crankiness.
Uland, I don’t mean to overstate my annoyance — I’m annoyed with many, many things, and this is just one of them. I think your dysfunction point is a good one, though.
I used to get Daria and Janeane Garofalo in high school, so I think I would have been honored to get an Enid comparison. It is definitely annoying to constantly get the “you remind me of” comment, but I don’t think a work of fiction is less substantial if it evokes stereotypes, it happens with good and bad portrayals. I think it speaks more to the popularity of a work than anything else. If so many people can relate to a work or character, the certain aspects that appeal to them may be what they hold onto, forming a stereotype from those shared connections. I think the fact that people are quick to associate Enid with any snarky nerd female they know speaks more to a lack of options to choose from than anything else. I don’t know many nerdy fellows who suffer from a touchiness of being compared to Jimmy Olson.