Live Blogs Modelland: A Blind Sporking

LadyMomus2012-04-02 23:28:44

Well, I've finished rereading Modelland. I was hoping that reading it straight through would be better than reading it chapter-by-chapter. No such luck. In fact, I kept finding things that I really wished that I had commented on before.

But before I summarize the many problems with this book, let's start with the good.

The Good

1. The chapters with the Pilgrims are easily the best part of the book. The characters are more interesting. They aren't nice people, but still seem to care deeply about their families, and are willing to risk death to achieve their goals. In a story with passive protagonists, they are a welcome breath of fresh air. I would be willing to recommend this book if the other chapters were as good as the Pilgrim chapters.
2. Tyra is surprisingly good at coming up with interesting and creative monsters. The monsters in the Divide are bizarre in a fun B-horror movie sort of way.
3. Tookie's reaction to her first kiss is believable, and the scene showcases the genuine awkwardness that comes with teenage romance.
4. There are a few nice descriptions in the book (my favorite being Tookie's reaction to wearing a SMIZE for the first time).

And now for the bad:

The Plot

The plot of this book is horribly paced and tends to wander around quite a bit.

The sacrifice plot was a complete tease. It would be like if the first Harry Potter book had ended with Harry and friends finding out that no one was actually after the Sorcerer's Stone and that Voldemort really was gone for good. It's a cheat after so much build-up.

The book doesn't really feel like it has an overarching plot due to the huge anticlimax at the end. It just feels like a bunch of semi-related subplots that weren't enough to carry the story on their own.

It also leaves the book not really needing a sequel, let alone two. We have a "sympathetic" character now in charge of Modelland, Tookie and friends no longer have to worry about a grizzly death, and the romance plot has been resolved. What else is there to do? Cover the next two years of school? Even if it's a magic school, two years of school is still dreadfully boring to read about unless you have other things holding up the plot.

It's probably why Tookie and Ci~L leave to go off on some random adventure at the end. The main conflicts have been resolved, with the exceptions of the ones that Tookie is too apathetic or passive to do anything about. (The torture of her mother and the BellaDonna, Lizzie's disappearance/possible death, etc.)

Tension

Aside from the chapters about the Pilgrims, there isn't much in the way of tension. Part of it is pacing problems. Tookie will learn some new horrible thing about Ci~L or the sacrifices, and then sit on her hands for a few chapters, angsting about what's going to happen while doing nothing about it. A high-speed bus chase is interrupted by a long description of Lizzie picking up something to cut herself with. If the narrative is taking time to cut away from the main action in the middle of a chase scene, the chase scene loses a lot of its impact.

In addition, Tookie is coddled. She is handed information and victories without having earned them. She needs to escape Modelland? Bravo just happens to know the way and will show it to her. She wants to win ManAttack but is too busy assaulting Bravo to score points? That's okay. A SMIZE will appear to ensure her victory.

In addition, established rules will be ignored if they get in the way of what Tookie needs to happen. Tookie wants to hear the backstory of the BellaDonna and her mother? The Flashback Females let Tookie choose the memories she wants to see, even though it was previously established that the person sharing the memories gets to choose. It kills all tension when it's clear that the author isn't willing to put the characters in actual danger or force them to actually struggle.

And speaking of the characters . . .

The Characters

Let's start with Tookie, since she is the main character.

Tookie is awkward and shy. It's something that a lot of people can relate to, especially teenagers. Unfortunately, Tookie is a lot of other things, none of which are particularly admirable or likeable.

Tookie does a lot of questionable things, and she is never called out on it. She:

• Laughs at a girl for being homeless, even though she has a homeless friend.
• Abandons a friend with serious mental health problems. Twice.
• Abandons two people*
  Lizzie and the bus driver.
  without bothering to check whether they're alive or dead.
• Laughs at a person who is in the middle of a psychotic episode.
  • Refuses to tell the doctor about the girl's past, which could be used to help treat her.
• Uses a guy, lies to him, and refuses to share information with him. She also physically assaults him. She never apologizes for this.
• Steals from an infirmary. Not because she needs the stuff, mind you. It's just a fun bonding activity with her love interest.
• Refuses to speak up when someone is being falsely accused of attempted murder.
• Lies constantly
  • "Um, I lost my father too. Just recently." — Said immediately after the three other girls say that their fathers were dead.
  • "I know nothing about her," she said in a low voice. "Nothing at all." — Said when a doctor is trying to find out what has caused Zarpessa's breakdown in order to help treat her.
  • "I just wanted to make Bravo jealous . . . His was the first name I thought of." — Said when Zarpessa asks why Tookie called Theophilus her perfect guy.

It's one thing to have a flawed protagonists who makes mistakes. It's quite another thing to have every bad action the protagonist does excused or ignored simply because they are the protagonist. There's a reason that I sympathized more with Creamy, Zarpessa, and Myrracle more than Tookie. At least they were called out on their bad behavior.

The Unicas

Aside from Tookie, the Unicas are one note characters. And since Tookie is an admitted author avatar, I'm not going to give much credit for Tookie being more rounded than the others.

• Piper: "Smart" stuck-up snob.
• Dylan: Catty Sassy mall rat.
• Shiraz: Hyperactive funny foreigner.

And that's about it. These three get no real character development. They get backstories, but these backstories don't really affect them. Dylan has a bunch of nameless siblings*

. . . aside from being mentioned a few times, what purpose do they serve? She never tries to contact them. She never shows signs of being the "big sister" of the group, even though you'd think it would be a natural role for her to take being the big sister. Same thing with her father keeling over dead right after giving her a motivational speech about her appearance It doesn't affect her character. It's just a cheap way to try to get the audience to sympathize with her.

The Antagonists

When giving an antagonist some sympathetic elements, there is a fine line to walk. Done incorrectly, it can make it look like you're excusing their behavior. This happens with the BellaDonna. She is instantly forgiven for torturing her daughter for months, even though she has the gall to say that it would have been justified for Ci~L to be executed instead. I'm also pretty sure that we're supposed to sympathize with Persimmon at the end of the story, in spite of the fact that she falsely accused someone of attempted murder.

When the antagonists are punished at the end, their punishments are unrelated to what they actually did. The BellaDonna is falsely accused of murder and tortured for it. Creamy will be tortured for coming to Modelland, even though she had a legitimate grievance. The Pilgrims are slaughtered for having the gall to come to Modelland without being on the predetermined list. The exact same thing that happened to the protagonists.

And while we're talking about the antagonists . . .

The Treatment of Chaste

I haven't devoted much time to Chaste, but I really should have. Chaste is portrayed as the stereotypical "high school slut." She's constantly making sexual comments and makes it clear she wants to sleep with any attractive guy that wanders her way.*

I would have no problem if the message was simply that Chaste sleeping around with a bunch of different guys is a bad idea. Chaste is probably the same age as Tookie — fifteen — so I doubt she’s mature enough to be responsible when it comes to sex. There's also the dangers of STDs or an unwanted pregnancy. But that's not the message the text sends. The message the text sends is that Chaste is a horrible person who deserves to be attacked and disparaged.

There is nothing wrong with letting someone know that you disagree with the decisions they're making, or to point out that what they're doing could have negative consequences. There IS something wrong with treating someone like crap because you disagree with their decisions. Of the many times the protagonists react to Chaste, it is always with disgust and with name-calling (calling her "loose" or a "strumpet"). But I can't remember a single time that they attacked her for being a bully, which is what they should have been attacking her for.

Lack of Research

Languages

As I've noted before, foreign languages are used incorrectly many, many times. There's no excuse for getting so much wrong. This is the age of the Internet. Need to know the Polish word for hamster? Take five seconds on Google, and boom: chomik.

And, no, giving real world languages new names does not excuse all the mistakes.

Albinism

It's obvious that Tyra did no research on albinism, which is a major problem when one of the characters has albinism. The major test associated with diagnosing albinism is a vision test. Why? Because the lack of melanin results in vision problems that aren't correctable by glasses or contacts. Many people with albinism are legally blind.

And when you're in fashion, which is pretty much entirely vision-oriented, not being able to see things from a distance would be a disadvantage. It could cause problems with her classes, especially when demonstrations are far away from her, like the runway class. Heck, considering that Piper is (supposedly) a genius and a bit stuck-up, the fact that she needed help from others could be a vehicle for character growth and used to help the Unicas bond.

Some real potential wasted because Tyra couldn't be bothered to do ten minutes worth of research.

Empowering?

Tyra Banks has gone on record as saying that Modelland is meant to be empowering for girls. While I respect her intentions, the end product is anything but empowering.

Name a negative stereotype about women — obsessed with fashion, catty, petty, swooning, boy crazy, shallow, overly emotional, unable to function during a crisis, passive, jealous, vindictive — it's in Modelland. And it's not just the antagonists. All of those traits are displayed by the protagonists.

There are also a lot of double standards in this book. It's okay to laugh at someone for being homeless, laugh at another girl's mental breakdown, and to beat up a guy . . . as long as you're the protagonist.

And it seems to be completely unintentional, but the Intoxibellas all come across as . . . well, kind of worthless. Sure, they have super powers, but all they use them for is selling stuff and looking pretty. But their male counterparts — who have no magical powers — act as the bodyguards and architects, in addition to their modeling duties. It almost feels like Zarpessa's sexist talk about boys being superior is right in the context of the Modelland universe. That's extremely depressing, and not at all empowering.

(And how empowering is it to have a Heroic Albino character who is a complete misrepresentation of what albinism is actually like?)

Conclusion

Like a lot of poorly written novels, there is some potential here. Having a model talk candidly about the problems with the modeling industry and standards of beauty would be interesting. Instead Tyra tries to point out a couple problems with modeling at the same time she's elevating it into some godlike magical wonderland that everyone should strive for. It's hard to criticize something when you're busy putting it on a pedestal.

In the end, Modelland is just a mess. Tyra's good intentions couldn't make up for bad writing.

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My Next Liveblog and Some Shameless Self-Promotion

Later this month, I'll be starting a liveblog of something I actually enjoy: Jackie Chan Adventures.

Now that this liveblog is complete, I'm also going to be posting it on my blog, Super-Critique over the next few weeks. I'll be fixing typos and doing some minor revisions, but most of the content will remain the same.*

[/shameless self-promotion]

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Thank You

Thanks to everyone who's been reading. I hope you've enjoyed reading the liveblog. I know I had a lot of fun writing it.

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