As a writer interested in fantasy and myth, I was excited to read Molly Hall’s Persephone story, especially considering how popular her retake on Snow White became on websites like tumblr.com.
The thing about reviews, though, is that I’m tired of writing them, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to do something a little different: a self-review. Of course, I’m still going to review Hall’s work, but I’m going to try to do it from my own perspective in an interview format, which is going to be weird, but bear with me, please. I think self-reviewing and editing is an important skill for writers to have, because we need to not only be critical of other people’s work, but our own as well, so here goes.
Inquisitor Me: So, what did you… me… think of Hall’s use of cut and remixed pieces from other works of poetry?
Critical Me: I thought it was clever how she used these remixed pieces to supplement her story or use them as springboards for each of the story’s sections. Some of the pieces, the last in particular, fit the plot and mood of the section, but others, like the one about swine, didn’t feel as natural and interrupted the flow of the story. I think it’s a great idea to use pieces or quotes from other writers’ work as prompts and mingle them with my own work, but I think there might be publication issues with that and I would be a lot more careful with the pieces I chose.
Fangirl Me: Okay, so I’m reading the piece, right? And the whole time, I’m thinking ‘brilliant, wonderful, talented,’ you know, basically that meme of… who was it? Lady Gaga? Idk, but it was clever and a really artsy way of writing, kinda like fanfiction, but not really.
Interviewer Me: What did you…me… think about the story’s organization, structure, and formatting?
Critical Me: Well, the symbolism of having six sections is obvious, but I question why Molly Hall only used three sources to quote from. The length of each section fluctuates, and I would appreciate some more backstory and length in some of the earlier sections, but otherwise, I thought the story was well balanced and well written in terms of flow. I liked that most of the piece was narration, especially because of the imagery, but the dialogue she did have was relevant and although slightly off-putting due to the clash between the modern language and the ancient setting, the dialogue did read pretty naturally to me. I think I could learn a thing or two about writing effective dialogue without any throw-away wasteful lines. I also struggle sometimes with pacing in my stories, so I could perhaps look to Molly Hall’s organization of her story as a model for my own.
Fangirl Me: Dat dialogue tho. Iconic. Molly, sweetie, you’re doing amazing. Like, sometimes, I think the paragraphs are chunky monkeys, but they’re not cuz they’re full of delicious things, so they’re more like raviolis filled with tasty details rather than a thicc cardboard sandwich, ya feel? And like, the sections? *kisses fingertips* Genius!
Inquisitor Me: What was the writer’s biggest strength and how can you…me… apply that to your…my…own writing?
Critical Me: The imagery was fantastic, and as a fantasy/magical realism writer, I use a lot of descriptions, but I liked the way Molly Hall was unconventional with her details. I’d never thought to describe beauty as ‘in pieces’ or give a character like Persephone an almost feral kind of edge, and I think it goes to show that I can rethink a lot of different female characters when it comes to my own rewriting of myth. I’m used to thinking about myths and fantasy from a modern perspective, but I usually work from scratch. Like, I’d take a type of magical creature and make it a character about whom I could write modern themes, but I haven’t really reworked an entire myth/story before and I think the way Molly Hall revitalizes and remixes an old myth in a new way is amazing.
Fangirl Me: Her writing…is like…so beautiful???? And like, so masterfully done??? Like, I can see the pictures she’s painting with her words and even though she doesn’t give out a lot of character detail, I feel like there’s a lot of depth to her characters, like they could be real themselves. Just so amazing. So great. Wow.