Sunday, January 26, 2014

Eleven+ of the best Manic Pixie Dream Girls in fiction

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog, Lauren Passell tagged at least eleven of the best Manic Pixie Dream Girls [Passell explains the term: "In 2005, film critic Nathan Rabin coined the term Manic Pixie Dream Girl after seeing Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown, calling her 'that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.'"] in fiction, including:
Sam (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky)

Common in many MPDG meet-cutes, it’s love at first sight when protagonist Charlie meets Sam. (Also common in many YA novels: she has hypnotizing green eyes.) We learn (from Charlie) that she’s nice, nonjudgmental, humble enough to hang with Charlie (who’s younger than she is), has life-changing music taste, used to be promiscuous, has a hot studmuffin of a boyfriend, and has dabbled in illegal drugs. So she’s a badass with a soft side. But that’s what Charlie tells us: the description we get of an MPDG from the MPDG’s victim is usually delivered through rose-tinted glasses.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue