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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
Very interesting and seemingly well researched book! At times it felt like the scope of the book was maybe trying to do too much, but part of that is a product of Wonder Woman being fully inspired by a wide range of things, making it hard to narrow.
very interesting book with lots of things I didn't previously know about Wonder Woman or her creators. It spans psychology, feminism, and comic books--that combination is what makes the book engaging, but it also means there are some aspects of this story that are only loosely connected and a bit underexplained. Still, definitely worth reading and a good springboard for further study.
More the story of the creator, his family, and the various stages of feminism movement that the ladies around him were involved in. Sometimes very interesting, sometimes very strange. Definitely lots to think about here.
There are so many details that I learned about the creator of Wonder Woman and her background that I previously did not know. This book is great for people who love Wonder Woman, but as a fan myself I was also disappointed at the circumstances and presuppositions under which this awesome character was created. However, that does not reflect poorly on the writing of Jill Lepore- she does a great job of stating the facts and giving a close account of the history.
This was a deep dive into the creator of Wonder Woman's history. It was interesting to learn more about her deeply feminist roots even if the book seemed a bit tedious at points.
What a fascinating story.
Wonder Woman and her creator have deep roots in the early feminist/suffragette movement. Marston was either brilliant or demented, I'm not sure what. He was an obsessive personality, keen to make his lie detector test mainstream but coming across as a crank to those he tried to convince, including Hoover.
His personal life was even more bizarre, and I'm not sure how the women in his life put up with him, his antics or each other. But somehow, it seems to have functioned in an unconventional kind of way. Though, the children all have different opinions on how well it really turned out.
Still, his vision of what and who Wonder Woman would be, how she would behave and react, the basis for much of her straight from the feminist agenda, and his own dreams of success. Ever notice how often the lie detector test is in the Wonder Woman stories??
I like how he purposely kept her single, and happily single I might add, it's not actually that common in any kind of literature. Choosing to be single with a career certainly wasn't the accepted practice at the time and it's still not quite as accepted as it should be now, though I imagine it's better than it was.
His personal life could either be considered the most anti-feminist thing going or the epitome of the perfect feminist life, I suppose it depends on your own personal views. I'm more in the rather anti-feminist camp with this one but at the same time, it was a challenge to the mainstream, even if not advertised, out the box thinking can be just as important to a movement, if just to get anyone to realize that everyone doesn't have to act, be or think the same to be acceptable.
Wonder Woman and her creator have deep roots in the early feminist/suffragette movement. Marston was either brilliant or demented, I'm not sure what. He was an obsessive personality, keen to make his lie detector test mainstream but coming across as a crank to those he tried to convince, including Hoover.
His personal life was even more bizarre, and I'm not sure how the women in his life put up with him, his antics or each other. But somehow, it seems to have functioned in an unconventional kind of way. Though, the children all have different opinions on how well it really turned out.
Still, his vision of what and who Wonder Woman would be, how she would behave and react, the basis for much of her straight from the feminist agenda, and his own dreams of success. Ever notice how often the lie detector test is in the Wonder Woman stories??
I like how he purposely kept her single, and happily single I might add, it's not actually that common in any kind of literature. Choosing to be single with a career certainly wasn't the accepted practice at the time and it's still not quite as accepted as it should be now, though I imagine it's better than it was.
His personal life could either be considered the most anti-feminist thing going or the epitome of the perfect feminist life, I suppose it depends on your own personal views. I'm more in the rather anti-feminist camp with this one but at the same time, it was a challenge to the mainstream, even if not advertised, out the box thinking can be just as important to a movement, if just to get anyone to realize that everyone doesn't have to act, be or think the same to be acceptable.
I love Wonder Woman. Like wholeheartedly love the character. So a few friends were surprised to hear that I hadn't read this book yet and told me that it seemed like something I would love. It took me two tries to get through this but I did and...I'm kind of sad that I didn't love this. Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike this, but I also wasn't really satisfied by the book. Part of my issue with this was I already knew a lot of the information, especially regarding the feminist movement at the start of the 1900's. I'd actually learned about Marston in a psychology class so I knew about his family's poly-amorous lifestyle and his interests in BDSM. And while I did learn some fun facts about the family, I felt like this was more of a book about Marston and his family rather than Wonder Woman. In fact, Wonder Woman doesn't even get mentioned until about 1/3 of the way through. So really this should be called "The Secret History of Wonder Woman's Creator".
My other issue was with Lepore's writing style. This was possibly only an issue because I listened to the audio version rather than reading the hard copy but there were several sections that just jumped from idea to idea with no clear reasoning. Several times I had to make sure I hadn't accidentally skipped a section because I was suddenly listening to information about a completely different person in a completely different decade. It was very odd and confusing. So maybe the audio version isn't the way to go with this book, although Lepore does have a rather pleasant reading voice. Overall, I was just underwhelmed by this book and didn't learn as much as I had hoped I would.
My other issue was with Lepore's writing style. This was possibly only an issue because I listened to the audio version rather than reading the hard copy but there were several sections that just jumped from idea to idea with no clear reasoning. Several times I had to make sure I hadn't accidentally skipped a section because I was suddenly listening to information about a completely different person in a completely different decade. It was very odd and confusing. So maybe the audio version isn't the way to go with this book, although Lepore does have a rather pleasant reading voice. Overall, I was just underwhelmed by this book and didn't learn as much as I had hoped I would.
An eye opening and very unusual true story told in an informative yet intriguing way. Lepore does a great job of exploring the varied facets of the lives of those who influenced the creation of Wonder Woman as well as women's suffrage. I would highly recommend to anyone who is interested in the women's suffrage movement, or early comic books.
Fascinating story of the people behind Wonder Woman, had no idea of most of it!
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence