My Thoughts on 'Stardust'

   Before I get into this, fair warning: SPOILERS AHEAD! 

    What is the extent you would go to for love? Would you promise to bring them the moon or a star? Would you travel the perilous unknown and take the risk of death? All for the chance that they might give you even a smidge of their attention. Love is like that isn't it? The idea of it is so romanticized that one hardly sees reason. It is the world through rose-coloured lenses. If you can relate then this book might be just for you. Written by Neil Gaiman and first published in 1997, 'Stardust' is a tale that might speak to a lot of us. I wish to share my thoughts on it, having read the book and seen the movie recently.

    The story follows the journey of Tristran who goes into the land of the faeries to bring back a fallen star for Victoria Forester, the one he loves. The star takes the form of a woman in the faerie land. He makes a lot of mistakes in trying to bring her to Victoria, eventually learning from them. The story is quite different in the movie and I'll aim to compare them as I go along while I highlight the various aspects I enjoyed about the book.

    I found it quite interesting that the story doesn't begin with Tristran. It begins with his father, Dunstan. It is his love story that leads up to Tristran's birth. They live in the village of Wall. Wall alludes to science, reason, logic, civilization. The name is derived from the fact that the village is closed to the East by a wall with a single opening heavily guarded. What is beyond this? The land of faeries, the unknown, the opposite of everything Wall stands for. Perhaps it is also a figurative wall closing off the mind to the magical. However, this is integral to the plot.

     It is set in the Victorian age, the book is soaked in romanticism, a reaction to the age of enlightenment. Both Dunstan and Tristran venture beyond the wall. From a settlement of houses to a thick forest, a return to nature, a large number of supernatural elements, of rebellion and individualism. The romanticism as such is clearly portrayed. But what is a writer in the postmodernist era conveying through this? The ideas he puts across, you'll see, are quite modern but the setting being such, it reads like a fairy tale. That being said it is also true that romanticism did not disappear with a new era. One can still learn a lot from an era of the past.

    Let us now delve into the story and its themes. Victoria asks Tristran what he would give to be with her and he launches into a grandiose speech of jewels and kangaroos and polar bears, from all that he has read of people's travels in those times. At this point one might wonder how silly he is and that they're only empty promises. The disillusioned among us wouldn't trust someone who makes grand promises. Victoria didn't either but she promises Tristran anything he desires if he brings back the star that fell as they were talking.

    Then he actually did go. The onward journey is far better in the book. The plot device that they use to speed up the journey, a candle isn't just handed to him from the start as in the movie. He genuinely earns it by helping a "little hairy man", in his journey. Especially in the Serewood, where the trees try to hurt them but Tristran being half fae is able to sense where the path they had strayed from is. So, because he saved the man's life he is given the candle. Even then, it would not withstand a long journey because it is only a stub. Which is why there would be no time to explain it to the star and he'd have to tie her to him with a magic rope. This was the instructions given to Tristran by the man.

    I will not justify his actions in following through with it. Yes, chaining a hurt and confused woman and kidnapping her is the worst thing he could do at that moment but it is so much worse in the movie. One, he had an entire candle and could have taken her back by convincing her.  Two, in the book it is made clear that Yvaine cannot return to the sky but he wishes to find a solution to that anyway. Everything has limitation even within magic systems so the candle does too. If such a small distance could use up the stub of a candle, or half of a fully intact one as seen in the movie. It would still burn out before it can restore a star back in the sky which is the bargaining chip Tristan uses in the movie. Three, and most importantly, there was no need to chain her if he was making a deal with her. 

    Then there is an instance in the book where he saves a unicorn at her bequest. This further shows that deep down he is a nice person. The movie just loses the depth of his character by getting rid of this scene. He does takes care of her in the journey, making sure she didn't have to walk too much worrying about whether she's eating, while in the movie he just didn't seem to care. This culminates in the fact that book Tristran frees her at one point, asking her to stay where she is while he goes into a town and gets something to eat. He trusts her and believed they were friends although misguidedly so. She of course runs away, naturally. Stockholm syndrome didn't quite sink in with this one thankfully. In the movie she is tied to the tree and the unicorn saves her. This bit directly affects what comes after.

    In the book there is divine intervention. Pan, the Greek god of the forests, among other things, through one of the trees provides him with help. There is a lesson to be learned here in particular because the only reason the tree helps him is because he unchained Yvaine at the end. The tree was once a nymph, chased by a prince and she was turned into a tree to save herself. With this a major theme can be noticed within this story, it is one of consent. He took Yvaine without her consent while not getting the hint from Forester that she really isn't interested in him, hence why an unattainable goal was given to him. She wasn't being serious. The movie villainises her completely. She never wanted him to actually go out there and she felt nothing but guilt until the day he came back. Deciding that if he ever came back, she would give up on the man she really loves if he desired so. The movie made her such a shallow stock figure that it left me speechless. This is no woman vs. woman story. It is honestly empowering and that is what the movie failed to grasp. This you'll see even more as I move further with the story.

    There are two subplots here; the one of the ascension of the throne of Stormhold, the faerie kingdom and that of the witches who want the star's heart because it will restore their youth. There are three brothers fighting for the throne. It is one of the witches who goes after the star. Now these two plots intermingle in a sense and all three brothers die. The witch is close to getting her heart at one point but Tristran saves Yvaine, having found her with the nymph's help. He sort of redeems himself while saving her. He makes a wick and moulds the leftover lump of wax from the candle around it before thrusting it into a fire to get it to burn and then he begs her to walk. The way the candle works is again clearly shown, it does not transport one to where they want to go. It speeds up the steps of the journey in a way. One needs to know the directions though, which he does because he is half fae. This being why they end up on a cloud before the candle completely goes out.

    The following scene is actually heartwarming in the book because it is one of reconciliation. She feels sad that he burnt his hand saving her, he feels sad that he chained her in the start. They begin a true friendship here. What do they do in the movie? Since the candle works differently there. He tells her to think of home and they both think of their home so they get stuck in between and they argue over it. What is worse is that they even changed things about the following scene with the flying ship. Captain Alberic a kind person who welcomes them with open arms into their ship is replaced with Captain Shakespeare, a closeted homosexual pirate who pretends to be rough with them to maintain a facade of being macho... One thing I dislike is forcing narratives into a story where it did not exist, especially at the cost of screentime that could have really been used to build up the depth of the main character. There are many stories out there that speak about it, excellent ones that deserve to be heard and adapted into film but this one did not need to. It was already dealing with other topics of importance, love, consent, eternal youth being a few.

    They make their last stretch of the journey by a caravan driven by a witch, not the one who wants her heart. It was from this witch's slave that Dunstan bought a glass flower. The slave being the one he fell in love with; Tristran's mother. On reaching Wall; she warns Yvaine from going past the wall because she will turn into a lump of rock. Once again bringing the scientific and magical worlds to the forefront. Tristran upon reaching the place at first had forgotten the entire reason he went on the journey. He then goes to tell Victoria that he has found the star when she tells him all that I mentioned before. Tristran at the point tells her that he desires her to marry whom she loves and walks away with a light heart realising that he is happy he isn't marrying her. He says goodbye to his family and leaves Wall at last and over to Yvaine where they finally profess their love to each other.

    The curse which the witch had put Tristran's mother in, breaks. It was to occur when the moon loses her daughter. Now comes something I particularly love in the book. The witch who wants the heart finally gets there but she cannot sense it anymore. It's because she has already given it to Tristran. It's not the physical heart really but more so what it represents. That I found to be utterly beautiful. She kissed the witch on her cheek and walked away. In all this, not a single witch died because that was not the point of the story. Love was the point. What did the movie do?

    It changed the terms of the contract so that the witch had to be dead for the mother to be free. It made Yvaine a complete damsel in distress at the end. All three of the witches, who wanted her heart are killed. Granted, the last one was killed by Yvaine but how? She shone brightly... Why didn't she do it before? She can't shine with a broken heart. Why was she broken hearted? Because she misunderstood him and thought he was going to marry Victoria after having told her he loved her. They made it into such a big cliché that it wasn't even funny anymore.

    Lastly the part that completely sets in stone as to how much they missed the point in the movie, the epilogue. Now Una, Tristran's mother was the last living daughter of Stormhold bloodline, meaning Tristran was the rightful heir to the throne. The plot device, a gem that will reach the one who is worthy was also in Yvaine's possession, so that ties up everything neatly. But they don't wish to ascend the throne immediately so they go away and have their own adventures while Una rules in their stead. Breaking the tradition of only male heirs being allowed to ascend the throne. She does such a good job of it too that they come back only to go away again. Finally, they ascend the throne after they have lived their youth to the fullest and then at an old age Tristran dies. Yvaine being immortal becomes the sole ruler from then on. Perhaps one might find it sad but it stays true to its message. That of immortality in particular. The movie tries to provide a happy ending by sending them off to the sky when it is time for his death. Where the book insists that a mortal cannot cheat death or time even in such a fantastical world, that love surpasses death. The movie fails miserably.

    Now I do not wish to tell people it's a bad movie for what it is. It's entertaining certainly but I would implore anyone who has watched the movie to give the book a shot as well. If you enjoy a book where women have agency, from Una who sets off her mission of freedom by simply offering a lucky glass flower to the one she loves, where Yvaine chooses who can have her heart and Victoria marries whom she really loves, to the witches who've always lived how they pleased. If you enjoy a book that deals with grand thoughts of love and death. You might really enjoy this book. I've given away most of the plot so that would be if you still want to after that. My take away from it all was that the worthiest pursuit is the one for love. That for eternal youth or a high position in life is in vain. Thus, we must live our youth to the fullest. 

***