Arts: The Anti-Hero of Young Adult Isn?t Unlikable, She?s Mentally Ill

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Brow Beat The Anti-Hero of Young Adult Isn't "Unlikable," She's Mentally Ill By David Haglund Posted Tuesday, Dec 20, 2011, at 06:21 PM ET There's an odd line in Roger Ebert's otherwise mostly astute review of Young Adult, the new movie written by Diablo Cody, directed by Jason Reitman, and starring Charlize Theron as Mavis Gary, a YA-fiction writer who goes back to her hometown to seduce her high school boyfriend away from his wife and new baby. Ebert points out, rightly, that Mavis is an alcoholic, then claims that "civilians (and some of the critics writing about this film) are slow to recognize alcoholism." That's not the odd line. I suspect he's right—and Ebert, who has written candidly and at length about his own alcoholism, knows the subject better than most. He goes on to say that Mavis's alcoholism "explains a lot of things: her single status, her disheveled apartment, her current writer's block, her lack of self-knowledge, her denial, her inappropriate behavior. Diablo Cody," Ebert says, "was wise to include it; without such a context, Mavis would simply be insane." That's the odd line. What does Ebert mean by "simply insane," exactly? I suspect he means that if we didn't have alcoholism to explain Mavis's bad behavior, her actions would make no sense—she would be "insane" in a manner similar to, say, the Joker as played by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, a character beyond human understanding, whose wild actions are essentially divorced from human psychology. He is using the term very differently, in other words, from the way Maureen ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Lithwick: Newt Gingrich's Insanely Stupid Attack on the Judicial Branch How To Negotiate for a Better Salary True Fact: Greeks and Italians Work Way Harder Than Germans Do	Advertisement
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