That the topless towers be burnt
and men recall that face,
move most gently if move you must
in this lonely place.
She thinks, part woman, three parts a child,
that nobody looks; her feet
practise a tinker shuffle
picked up on a street.
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
her mind moves upon silence.
This excerpt from the poem Long-Legged Fly by W.B. Yeats is the epigraph at the beginning of Walter Tevis' novel “The Queen's Gambit” and summarizes the central theme of the work: the mechanisms of the female genius.
The television adaptation lands on Netflix today, a mini-series in six episodes that just from the trailer promises to be full of pathos, hallucinations, lush cinematography and a memorable protagonist.
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The Queen's Gambit tells the story of Beth Harmon, played by the intense Anya Taylor-Joy, already seen in latest excellent adaptation of Emma. Beth is orphaned and ends up in an orphanage, where she appears to be destined to a gray and anonymous life. Everything changes when she discovers an incredible talent for chess: this enfant terrible, brilliant and aloof, begins her climb in the professional chess circuit, where she is the only girl in all boys club, divided between her talent and a series of addictions she seems to be unable to live without.
In the background, The United States in the 1950s and 1960s, between the Cold War, traditionalism and the birth of feminist and hippie movements.
One of the things that fascinated me the most when I found out about this series is the characterization of the protagonist. I don't know about you, but I have always had an incredible fascination with characters full of genius and torment, even more so when they manage to make their way through a hostile world using their own strength and talent. Yet, if we think about it, these complex, multifaceted “types”, sometimes anti-heroes, are almost always men.
It seems that there is still a stigma in representing women that are not completely “likeable” and have some characteristics, like mental intensity, non-conformist personalities, which deviate from the canons of society. Perhaps because it is thought that they do not exist or that it is better not to exist.
Beth is an extremely multifaceted character: brilliant, solitary, totally disconnected from the social conventions of the time, stylish and a lover of beauty in her own way, tormented by an addiction to tranquilizers (administered since the days of the orphanage, to keep children “quiet”) and from alcohol, she finds a shelter in the quiet squares of the chessboard, which appear in her mind and on the ceiling of her room and represent a semblance of order and control, and of a connection with the world, to a a mind scared of sinking into madness.
An unconventional woman who finds herself alone in an environment of geniuses (and presumed geniuses) extremely sexist, where she is judged first for her gender, but would simply like to be recognized for what she is, a talented player.
In an interview with Tv Insider Anya Taylor-Joy said: “one of the most beautiful things about Beth is that she's so distanced from society and society's expectations of her, that she's genuinely baffled that people speak about her gender more than they speak about how excellent she is at the game and that level of bewilderment is so wonderful to bring in because it shows you how ridicolous it is that people would even question “Oh you can't be glamorous and a chess player and she's like “What? What are you talking about? This is just my expression”. [...] We sort of wanted to show you a really complex human being and say, look just because she's a brain doesn't mean, if she wants to wear sweapants, sure fine, but she also happen to love fashion at the same time and you can't categorize people in a way that makes you feel comfortable, you have to accepting of all of their intiricacies”.
The Queen's Gambit is a feminist story but in an almost broader sense of the term, where a woman fights against a hostile world to be recognized not as a woman, but as a person.
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