Friday, April 18, 2008
Sweet Valley High sux. Babysitters' Club forever!
I read some Sweet Valley books, back when I was a tween, but each book was a cliffhanger, and I read too fast. They weren't worth the frustration.
The books chronicle a pair of beautiful, blond twins in junior high, one bookish, one popular. They've been relaunched, apparently.
The twins have gone from a “perfect size 6″ to a “perfect size 4.” Gawker says "Random House [is] Proudly Promoting Eating Disorders" and posts a letter from Random House to journalists about "updates" to the series, like the change in the girls' clothing size and vehicle choice.
Jessica at Feministing is upset about the resizing. Julian Sanchez wonders if the resizing just make readers more properly visualize the girls, given how sizing may have changed from the '80s to today.
I wonder who'll get upset that the twins are now driving an SUV.
I don't really care. What I do care about, though, is that there are now COMIC BOOK versions of the Babysitters' Club books that I loved so much. Instead of reprinting the books, the publishers are printing comic books. (Or graphic novels, if you prefer, but I think they're short enough to be called comic books.) (Check the first BSC books on Amazon, if you doubt me. I refuse to link.)
Now, I love graphic novels. When they're the original medium. What I'm bitching about is the arbitrary change of medium that can't help but affect the story-telling. The books were great to begin with! Why change the medium? Adding lots of color, subtracting lots of words, making the pages bigger, and retelling the SAME STORIES?
Reprint the book, don't turn the same story into a graphic novel.
Girls who grew up on the Babysitters' Club want their kids to have the same pleasure, not this lame pseudo-book. At least I would, if I had kids.
I'm grumpy.
The books chronicle a pair of beautiful, blond twins in junior high, one bookish, one popular. They've been relaunched, apparently.
The twins have gone from a “perfect size 6″ to a “perfect size 4.” Gawker says "Random House [is] Proudly Promoting Eating Disorders" and posts a letter from Random House to journalists about "updates" to the series, like the change in the girls' clothing size and vehicle choice.
Jessica at Feministing is upset about the resizing. Julian Sanchez wonders if the resizing just make readers more properly visualize the girls, given how sizing may have changed from the '80s to today.
I wonder who'll get upset that the twins are now driving an SUV.
I don't really care. What I do care about, though, is that there are now COMIC BOOK versions of the Babysitters' Club books that I loved so much. Instead of reprinting the books, the publishers are printing comic books. (Or graphic novels, if you prefer, but I think they're short enough to be called comic books.) (Check the first BSC books on Amazon, if you doubt me. I refuse to link.)
Now, I love graphic novels. When they're the original medium. What I'm bitching about is the arbitrary change of medium that can't help but affect the story-telling. The books were great to begin with! Why change the medium? Adding lots of color, subtracting lots of words, making the pages bigger, and retelling the SAME STORIES?
Reprint the book, don't turn the same story into a graphic novel.
Girls who grew up on the Babysitters' Club want their kids to have the same pleasure, not this lame pseudo-book. At least I would, if I had kids.
I'm grumpy.
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