Rewriting my childhood September 18, 2007 ~ 10:01 am
Posted by Julie in : Reviews , trackbackMy friend Kim sent a bunch of books up for the Youngest last Christmas. Some of them went to her grandma’s house this summer to read while she was at circus camp, some stayed at my house to read when she’s here. And some of them, I have to admit, stayed at my house because I loved them when I was a kid and wanted to re-read them.
Friday night, I finally had some time to devote to them. I whipped through Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and moved onto Superfudge. Now, partway through Superfudge, I thought I saw something a little off. Fudge tells everyone that he likes watching Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. I flipped to the front pages. Copyright 1980. I have a vague memory of Nickelodeon when I was small, but Cartoon Network was that old, too? I had no idea! Huh. Learn something new every day.
I read further, and when I read the part about Fudge forcing the entire family to write letters to Santa, I knew the gig was up. Peter asks for CDs, a laptop, and an MP3 player in his letter. Back the truck up, I’m stupid, but I’m not an idiot. I also clearly remember Peter asking for albums and a Walkman. Suddenly, I felt like a part of my childhood had been rewritten. Hey, if kids could figure out what the hell saddle shoes were (which they had to in Tales, because that part wasn’t updated)? They can bloody well ask mom and dad what a Walkman was. I am not down with my childhood being revised. What’s next, the poster of Richard Gere that hangs over Steph’s bed in Just as Long as We’re Together replaced with one of Orlando Bloom? Take it back, Judy Blume! Take it back! You wrote something that is now a documentation of history. Leave it that way!
Comments
I find it appalling that they did that! You don’t see people rewriting Mark Twain’s works. How dated is that!
I read those books with I was in grammar school, and not to look too old or anything, but that was before cable TV so I KNOW that stuff isn’t in the original edition. That’s so sad they do stuff like that.
Refresh me, wasn’t Superfudge the one where the kid gets Corn Flakes dumped on his head and then goes around saying “Eat it or wear it!”? I always loved that line.
That isn’t right. They should at least call it a new edition or something. It’s just like Lucas messing with Star Wars for the re-release. They’re classics for a reason!
JB totally sold out! Our living history, just…totally…traded up…plus, a laptop seems way loftier than a dang walkman. You could drop a walkman down the basement steps and it would still work. A laptop? Not so much, esp. if you are a 4th grade nothing.
JB was on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me a couple weeks ago, and she explained that the changes were made in the books so that they made more sense to younger readers (you know, the TARGET audience?) Apparently, there were a lot of confused kids asking their parents what mimeographs were. How many victorian age children’s books did you read when you were growing up? Likely, not many. Why? OUTDATED. CONFUSING LANGUAGE. Would you deprive todays kids of JB’s books? Or worse, would you FORCE them to read books that they can’t relate to, just because you want them to relive your childhood?
These books are NO LONGER FOR US! THEY ARE FOR CHILDREN! THEY ARE NOT SACRED TEXTS! If you want your childhood memories, pick up an older copy from ebay or a used bookstore.
ahem.
/soapbox
ESC~I side with Grace. I didn’t know what the fuck whitewash was the first time I read Tom Sawyer, so I asked a question and found out. Ditto with Anne of Green Gables: did I know what linament was? No. I asked. There is no need to rewrite a classic, let the kids use a damn dictionary or ask a parent. Children’s books last without the revisions.
Kendra~Yeah, and asking for an MP3 player and a laptop kind of undermines the fact that he only got three presents because um, THEY WERE POOR. In the original version, he seemed to understand that. Revisions destroy that.
Seth~Yes! I would have liked to have seen a change in the copyright page to reflect the changes in the text. That’s what happens normally.
Vince~You’re thinking of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, which is the first in the Fudge series. And “Eat it or wear it!” still made me laugh.
Grace~Exactly!
What? They rewrote Judy Blume??? No, no, no!!!! Makes me wonder how they changed “Blubber” and “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” two of the most unpolitically correct books Blume ever wrote. I may have to check that out.