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>Giving the pig a happy ending
>The upcoming Charlotte's Web movie is engendering the usual publishing spawn; just arrived in our office is Some Pig!: A Charlotte's Web Picture Book.
I guess you just have to think of it as a souvenir. (Like this.) The title will only mean something to someone who's read the book or seen the movie, and the uninitiated may also be perplexed by the opening spread ("Fern loved Wilbur more than anything") with its picture of a girl sitting on the kitchen floor cuddling a pig. But while I imagine kids would enjoy this scenario too much to worry about how the pig got there in the first place, I don't know what they're going to make of the conclusion: "The next day, Wilbur was taken from his home under the apple tree and went to live in a manure pile in the cellar of Zuckerman's barn." The. End.
Through the strategic employment of lemony sun-dappling and manure that looks like the softest grass, Keen does her best to make this scene look happy, but she can't disguise the fact that the line she's illustrating is not an ending but a beginning. This why you have to be careful when messing with the classics--it's not because they're holy, but because they'll go on strike: they won't work.
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Anonymous
>Jeannen, I think you misunderstand both what I said and what Roger said. What I meant was that it is interesting to explore ideas and different viewpoints with the ultimate aim of getting to some new understanding. There is nothing malicious intended in this. On the contrary. Fiction serves this purpose. Not to explain but to explore. Not to voice a well thought out opinion but rather to go down the road into the fog willing to see only as far as the headlights go and take different avenues when they come up. This to me should be one of the more interesting features of a good blog. What I think Roger thinks is that I come on periodically just to attack without context for the sake of attacking him which is nonsense, of course. I think he's swell even when I disagree. But there are so few people who bother t come on if they disagree that I suppose my voice of dissent sounds particularly disagreeable. However, as I point out to him, it's no more vociferous than his own.Posted : Dec 19, 2006 03:29
JeanneB
>To Anonymous -- Seems to me that Roger is justified in accusing you of gratuitous comments. Here's a quote from you back in June: "Sometimes [my comments] are there just to stir the pot to see what rises to the light. And I am here to play. If I were to post with a name I would have to edit my remarks and be willing to stand by them and I could not play."I'm just sayin'....
Posted : Dec 19, 2006 12:10
Anonymous
>And Melinda, I wasn't addressing you at any time. I guess because my post was after yours, it appeared that way to you.Posted : Dec 09, 2006 04:42
Anonymous
>Well, if you don't think there are whole livings to be made by the peculiar profession of book talk then may I ask where you think the money is coming from for this blog? I don't differentiate between the money the picture book makers are after and the money the blog makers are after. I don't doubt that one thinks their intentions are pure and the other knows they are not, but it hardly matters. They both want to put their imprimateur on a book/books. I'm just saying it's all the same even if one is more commerically oriented. And as for what the author wanted, how do you know? He's dead. But more to the point, whether or not he cares for the pictures doesn't really speak to the point of my post. It's the desire to take possession of something which you did not create whether through judgement or regurgitation that is of interest.Posted : Dec 09, 2006 03:41
Melinda
>Hey, who you calling *peculiar*? And how did you know I was peculiar? Oh, yeah, I write peculiar stuff, that would do it.Well, if I understand you correctly, there is a difference. The guys in Hollywood make a great big heaping pile of money for hijacking a popular book and turning it into tripe. Me, I don't earn a red cent unless I turn the sofa cushions over, and technically that's my husband's money.
"None of them have anything to do with the book as it really is."
If you want to get into semantics, then you're correct. Though may I gently add that the pictures I see in my mind when reading "Charlotte" are a heck of a lot closer to what the author wanted than the pictures that you'll see if you go to that movie.
Just my (husband's) two cents.
Posted : Dec 09, 2006 02:04