I cannot tell if this is sad or funny? [Archive]

Dark Muse

01-12-2010, 08:02 PM

When I was at the bookstore with my sister during the holidays I happened to see something which well at first I had to do a double take to make sure I was really seeing what I thought I was, and upon the first realization of it, I was quite amused, but on later reflecting I began to wonder, if in fact it was a bit sad. Maybe it was a little both, in some small way it definitely says something about our society, or at least the ever evolving nature of how we approach literature. I wonder, if there is some good to come from it, or if it is just unfortunate.

It was the thread I recently started regarding the whole Paranormal Romance trend that is becoming more and more the fad these days which had brought this incident back into my mind again.

So anyway, at the bookstore there was this table set up for teen books, and to say the least it mostly consisted of the Twilight books, and what I call Twilight spin offs, being a variety of other books of that same nature which are becoming popular and among them all there was a copy of Wuthering Heights, with a fancy new cover to make it blend in with the Paranormal Books. I cannot recall exactly what was on the front cover now, but it was a very Twilightesque cover, with a black background, and a single simple image on the font intended to appear gothic, and then it said across the top something like "Love never dies" or "Love is immortal"

They were totally trying to pawn off Wuthering Heights as a paranormal romance. So on the one hand maybe they will trick some teen Twilight reader to buying a copy of it, and before they realize what it is they might find they actually enjoy the quality literature once they start reading it. Maybe it is not a bad thing to revamp (no pun intended) the way classics are sold to start getting them to appeal to younger generations.

But I have been accused of being a bit of a purists, as I am really not a fan of the new trend of Jane Austin Fan Fiction that is popping up (i.e. Pride & Prejucide & Zombies) so it did make me a little sad to see Wurthering Heights, which was a brillaint book grouped in with in with dare I say trash?

Veho

01-12-2010, 08:14 PM

I saw that as well. I think it's a rose or something on the front cover... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wuthering-Heights-Emily-Bronte/dp/0007326742/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263341426&sr=8-6

I think they've 'revamped' (to use your word) Wuthering Heights in particular, because Bella reads it in Twilight - or one of the other 3 books (I can't quite remember). Anyway, I must be a purist too, because nothing will induce me to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Dark Muse

01-12-2010, 08:17 PM

I think they've 'revamped' (to use your word) Wuthering Heights in particular, because Bella reads it in Twilight - or one of the others 3 books (can't quite remember). Anyway, I must be a purist too, because nothing will induce me to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

If that were the case it would make a little more sense. As when I saw it with my sister, it just seemed kind of random.

Dinkleberry2010

01-12-2010, 08:55 PM

I think a number of classic books as well as authors go through fads. There was a fad for Tolkein back in the 1960s, and then it faded. Now there seems to be a resurgence of interest in him and in The Lord of the Rings. It will probably fade again, and then in another thirty years or so Tolkein will make a comeback.

DanielBenoit

01-12-2010, 11:57 PM

Well, how else are you going to get teens to read great literature? My little brother got excited when he found A Midsummer Night's Dream in my Complete Works of Shakespeare volume because he had seen characters perform it on one of those pre-teen sitcoms from the Disney Channel.

Hurricane

01-13-2010, 12:45 AM

I like reading the product description:

One of the greatest love stories ever told, beautifully repackaged for a modern teen audience Love the Twilight books? Then you'll adore Wuthering Heights, one of the greatest love stories ever told. Cathy and Heathcliff, childhood friends, are cruelly separated by class, fate and the actions of others. But uniting them is something even stronger: an all-consuming passion that sweeps away everything that comes between them. Even death! "My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks," said Cathy. "I am Heathcliff."

Given my broad knowledge of Wuthering Heights (i.e., I just finished reading the wikipedia entry...though I do have an older copy on my shelf I should get around to reading), this, uh, doesn't sound exactly accurate to the story.

Well, how else are you going to get teens to read great literature? My little brother got excited when he found A Midsummer Night's Dream in my Complete Works of Shakespeare volume because he had seen characters perform it on one of those pre-teen sitcoms from the Disney Channel.

Don't hate! It was "Wishbone" that got me into reading as a kid.

Heathcliff

01-13-2010, 12:50 AM

I have no idea how Wuthering Heights could be paranormal. I didn't see a zombie, vampire, alien, etc. in it at all. I'm sure there are other similarities, however I would never have thought of the two being at all linked.

I think Twilight, although I've only seen the first movie, never even looked at the books, is totally different. I should read it first, but I don't think it is of much relation.

I saw a cartoon about a cat, and he was acting on stage as Hamlet. It was absolutely ridiculous, turned me off reading it for real completely. Then I read a shorter novel of the whole thing from his girlfriend's perspective and became interested.

I think getting all of the Twilight fans into reading Wuthering Heights is good, although it would change the outlook of both stories.

I read the first page of Twilight, no linguistic challenges. I was a little younger when I read Wuthering Heights and the language was extremely difficult. I'm sure it varies from person to person, although I'm thinking of my friends who have read Twilight and briefly understood it. If that is hard enough for them, will they be able to figure out something like Wuthering Heights? Then again, I'm sure that might only be me.

If it gets young people reading, which sure is a challenge sometimes, then it does definitely pay off.

Dark Muse

01-13-2010, 12:55 AM

I like reading the product description:

Given my broad knowledge of Wuthering Heights (i.e., I just finished reading the wikipedia entry...though I do have an older copy on my shelf I should get around to reading), this, uh, doesn't sound exactly accurate to the story..

LOL that is definitely a bit of an skewered interpretation of the book

Dark Muse

01-13-2010, 12:56 AM

I have no idea how Wuthering Heights could be paranormal. I didn't see a zombie, vampire, alien, etc. in it at all. I'm sure there are other similarities, however I would never have thought of the two being at all linked.

Haha well aperently based on the cover art in the link posted by Veho, the book is referenced within Twilight, and they are trying to use that as a selling point, and grouping it in with the paranormal romance books.

Heathcliff

01-13-2010, 01:00 AM

Haha well aperently based on the cover art in the link posted by Veho, the book is referenced within Twilight, and they are trying to use that as a selling point, and grouping it in with the paranormal romance books.

Oh yea. So really, I could draw them both as rainbows and fairies and that would make the link.

It is a good idea, wouldn't convince me, although it may just work.

Would they have to change the blurb too then? Make it so totally opinionated that is changes the whole story?

Aw. I could've done that.

Desolation

01-13-2010, 01:07 AM

Apparently Pride and Prejudice and Romeo and Juliet are getting the same treatment:

http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Jane-Austen/dp/0061964360/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b
http://www.amazon.com/Romeo-Juliet-William-Shakespeare/dp/0061965499/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_c

Dark Muse

01-13-2010, 01:38 AM

OMG I cannot belive that. Just random flowers on a black background, that has nothing to do with anything.

"The Original Forbidden Love" :rolleyes:

Heathcliff

01-13-2010, 03:24 AM

Wuthering Heights is only a flower!!
http://www.amazon.com/Wuthering-Heights-Emily-Bronte/dp/0061962252/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

That is absolutley, erm, odd.

At least Twilight was an apple.
http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Saga-Book-1/dp/0316015849/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263367199&sr=1-1
Not that I recall anything to do with an apple.

I think, definitely the red gets attention. I wouldn't have compared the two though.

Dark Muse

01-13-2010, 03:49 AM

I think the apple is meant to suggust temptation, and a taste of the forbidden fruit.

Without having read the books, the one that dosen't make sense to me is the 2nd one I think it is, that has the chess piece on the front. Somehow I do not think chess plays much of a role in the book.

DanielBenoit

01-13-2010, 03:58 AM

OMG I cannot belive that. Just random flowers on a black background, that has nothing to do with anything.

"The Original Forbidden Love" :rolleyes:

Well I know, it's all bull and pretty much spitting on great works of literature. But at the same time, how else are you going to get the kids to read great works? I'm just afraid they'll be expecting another simplistic story like Twilight.

Heathcliff

01-13-2010, 04:02 AM

I think the apple is meant to suggust temptation, and a taste of the forbidden fruit.

Well... That is the first book so...
I think the only ones forbidding it are Jacob, sort of, and Edward, a little. Bella's dad is a little cautious, because it is his baby girl.

SO maybe the moral's of a paranormal relationship are forbidden. So maybe it is.

I'd have like something to do with blood on the cover, apart from the red. I mean, that does have more to do with the vampires than an apple.

The apple was good for the relationship side. I guess that is a good approach at it, depending on the crowd they are trying to attract.

Like with Harry Potter, how many different covers there are.
http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Deathly-Hallows-Book/dp/0545139708/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263369384&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Deathly-Hallows-Book/dp/0545139708/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263369384&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.com/Potter-reliquias-Deathly-Hallows-Spanish/dp/8498381460/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263369405&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-7-reliques-mort/dp/2070615375/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263369405&sr=1-12
http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Deathly-Hallows-Adult/dp/B001874TCO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263369456&sr=1-3
I wouldn't imagine half of those to have much to do with the story, or with each other.

There are many covers for Wuthering Heights too. Another can't hurt.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=wuthering+heights&x=0&y=0
That's quicker, briefly.

This new one, as odd as it seems to some, is only another one. In a few years time, as soon as there is a new phase, they'll have to make another one.

Jozanny

01-13-2010, 07:59 AM

I have no idea how Wuthering Heights could be paranormal. I didn't see a zombie, vampire, alien, etc. in it at all. I'm sure there are other similarities, however I would never have thought of the two being at all linked.

It isn't paranormal, but the novel is so over the top that the suggestion of supernatural agency is not so far removed--the book is so overwrought that modern adaptations tend to enlarge upon the story as an ironic fantasy, so I can see why marketers are riding it on Twilight's tails.

kitkat203

01-13-2010, 08:19 AM

When I first saw the new Austen covers I just felt really sad. It would seem the publishers are trying to pass it off as chick lit. While I do think it is worthwhile getting readers to dip into something more meaty, I also feel that it cheapens the experience. Perhaps I'm just a bit of a snob! Having said all that, I have read all the Twilight books (I used to work in a library and liked to read what my borrowers were reading). I'll admit I enjoyed them and found I could not wait to read the next one as soon as possible. However, they will not last in my memory as Persuasion or Wuthering Heights have and will. There is something about great literature that endures and it pains me to see Wuthering Heights sold as the latest fad. Maybe I'm wrong to feel this way but it is just the way I'm made!

mal4mac

01-13-2010, 11:17 AM

I've seen publishers selling two/three packs of works on a distantly related theme to try and draw together two different classes of readers. The most inspired (?) example I saw was Roth's Sabbath's Theatre and Dante's Inferno in a Vintage two pack!

LitNetIsGreat

01-13-2010, 11:25 AM

It's just a marketing ploy: stick on a popular front cover and sell a few more books. I suppose it might encourage a few people more to read classics who wouldn't normally do so, so maybe it is not all that bad.

Lumiere

01-13-2010, 11:38 AM

I saw this as well. My initial reaction was basically "Oh my God...." But it doesn't really surprise me. Wuthering Heights has always targeted the wrong types of readers. It has been known to have some of the most horrific and misleading back cover descriptions of all time. I wish I could find an example, because they truly are hilarious.

kiki1982

01-13-2010, 11:40 AM

Well, yes, some of those make my blood boil, but only because they pass it off as something of lesser quality than it is. Reducing Wutherine Heights to a paraormal romance is a little sad... Just make a Disney-book of it then...

About Pride and Prejudice and the zombies. I liked the set up of it and the text was reasonable, but it was too expensive. I mean, 7 pounds for a fan fiction-thing of a classic you can by for 2,50 euro???? That's a little steep, isn't it? I was quite interested to read it as a joke, but it would have been a quite expensive joke. If I see it some time for a euro or so, I might just buy it, but only then.

Dark Muse

01-13-2010, 01:50 PM

Well I know, it's all bull and pretty much spitting on great works of literature. But at the same time, how else are you going to get the kids to read great works? I'm just afraid they'll be expecting another simplistic story like Twilight.

While I am all in favor of encourgaing reading, maybe people who need those kind of gimicks are not ready or do not dreserve to read those kind of works. And perhaps it is not such a bad thing if they do not read such works until they are older. Do classics really need to be pushed on young adults?

I myself did not start sersiously reading classics until after high school when I was introuded to the works through my college courses. Perhaps they should just be made aware that there are YA books of better quality than Twilight.

Jozanny

01-13-2010, 04:39 PM

While I am all in favor of encourgaing reading, maybe people who need those kind of gimicks are not ready or do not dreserve to read those kind of works. And perhaps it is not such a bad thing if they do not read such works until they are older. Do classics really need to be pushed on young adults?

Not being a mature enough reader is one thing, but deserving? Who, Dark, should get to decide what a consenting adult wants to read? I might be dismayed if a Hustler fan suddenly took a dive into Swann's Way and made a protest that Proust makes a lot of fuss over one lesbian kiss, but I would never dream of even considering that I have the authority to weigh between louts and scholars and tell the louts to get lost if they want to try the classics.

Scheherazade

01-13-2010, 06:21 PM

So, we all do judge a book by its cover then...

:p

Annamariah

01-13-2010, 06:44 PM

I've seen that edition of Wuthering Heights in bookshops too. There's a small text on the cover saying "Bella & Edward's favourite book" to sell it to Twilight fans. Bella reads it in the first book and Edward in the third one (or re-reads, they've both read it before).

I think the apple is meant to suggust temptation, and a taste of the forbidden fruit.

Without having read the books, the one that dosen't make sense to me is the 2nd one I think it is, that has the chess piece on the front. Somehow I do not think chess plays much of a role in the book.
Apple means temptation, yes.

The chess piece of the fourth book isn't random, either. Stephenie Meyer says (SLIGHT SPOILERS):

"Breaking Dawn's cover is a metaphor for Bella's progression throughout the entire saga. She began as the weakest (at least physically, when compared to vampires and werewolves) player on the board: the pawn. She ended as the strongest: the queen. In the end, it's Bella that brings about the win for the Cullens."

soundofmusic

01-13-2010, 07:17 PM

I think those who like the Twilight books for the darker aspects of the vampire and werewolf nature, and not necessarily because of their "super powers", would also be attracted to "Wuthering Heights". Really, wuthering is about the paranormal if one believes that Heathcliff is being haunted by Cathys ghost, follows her into the snow and they walk off together.

papayahed

01-13-2010, 07:24 PM

So, we all do judge a book by its cover then...

:p

:thumbs_up:lol:

Dark Muse

01-13-2010, 07:31 PM

Not being a mature enough reader is one thing, but deserving? Who, Dark, should get to decide what a consenting adult wants to read? I might be dismayed if a Hustler fan suddenly took a dive into Swann's Way and made a protest that Proust makes a lot of fuss over one lesbian kiss, but I would never dream of even considering that I have the authority to weigh between louts and scholars and tell the louts to get lost if they want to try the classics..

When did teenagers become consenting adults?

And I think you take my cynicism about teenagers in general a tad too literally. It was a bit of a sardonic joke which sprang from my personal experiences with the teenage Twilight fan base.

I happen to run a blog that deals with topics relating to vampires and other similar things, and teenage Twilight fans pepper it much to my great agitation with utterly moronic comments and it is a bit frightening how many of them seem to quite sincerely believe they too could have a real life vampire lover.

NickAdams

01-13-2010, 07:41 PM

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=411&pictureid=5998

Dark Muse

01-13-2010, 07:48 PM

Is that for real? and is that Ferdinand the bull?

Wow I really don't know what to make of that LOL

NickAdams

01-13-2010, 08:14 PM

Lol, I just put it together in photoshop. That's Fernando al right; not even Edward, nor Jacob, can rival his romanticism.

Jozanny

01-14-2010, 06:04 AM

When did teenagers become consenting adults?

And I think you take my cynicism about teenagers in general a tad too literally. It was a bit of a sardonic joke which sprang from my personal experiences with the teenage Twilight fan base.

I happen to run a blog that deals with topics relating to vampires and other similar things, and teenage Twilight fans pepper it much to my great agitation with utterly moronic comments and it is a bit frightening how many of them seem to quite sincerely believe they too could have a real life vampire lover.

I am nearly 50 and I still think it would be cool if transitioning would make me normal. Maybe you need to give those teens a break:goof:

mal4mac

01-14-2010, 07:05 AM

Vintage Love: "Middlemarch", "Possession" (Vintage Classic Twins) is another example. The one word descriptions they give these "Twins" is amusing/sad. The "inferno" two pack was labelled Vintage Sin. Vintage need to be careful, trying to sell Middlemarch as a love story is close to contravening the trades decription act (although I guess Vintage could claim there is some love interest, like in almost every novel... oops I'm now worried I've given them a new marketing ploy... Vintage Love #72: 1984/Brave New World...)

applepie

01-14-2010, 10:37 AM

I can't say that I have an issue with them using new covers, and I even like the sort of modern look on them. That said, I do think the imagery should have something to do with the story. I kind of get the rose for Romeo & Juliet, but I think a dagger would have been more fitting:)

Either way, though, I'm for anything that is encouraging kids to read. Not enough young people are reading these days, and if giving them new modern look encourages good literature to be read, then I'm all for it:D

Dark Muse

01-14-2010, 12:56 PM

I am nearly 50 and I still think it would be cool if transitioning would make me normal. Maybe you need to give those teens a break:goof:

Oh I was cynical about teenagers even when I was one.

Heathcliff

01-14-2010, 11:28 PM

Oh I was cynical about teenagers even when I was one.

Well, there are a few teenagers left who will actually read the blurb rather than looking at the picture on the front cover. I think the picture approach would word better trying to sell comic books, not much reading.

Maybe Wuthering Heights can be a little sadistic, like Heathcliff and Catherine's dead body, but I still didn't see any ghosts or vampires. They should change the cover to Hamlet again, get the Twilight fans into that.

Pecksie

01-18-2010, 05:52 PM

Hey,

Some time ago I read this Guardian article about the Twilight-like edition of WH:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/aug/19/harm-bad-book-cover

I thought it was interesting, as was the discussion that followed.

Heathcliff

01-19-2010, 12:14 AM

AimusSage

01-19-2010, 12:49 AM

It's probably been said already, but isn't the whole twilight saga about a whiny pedophiliac vampire and a girl who he says is like drugs to him, some werewolves and stuff, not really sure, only seen the first movie and never bothered with the books?

So, if Wuthering hights new editions tries to be appeal to that, it's just sad if you ask me.

Heathcliff

01-19-2010, 01:24 AM

It is a little trajic.

Of course, some of the themes (like the whiny pedophiliac vampire and a girl who he says is like drugs to him) may be normal for some people and life at Wuthering Heights and Thrusscross Grange could be absolutely ridiculous.

There is a small bit of logic behind it, but it still makes me angry.

AimusSage

01-19-2010, 01:27 AM

Dark Muse

01-19-2010, 01:28 AM

It's probably been said already, but isn't the whole twilight saga about a whiny pedophiliac vampire and a girl who he says is like drugs to him, some werewolves and stuff, not really sure, only seen the first movie and never bothered with the books?

LOL :lol: That is the best synopsis of Twilight I have ever heard!

Heathcliff

01-19-2010, 01:42 AM

The logic is flawed though... The youth of today could never appreciate a novel like wuthering heights the way they fawn over an undead weirdo that just happens to look good in a mirror... ow wait, he's a vampire, so he shouldn't even have a reflection.

Anyway, I never finished Wuthering heights myself, but that's not because I didn't like any of it. I just lost the book in another country... :goof:

I am sort of the youth of today, although I know what you mean. I liked it, but then again, I'm not exactly like the rest of my friends.

Most of my schoolmates wouldn't appreciate it. I got a few of my friends to read the first page of Wuthering Heights, that just confused them. Some have read Twilight, which they barely understood.

I've seen the first Twilight movie and it was alright, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not really into the undead.

There is death in Wuthering Heights, but they stay dead.

Wuthering Heights could be more seen as actually possible, Twilight is a little far fetched.

AimusSage

01-19-2010, 01:49 AM

I am sort of the youth of today, although I know what you mean. I liked it, but then again, I'm not exactly like the rest of my friends.

Most of my schoolmates wouldn't appreciate it. I got a few of my friends to read the first page of Wuthering Heights, that just confused them. Some have read Twilight, which they barely understood.

I've seen the first Twilight movie and it was alright, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not really into the undead.

There is death in Wuthering Heights, but they stay dead.

Wuthering Heights could be more seen as actually possible, Twilight is a little far fetched.
Twilight rapes anything and everything that is undead, it makes them into cuddly little playthings, Vampires are not to be trifled with. Even Anne Rice was better at writing vampire stories.

Heathcliff

01-19-2010, 01:56 AM

Twilight rapes anything and everything that is undead, it makes them into cuddly little playthings, Vampires are not to be trifled with. Even Anne Rice was better at writing vampire stories.

Remind me not to get on a vampire's bad side.

If it gets kids reading, it can't be that bad, even though it really doesn't do justice to the great work.

AimusSage

01-19-2010, 02:03 AM

(Blade is cool! ) :lol:

I guess it is good to get people reading, but what if they never read anything else?

Dark Muse

01-19-2010, 02:04 AM

Twilight rapes anything and everything that is undead, it makes them into cuddly little playthings, Vampires are not to be trifled with. Even Anne Rice was better at writing vampire stories.

Yes!!! My thoughts exzatly. I love the undead and I loved what Anne Rice did with the vampire, personaly I thought her Vampire Chronicles were genius. But I hate white Meyer does to the vampire.

Heathcliff

01-19-2010, 02:06 AM

I see... I'll have to look into Anne Rice.

AimusSage

01-19-2010, 02:17 AM

Yes!!! My thoughts exzatly. I love the undead and I loved what Anne Rice did with the vampire, personaly I thought her Vampire Chronicles were genius. But I hate white Meyer does to the vampire.
Yes, they were actually pretty nice to read, not that I read even close to all of them. :)

Pecksie

01-19-2010, 05:35 PM

MarkBastable

01-19-2010, 06:31 PM

The youth of today could never appreciate a novel like wuthering heights the way they fawn over an undead weirdo that just happens to look good in a mirror...

Speaking as a fifty-year-old man who was the youth of the day before yesterday, I have to say that my hackles rise whenever I see a sentence that starts, "The youth of today..."

Is your suggestion that the youth of today are inherently, congenitally stupid? In which case, the genes of the parents of today are to blame. It must have been the dope that did it.

Or maybe you think it's not their nature that makes the youth of today incapable of appreciating Wuthering Heights (capitalised, by the way), but their nurture. Their environment. In which case you'd have to say that that was the fault of the people who built the environment in which the youth of today grew up. So the guilty parties would be the adults of today.

However, don't fret over that choice, because neither applies. You'll be happy to learn that your generalisation, though bold, is flawed because

a) many of the youth of yesterday were as clueless as chimps in the Louvre. I know this, and so do you, because we grew up with them. And

b) some youths of today are completely conversant with the classics, from Homer to Amis.

My son - eighteen - has just come through a period of idolising Chekhov. He's more interested these days in Mike Leigh. His sisters - seven and five - pick holes in the plot and structure of Aliens in the Attic, and they can see the gags coming a mile off in The Wizards of Waverley Place. My eleven-year-old niece ditched Twilight, pronouncing it "stupid". I rather hope that in a year or two she'll apply the same keen critical insight to Wuthering Heights.

The thing is - the youth of today are just the same as the youth of any day.

What's difficult to reconcile is not that the kids I cite are part of the youth of today, but that we aren't. And that's what makes people write sentences that start, "The youth of today..."

Desolation

01-19-2010, 06:33 PM

Hey,

I don't think this point has been raised yet --- but are you guys automatically assuming that just because some kid, woefully misled by the crafty people at HarperCollins, happens to buy WH because he/she thinks it's got something to do with Twilight --- that kid, I say, is going to love WH?

It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. The vampire-loving kid is probably just going to read the first page, shake his/her head in bafflement, and put the book aside (perhaps with a perfunctory comment of the 'bo-oring' type). Maybe one in a thousand will love WH, and it could be argued that as long as that one in a thousand exists, then it's all worth it. But I have my doubts. Reading, like all tastes, must be educated. I don't think people who read the Meyer-type fare are going to fall for Emily Brontë just like that.That's actually a very valid point. It seems unlikely that Twilight fans will end up falling in love with Bronte. Also, you as well have just said she and her instead of he/she or his/her, as I doubt pretty flowers are going to get any guys to read Bronte or Austen.

The other day I was out shopping for my birthday, and I decided to glance at the teen section to see if it was all true, I guess I had to see it for myself. Anyways, the books were indeed in the TEEN section with nice pretty Twilightesque covers. :eek2:

Dark Muse

01-19-2010, 08:18 PM

AimusSage

01-19-2010, 09:01 PM

Speaking as a fifty-year-old man who was the youth of the day before yesterday, I have to say that my hackles rise whenever I see a sentence that starts, "The youth of today..."

Is your suggestion that the youth of today are inherently, congenitally stupid? In which case, the genes of the parents of today are to blame. It must have been the dope that did it.

Or maybe you think it's not their nature that makes the youth of today incapable of appreciating Wuthering Heights (capitalised, by the way), but their nurture. Their environment. In which case you'd have to say that that was the fault of the people who built the environment in which the youth of today grew up. So the guilty parties would be the adults of today.

However, don't fret over that choice, because neither applies. You'll be happy to learn that your generalisation, though bold, is flawed because

a) many of the youth of yesterday were as clueless as chimps in the Louvre. I know this, and so do you, because we grew up with them. And

b) some youths of today are completely conversant with the classics, from Homer to Amis.

My son - eighteen - has just come through a period of idolising Chekhov. He's more interested these days in Mike Leigh. His sisters - seven and five - pick holes in the plot and structure of Aliens in the Attic, and they can see the gags coming a mile off in The Wizards of Waverley Place. My eleven-year-old niece ditched Twilight, pronouncing it "stupid". I rather hope that in a year or two she'll apply the same keen critical insight to Wuthering Heights.

The thing is - the youth of today are just the same as the youth of any day.

What's difficult to reconcile is not that the kids I cite are part of the youth of today, but that we aren't. And that's what makes people write sentences that start, "The youth of today..."
Intriguing, what you say it that I made a generalization and it is flawed, and you are right. Considering the fact that on these boards alone are several young people who appreciate novels such as wuthering heights (written either with or without capitalization) I was fully aware that it was flawed, and use generalizations to gauge peoples reactions. Thank you for your response, I found it most intriguing. :)

As for saying I am not part of the youth of today, well, that is true, I consider myself to be an old bitter person who complains about everything in the world that does not fit into my alley. I like to do that, and I will continue to do that to spark debate.

MarkBastable

01-20-2010, 03:18 AM

I was fully aware that it was flawed, and use generalizations to gauge peoples reactions. Thank you for your response, I found it most intriguing. :)

Now that's impressive. To your average fellow LitNetter, it was almost impossible to distinguish between, on the one hand, your carefully-weighted faux generalisation constructed for experimental purposes and, on the other hand, a genuine, blunt generalisation that might have been followed by a candid 'yeah - sorry - that was a bit ill-considered'. You certainly fooled me.

Then again, I'm honoured, as I'm sure we all are here, to be regarded as a laboratory rat as part of your research into reactions to flawed argument.