(reprinted from Chicago Tribune blogs)
An insult to teen intelligence or shameless grasp of Twilight coattails?
Name: Heathcliff
Sex: Male
Hometown: Yorkshire
Relationship status: It’s Complicated
Interested in: Women
Looking for: A Relationship
That’s one of the “extras” in the new HarperTeen edition of Wuthering Heights which boasts “Bella & Edward’s Favorite Book” on the cover.
At least Emily Bronte didn’t get the same dumb-down as Shakespeare. Guess words that have withstood the test of time don’t have a chance against relentless dumb-down.
On the same star-crossed lovers theme, the new Romeo & Juliet features a hip retelling – and it reminded me more of bad version of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones than anything else.
Any other candidates for Facebookization?
1 comment:
Actually, this approach is brilliant in my opinion. Slickly packaged to appeal to the Twilight crowd and yet retaining the basic storyline, this version utilizes Twilight to encourage teens to read some classic literature!
As for the 'dumbing-down' as you call it... Let's face it. Wuthering Heights is rather difficult to plow through. I'm an English major and I read 300+ books a year, including original classic literature, but even I found it a little daunting. Now, thanks to this version, maybe I'll enjoy the original as well.
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