Short of pacing and biting my nails, I haven’t gotten much done the past hour, so I may as well let you in on something Beverly Cleary said that’s been on my mind. Cleary, 90, is facing the option of her very first novel going to celluloid. Her novels have, since 1950 when she published the first, stayed steadily in print. She’s never been a millionaire, but she’s written good books, steadily. (Oh, how I want someday for someone to say that about me!!)
Moviemakers are now looking at Ramona and Her Father for a film. Instead of being gleeful about a Ramona Quimby movie, Cleary is…thoughtful. She’s not sure it’s a good thing. She said she understands why people have toys and such as tie-in to children’s books, but she’s “not interested in making kids into consumers.”
Can I get a witness, here?
Mrs. Cleary says she is making sure that this Ramona movie is done properly so she “doesn’t turn into a plastic miniature inside a kid’s fast-food restaurant meal.”
As our friend Seren might say, “Word to Mrs. Cleary.” Down with marketing to kids! Up with great books they can get from the library.
And now back to …work
Interesting that they’re contemplating a movie when there’s already a TV series out there, starring an actress no less awesome than a young Sarah Polley.
And thanks for the shoutout. I’m pretty sure that, once anything resembling slang has made its way to me, it’s officially 30 minutes past the eulogy on it. For example, “shoutout” itself is currently being studied by archeologists. 🙂
Oh,snap, how’d I miss that? I wonder when the series ended – it says it came out in 1988, which, in Movie Time, means there should be a remake just about… now. We have no new ideas, after all…(OY, Charlotte’s Web!)
Heh. I’m sure you know my use of ‘snap’ was just to out-hip you. I prefer post-eulogized slang; I feel less of an idiot that way. Plus, certain YA editors don’t like it, I was told.
Tragically, I must inform you that I have been known to say “Oh, snap!” in the past.
We are soooo contemporary, you and I.
I remember watching an episode or two of the series, even though I was a teenager by then, so great was my enduring love for Ramona. Ramona rocks.
Oh, and reviewing that earlier M&C post, I see that you and I are both planning to add the phrase “mark-ass” to our everyday vocabulary.
We can call the movie version the mark-ass Ramona.
I feel so with-it right now I can hardly speak.
Oh my god. I’m so out of it I don’t even know what “mark-ass” means, and I was thinking a few weeks ago that “oh, snap” was going to have to make it out of my mouth a few times. (Then again, a few weeks is about how long slang seems to last these days, at least on TV, my major source of it…)