Sheep are still IN
Mar. 9th, 2010 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyIf the following sounds terribly disjointed, I do apologize. I slept too long and didn't get my caffeine fix in time to stave off the withdrawal headache. Which means every thought I have is splintered by the pounding in my head. It does not bode well for cohesive thoughts.
Moving right along. Yesterday my nephew brought home the three re-released BSC books I'd been waiting for. I'll never fully understand how the book clubs work, since occasionally you'll place your order and two days pass and bam! Books. Other times you wait more than a month and the books appear. This was somewhere between in that I think it took a week for them to appear.
So, much has been made in the past over the possible changes to the series with the re-releases. Near as I can tell, they didn't really do much beyond the cosmetic. The fonts are wildly different and eventually this skews the page count (so what was once on page 25 is now on page 27), and the logo has changed so that impacts the chapter starts as well. The handwriting is different, but that also changed later in the series, so that was never set in stone, really. Also, some sentences have been reworked to make them flow a bit better. I'm not entirely sure how many because 3/4 of the way I stopped reading both versions at the same time because my right arm kept falling asleep. Bad, bad, bad fan.
Change the most obvious and anticipated: Stacey no longer has permed hair. She has it professionally "styled" and is later referred to as "incredible hair" as opposed to being permed. The only fashion change I found in the entire book was ...
Kristy's. When Kristy meets Stacey, originally she and Mary Anne are wearing their school clothes: blouses and skirts. Now Kristy is wearing jeans and sneakers, but she's still wearing a blue hair band.
That's it. All the people running around screaming, "But what of the sheep? Are sheep still in?" can now fall down dead. "Sheep," Claudia informed me witheringly, "are in." EVERY other fashion choice beyond Kristy's Meet Stacey moment is the same. I checked every single one. Stacey's hair? Styled. Stacey's weird sweatshirt material outfit with 10s all over it that even Kristy thinks is a bit... young? Still there.
Now. What you really want to know:
80s:
Still, Claudia has never been a close friend, and this year, the gap between us seems to have widened just since school started. Even though we're all seventh-graders, Claudia suddenly seemed... older. She talks about boys and spends most of her time adding to her wardrobe and talking on the phone. In the short time since school started, she's become a different person.
2010:
Over the summer, it had started to feel like Claudia was drifting apart from Mary Anne and me. Even though we were all going into seventh grade, Claudia suddenly seemed... older. She started caring about boys and her wardrobe and talking on the phone. We'd all made up at the end of the summer, but it still felt like we were going in different directions.
This change I'm going to chalk up to a bit of series ret-con given that the only new-new BSC book to come out deals with the summer BEFORE the BSC comes into being.
80's:
"No, honestly, Claud. You don't need make-up. You've got such a beautiful face..."
"Oh, you just think it's exotic," said Claudia.
Well, maybe I do. Claudia's parents...
2010:
"No, honestly, Claud. You don't need makeup. You've got such a beautiful face..."
"Nice try," said Claudia.
Claudia's parents...
Claud's no longer exotic, and I actually like the new way better. It reads as funny, although there's no real transition to "Claud is Japanese American". But I cracked a big grin when I first read the new version so I say it's a winner. Your mileage may vary.
80's:
She was very pretty, tall and quite thin with huge blue eyes framed by dark lashes, and fluffy blonde hair that looked as if it had been permed recently. I glanced at Mary Anne. She and I were still in our school clothes- skirts and blouses. I was wearing white knee socks and loafers. Mary Anne was wearing short white socks and saddle shoes. Mary Anne's hair was, of course, in braids, and I was wearing a blue hair band.
We looked like second-graders. Stacey and Claudia looked like models.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
2010:
She was very pretty, tall and quite thin with huge blue eyes framed by dark lashes, and fluffy blonde hair that looked as if it had been styled recently. I glanced at Mary Anne. She and I were still in our school clothes. I was wearing jeans and sneakers. Mary Anne was wearing a skirt and saddle shoes. Mary Anne's hair was, of course, in braids, and I was wearing a blue hair band.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
This sort of illustrates how other, subtle changes appear in the book. The jab at second graders? Taken out, possibly due to the fact that Kristy is wearing what a lot of kids who are the recommended reading level would be wearing if given the chance. (I don't know how wide-spread the uniform epidemic is, but all the schools around here are in uniforms these days.)
Also, this way you can get the styled/permed difference.
80's:
"My mom and dad buy my clothes, but I have to earn money for other things-you know, tapes and jewelry and stuff." - Stacey.
2010:
"My mom and dad buy my clothes, but I have to earn money for other things-you know, CDs and jewelry and stuff." - still Stacey.
See that? That's one of the only times I'm going to go to the trouble of typing out a really simple swap/update. The other times I'm going to be lazy. Like this:
Originally, Kristy offers to have her mother Xerox the fliers at work, but the update just has her offering to have her mother make copies at work.
What, does Xerox make you pay for name-dropping them? Who knows. I will say that some things that were capitalized in the original aren't and some are now worthy of it when they weren't before. Fudgecicles for one.
When Kristy is being a brat to Watson about G.I. Joes and things, she makes a snide comment about what toys Karen probably plays with that Watson is unaware of because dude. The man hires babysitters an awful lot for someone who only sees his kids on weekends and every other holiday. Originally Kristy says Karen probably has a Rainbow Brite doll, but the new version switches it to a My Little Pony, but it's still called a doll. Which is just dumb. Dolls and ponies are completely different. Have the 80's taught us nothing?! *cough*
During one of Claudia's candy excavations, she unearths something from behind her encyclopedias in the original, but now it seems she only has one.
When Kristy gets the idea to have a pizza party to celebrate how well the Club is doing, originally we're told the amount the club members have earned thus far is $26.75. In the new book, we'll never know what number Kristy considers to be "not bad" because we are never told. However, apparently someone believes that a pizza is the same price it was back in the 80's, as they still only chip in three dollars each towards a pizza.
Because my scanner does not work with this computer, I took pictures of the cosmetic changes. Behold!
Front:
Not that you really needed a reminder, but hey. Behold the love given to that KGI. The love, I tell you. Those scratches are probably due to my freakish fascination with comparing all the covers of _some character_ to see how they differed from one book to the next. I really don't care one way or the other about the new design. I like the notebook and the dice remind me of the various games they came out with over the years. (seriously, don't I own those dice somewhere?)
Back:
Gotta tell you, I like the only an idiot could miss it cover design/art credits, but it doesn't seem like the BSC without the names at the top. It's like they expect little kids to read the books and remember who does what. The shock!
Chapter One: Classic
Chapter One: New
I prefer the old logo. New font is a little big but that just means I squint less and the page numbers eventually don't match.
Kristy's Big Idea in List Form:
And now it's handwritten:
A Logo is Born:
New:
Original Flyers:
I don't know why they took off the girls' individual numbers. It seems lacking somehow.
Claudia's Handwriting:
New:
Stacey's:
New:
Moving right along. Yesterday my nephew brought home the three re-released BSC books I'd been waiting for. I'll never fully understand how the book clubs work, since occasionally you'll place your order and two days pass and bam! Books. Other times you wait more than a month and the books appear. This was somewhere between in that I think it took a week for them to appear.
So, much has been made in the past over the possible changes to the series with the re-releases. Near as I can tell, they didn't really do much beyond the cosmetic. The fonts are wildly different and eventually this skews the page count (so what was once on page 25 is now on page 27), and the logo has changed so that impacts the chapter starts as well. The handwriting is different, but that also changed later in the series, so that was never set in stone, really. Also, some sentences have been reworked to make them flow a bit better. I'm not entirely sure how many because 3/4 of the way I stopped reading both versions at the same time because my right arm kept falling asleep. Bad, bad, bad fan.
Change the most obvious and anticipated: Stacey no longer has permed hair. She has it professionally "styled" and is later referred to as "incredible hair" as opposed to being permed. The only fashion change I found in the entire book was ...
Kristy's. When Kristy meets Stacey, originally she and Mary Anne are wearing their school clothes: blouses and skirts. Now Kristy is wearing jeans and sneakers, but she's still wearing a blue hair band.
That's it. All the people running around screaming, "But what of the sheep? Are sheep still in?" can now fall down dead. "Sheep," Claudia informed me witheringly, "are in." EVERY other fashion choice beyond Kristy's Meet Stacey moment is the same. I checked every single one. Stacey's hair? Styled. Stacey's weird sweatshirt material outfit with 10s all over it that even Kristy thinks is a bit... young? Still there.
Now. What you really want to know:
80s:
Still, Claudia has never been a close friend, and this year, the gap between us seems to have widened just since school started. Even though we're all seventh-graders, Claudia suddenly seemed... older. She talks about boys and spends most of her time adding to her wardrobe and talking on the phone. In the short time since school started, she's become a different person.
2010:
Over the summer, it had started to feel like Claudia was drifting apart from Mary Anne and me. Even though we were all going into seventh grade, Claudia suddenly seemed... older. She started caring about boys and her wardrobe and talking on the phone. We'd all made up at the end of the summer, but it still felt like we were going in different directions.
This change I'm going to chalk up to a bit of series ret-con given that the only new-new BSC book to come out deals with the summer BEFORE the BSC comes into being.
80's:
"No, honestly, Claud. You don't need make-up. You've got such a beautiful face..."
"Oh, you just think it's exotic," said Claudia.
Well, maybe I do. Claudia's parents...
2010:
"No, honestly, Claud. You don't need makeup. You've got such a beautiful face..."
"Nice try," said Claudia.
Claudia's parents...
Claud's no longer exotic, and I actually like the new way better. It reads as funny, although there's no real transition to "Claud is Japanese American". But I cracked a big grin when I first read the new version so I say it's a winner. Your mileage may vary.
80's:
She was very pretty, tall and quite thin with huge blue eyes framed by dark lashes, and fluffy blonde hair that looked as if it had been permed recently. I glanced at Mary Anne. She and I were still in our school clothes- skirts and blouses. I was wearing white knee socks and loafers. Mary Anne was wearing short white socks and saddle shoes. Mary Anne's hair was, of course, in braids, and I was wearing a blue hair band.
We looked like second-graders. Stacey and Claudia looked like models.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
2010:
She was very pretty, tall and quite thin with huge blue eyes framed by dark lashes, and fluffy blonde hair that looked as if it had been styled recently. I glanced at Mary Anne. She and I were still in our school clothes. I was wearing jeans and sneakers. Mary Anne was wearing a skirt and saddle shoes. Mary Anne's hair was, of course, in braids, and I was wearing a blue hair band.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
This sort of illustrates how other, subtle changes appear in the book. The jab at second graders? Taken out, possibly due to the fact that Kristy is wearing what a lot of kids who are the recommended reading level would be wearing if given the chance. (I don't know how wide-spread the uniform epidemic is, but all the schools around here are in uniforms these days.)
Also, this way you can get the styled/permed difference.
80's:
"My mom and dad buy my clothes, but I have to earn money for other things-you know, tapes and jewelry and stuff." - Stacey.
2010:
"My mom and dad buy my clothes, but I have to earn money for other things-you know, CDs and jewelry and stuff." - still Stacey.
See that? That's one of the only times I'm going to go to the trouble of typing out a really simple swap/update. The other times I'm going to be lazy. Like this:
Originally, Kristy offers to have her mother Xerox the fliers at work, but the update just has her offering to have her mother make copies at work.
What, does Xerox make you pay for name-dropping them? Who knows. I will say that some things that were capitalized in the original aren't and some are now worthy of it when they weren't before. Fudgecicles for one.
When Kristy is being a brat to Watson about G.I. Joes and things, she makes a snide comment about what toys Karen probably plays with that Watson is unaware of because dude. The man hires babysitters an awful lot for someone who only sees his kids on weekends and every other holiday. Originally Kristy says Karen probably has a Rainbow Brite doll, but the new version switches it to a My Little Pony, but it's still called a doll. Which is just dumb. Dolls and ponies are completely different. Have the 80's taught us nothing?! *cough*
During one of Claudia's candy excavations, she unearths something from behind her encyclopedias in the original, but now it seems she only has one.
When Kristy gets the idea to have a pizza party to celebrate how well the Club is doing, originally we're told the amount the club members have earned thus far is $26.75. In the new book, we'll never know what number Kristy considers to be "not bad" because we are never told. However, apparently someone believes that a pizza is the same price it was back in the 80's, as they still only chip in three dollars each towards a pizza.
Because my scanner does not work with this computer, I took pictures of the cosmetic changes. Behold!
Front:
Not that you really needed a reminder, but hey. Behold the love given to that KGI. The love, I tell you. Those scratches are probably due to my freakish fascination with comparing all the covers of _some character_ to see how they differed from one book to the next. I really don't care one way or the other about the new design. I like the notebook and the dice remind me of the various games they came out with over the years. (seriously, don't I own those dice somewhere?)
Back:
Gotta tell you, I like the only an idiot could miss it cover design/art credits, but it doesn't seem like the BSC without the names at the top. It's like they expect little kids to read the books and remember who does what. The shock!
Chapter One: Classic
Chapter One: New
I prefer the old logo. New font is a little big but that just means I squint less and the page numbers eventually don't match.
Kristy's Big Idea in List Form:
And now it's handwritten:
A Logo is Born:
New:
Original Flyers:
I don't know why they took off the girls' individual numbers. It seems lacking somehow.
Claudia's Handwriting:
New:
Stacey's:
New: