Gossip Girls

This book wasn’t what I expected. I thought that it would only be an entertaining story about the glamorous lives of young rich teens in the city living like they were 25. I thought I would find it a little shallow and unrealistic in its portrayal of the teens living the high life in New York city and there would be little that teens not living that life would really be able to relate to. I was wrong. I don’t know if it is because I am an older woman reading this book and not a teen, but there was a constant sadness that I couldn’t get away from. Here were these characters who seemed to have everything that a teenager could dream of: money, popularity, perfect looks, great clothes (I didn’t know half of the designers but they sounded impressive). But their lives were still extremely complicated and hard despite all of their advantages. There were so many different mini drama tornadoes through the entire book that I could fill the whole posting with the different issues brought up by Cecily von Zieger, who seems to sound like she may have been similar to the Serena character in her own life. There was love, sex, drugs, alcohol, bulimia, sexuality, divorce, smoking, body image, popularity, and so on. I felt like I was in some kind of crazy soap opera New York where life was never as perfect as it seemed.

I was talking with a friend of mine who has two teenage daughters one morning at work about the Gossip Girl series and television show. She was saying how she would never tell her teenagers not to read it, but she hoped that they never would. I told her that it wasn’t what she thought and that the book would be a great way to open up conversations about a number of issues that her teenagers may be dealing with and that it was actually a very sad book. She said that she could see my point of view, but that she thought that I would be able to see that the lives of the characters in the book were sad because I am older and have more experiences. She said that most teenagers she knows, including her children to a certain extent, would admire the fabulous lives that these teens were living and wouldn’t see the unpleasant things that I was seeing. She feels that are no real strong female characters or celebrities out there for teenagers and a book series like this only reinforces that. She said that there are teenagers who are actually looking up eating disorders on the web because they want to have one. I still tried to argue that she should have her girls read it and then talk to them about the book making sure that some of the messages cleverly weaved between Tiffany’s and vacations in Sun Valley wouldn’t be lost on them. We continued to disagree and discuss until we realized that we were never going to come to an agreement. I will be giving her this book to read on her own on Monday and she said she would at least give it a chance and read it herself but she wouldn’t pass it on to her kids.

While I can understand where she is coming from, I still don’t agree. I think that the snippets of the television program that she has seen may have something to do with it, but I have also only seen snippets so I don’t know. I will be interested to see what other people thought of this book tomorrow in class. I for one was pleasantly surprised.

Grace After Midnight

This book was another somewhat difficult read. I read this book as if it were fiction instead of non-fiction. It was only when she began talking about being on The Wire and I did a Google search for her that she became real for me. While searching around the web, I found this interesting interview that she did for Fader magazine to promote her character on The Wire. http://www.thefader.com/articles/2006/12/05/listening-in-part-i. I also found a quote online from a New York Times article that said “Stephen King, in Entertainment Weekly, called her “perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series.” and she was playing a character that was similar to her own life and the show somewhat mirrors and is filmed where she grew up. Once, I started to extra research about her, I found that I just wanted to more and more. I wanted to make sure she was real.

I think that teens would probably do the same thing. The Wire is one of the most talked about and popular shows on television and DVD. I have multiple people suggest that I watch it and the video store where I used to work can hardly keep it on the shelves. She is a celebrity and during her time on the show it seemed that everyone wanted an interview with her because her story is so interesting. I think it is great that she shared it as a novel. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up as a movie.

It is still amazing to me that her real life almost read like a movie or a television show. I kept thinking this stuff couldn’t really be happening, no one’s life can really be like this. I wonder if teens would also read it this way, especially teens that are growing up in rural and suburban settings. I wonder if it would read like they were watching an episode of The Wire or Law and Order. The one thing that I thought was too good to be true was the fact that she survived it all and was able to get a job as an actress on a show like The Wire. I know this is non-fiction and I know that she probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to share her story otherwise, but it still stuck with me in a strange way.

Teen Television?

A friend told me that I would get to watch television for homework for this class. As a very open television junkie, I was extremely excited for this week in the semester. I read the list of suggested shows and saw a couple favorites like Chuck and Project Runway (though I didn’t watch this past season because of school work). After I got over my excitement about having an excuse to sit and zone out in front of the television, I started to really think about the examples given.

I had never really thought of Chuck as a show for teens. Initially, it was just the show on before Heroes (which I would have thought of as more of a teen show), and then it became that show I wouldn’t miss for anything. I don’t know why I don’t think of it as a show for teens. I can see now after some thought that the characters are witty, yet very vulnerable in their own way. Teens could definitely identify with the feelings that Chuck has about being attracted to the woman he works with and the animosity he feels for the guy who got him kicked out of school. Marshall is an extremely likable character who never quite fits in but is always himself with moments of an almost a naive lack of personal awareness. I think that it had never registered until this class that teens may identify with the characters on a broader scope and not in the pigeon hole I had them in because they were mid-to late twenty somethings and working, not going to school. I also missed the obvious technology aspect to the show. There are tons of cool gadgets on Chuck as well as simple everyday gadgets like televisions and computers. Also, there is often a scene with one of the characters playing a video game or referencing a video game.

This made me look at another show that I would have said was a show for teens, Freaks and Geeks. While I think this show is still a good show for teens to watch because of the struggles that Lindsay and Sam go through. Lindsay is a “geek” who is trying to transform her into a “freak” and will do anything to be accepted into that group. And Sam is a freshman who is struggling with not “being a little kid” any more. I think that teens could identify with some of the characters on the show and some of the choices they have to make. But I know part of the reason I enjoyed this show were some of the things that reminded me of the time period I grew up during. I’m not that many teens now would appreciate Bill’s love of the show Dallas and Nick’s obsession with Styx or Ken’s hilarious laser show date. I don’t know if these references would be too much and loose the teen in the time period or if the teen would want to watch the show because it is one of the most honest representations of what it is like to go through high school that I have ever seen.

In the end, I think a show isn’t a teen show or an adult show. Different shows, like books, are going to attract different people with different likes and dislikes.