questions for you, dear snarkers!

[heymalice]

first off, please let me know if me posting this here is inapproriate! i have a few questions about some observations i made while re-reading the first few books&i thought you guys might have the answers&if not the answers, than at least some funny responses

Comments

[anonymous]

Honest question for you all: Why do you think these discrepancies were allowed to happen? For the most part, they were minor - it's not like Kristy's name changed to "Martha" or something - but they still existed. I understand the writers had a reference book for the characters and were also pumping out these books fairly frequently at the height of the series' popularity, but it's still surprising the discrepancies slipped through.

[heymalice]

i honestly don't know. i know even with editing sometimes mistakes can slip passed, from my own editing experience, but considering how big the series was that is a good question. i think maybe they were all just so under the gun when it came for time that sometimes the editing just wasn't as good as it should've been. but then, when the series was largely written by ghostwriters, each book went through at least three people - ann writing up a basic draft of what would happen, ghostwriter writing the manuscript (i'm assuming a couple of drafts of each manuscript if done right)&then the editor. maybe ann looking it over after thr ghostwriter wrote it before getting to the editor, even. so yeah, it'd have at least three sets of eyes, so how all those things got by is strange. probably just how fast they were cranking the books out. still, its not like the fans didn't notice!

[imamaryanne]

The series was in the thirties before Scholastic decided they needed a BSC bible to keep track of things. Evidently, they got letters from little girls complaining about things (like the name changes, and even about Marnie Barrett being allergic to strawberries in one scene, and eating strawberries a little later.)

So they hired an intern to create a bible, which eventually became the guide.

Fun fact: That intern was David Levithan.

[heymalice]

ooooh, thanks for the info! i didn't know when they decided to do that or why. that's really cool! :)

[anonymous]

If you also look at sitcoms during the '80s and '90s, continuity wasn't an huge consideration. Every episode existed within itself and it was like an etch a sketch at the end of each episode; like it never existed. I feel like because these books wound up having a much longer run then was first thought, they began to adapt a similar model. They had some permanents, but the rest were just separate episodes that weren't always connected to each other.

[joykilldrama]

Marnie was allergic to chocolate, not strawberries. One of the Marshalls (I think it was Eleanor) was the one allergic to strawberries. (Book #3 on Marnie, #4 on Marshalls).

Damnit we should be the one writing the Complete Guide. We all know the series better than the writers.

[heymalice]

true dat. we could write a complete guide AND totally edit the series properly, since they did such a shit job before. lol.

[heymalice]

i read dawn&the impossible three today¬iced something fucked!

in one chapter, i believe where dawn first sits for the barretts, marnie starts eating some m&m's while they are speed ckeaning the house. but then waay later at the picnic with the pikes is when mallory brings up marnie being allergic to chocolate&how she could get sick if she ate any.

but...but...she ate m&m's&was fine just a few chapters before? ann, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!