I did a binge of the Enid Blyton boarding school books a while back, too. There are sequels now, but I haven't tackled those yet (mainly because the idea that someone gets paid to write Enid Blyton fanfic makes me seethe with jealousy)
Hee. I'm glad it's not just me. I haven't tried the ones written by anyone else, either. I'm not sure they'd feel right :/ Occasionally I've come across the modernised/censored versions of one of two of the Famous Five books, and the characters feel wrong - the change in language throws the whole thing off! Julian calling Dick 'stupid' instead of 'fathead' or 'ass' just isn't right at all. The funny old slang is half the fun to me, lol. Still, I imagine some modern kids would wonder why Julian kept calling his brother an asshole ;)
Argh, I hate that. The Magic Faraway Tree's been totally rewritten (Dick, Bess and Fanny are now Rick, Beth and Franny, and Dame Slap is Dame Snap who doesn't hit naughty children, she shouts at them.) They've decimalised the currency in some of the new editions too; not just in Blyton, either. I saw a post a while back by someone complaining that her favourite line in Paddington - the bus driver's "Bears is sixpence. Sticky bears is ninepence." - had been changed to "Bears is extra. Sticky bears is extra again." Obviously kiddies' brains would explode if they had to grapple with complicated things like old money.
Richard Adams, I think! (Although a Douglas Adams comedy sci-fi version would be amazing)
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