Softcore Incest

[morrigirl]

While purchasing a much beloved yoga workout DVD the other day in Waldenbooks I noticed a copy of "Flowers in the Attic" in their recommended reading display. What struck me about this wasn't that someone thought it was good enough to put in a recommended reading display, but that the book has a new cover design. I read it back in 1991 when it still had the blue cover art with the house and the four kids in the window. The new art work is a far cry from those days. It shows a close up of a gorgeous blond teenage couple in a field leaning in to kiss each other. A big looming white mansion can be seen between them in the distance. There is sun filtering down from above, highlighting their perfect cornsilk tresses. It looks like the cover of a very innocent coming of age love story. I was disgusted.

"Ew!" I thought to myself. "That's false advertising."

Then I felt the overwhelming urge to announce to anyone in the store who didn't already know: "THEY'RE BROTHER AND SISTER! HE RAPES HER! THE ENTIRE BOOK REVOLVES AROUND THEIR INCESTUOUS RELATIONSHIP THAT TAKES ROOT IN THE ATTIC OF THEIR GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE WHERE THEIR MOTHER HAS LOCKED THEM AWAY TO DIE! THERE'S NOTHING SWEET ABOUT THAT!"

I really wonder whose brilliant idea it was to depict Chris and Cathy in puppy love on the cover? Don't they know that hundreds of hormonally ravaged eleven year old girls read this book every year? Do they really want to be promoting incest? Not that there's anything wrong with mutuallly consentual and loving sexual relationships, but your life will probably be a lot easier if you aren't sleeping with your brother. it's a good thing my brother wasn't living with us the year I read that book. I might have gotten ideas.

I went through a period in junior high school where all I did was write letters to my favorite authors, V. C. Andrews being one of them. (I was twelve, whaddya want?) I wrote to her care of Simon & Schuster several times, each time getting the same form letter in return. I kept writing. I had all sorts of questions about her. When was she born? What did the C. stand for? (I knew the V stood for Virginia.) Was she ever molested as a child? Is that why she wrote almost exclusively about rape and incest? Eventually the form letters began coming back with little hand written messages in the margins which essentially said, "Hey kid, she's dead. Stop writing us." Looking back on it my behavior seems oddly stalkerish. It didn't seem weird at the time. My only friends were my books and I felt a strong connection to particulat characters and writers. I just wanted to find out more about the people I loved. But I did stop writing letters to the editorial assistants at Simon & Schuster. I started up a correspondence with L.J. Smith, a young adult author who not only wasn't dead, but was very fond of becoming pen pals with her fans. The first package she sent me included a free signed copy of her next novel and a hand written note apologizing for the delayed response and answering each and every question I'd asked in my letter. We continued writing each other for a couple years after that before the demands on her time prevented her from keeping up.

My boss is out sick today so I'm trying my damndest to keep busy. There's nothing to file. I've finished the massive I:Drive project I've been working on. I've been sitting here all day playing poker on Neopets and losing miserably. Which sucks because I'm usually pretty good at poker. Good for a novice that is. I remember the first time I ever played poker. It was fourth of July 1995 and I was hanging out with my asshole metal head ex-boyfriend Adam in Little Ferry with some of his crazy Wiccan High Priestess friends. Trying to kill time before the fireworks, we went over the someone's house and decided to play strip poker. The rules were that jewelry would count as an article of clothing, which was good for the other players because they were all walking ring displays, but not so good for me. I was wearing the least out of everyone, 7 items total: a pair of sandels, jeans, a t-shirt, a bra, panties, and a necklace. I won that game because I had to. Because if I'd lost all six hands I would have been half nude by the time we finished up. As I recall I only lost one sandel.

One of my co-workers will be leaving us come fall and today they held a goodbye luncheon for her. Free food. I went over to Westlands and grabbed a plate, then came back here to man the phones. While I was over there I saw Josh, the way hot student aide who works in the Annex. He's crazy tall, has a shaved head that he always wears a bandana over, and wears nifty shiney button down shirts. I have yet to work up the nerve to talk to him which is just as well cause sometimes it's just nice to have eye candy.

Comments

[ninquark.livejournal.com]

I was pen-pals with an author of a book when I was younger as well. I wrote to the author of Stonewords: A Ghost Story, Pam Conrad, and she and I wrote back and forth for a while when I was about 11 years old. She was very friendly.

I should read that book again. It's not very long, and now that I think about it, it was the book that first caught my interest in Ghost Stories, Horror and flowery texts.

I have never heard of Flowers in the Attic, but the change in cover seems hilarious to me. ;)