Things that are for kids are not for me, with the exceptions of Life cereal and anything from a 25-cent machine with a crank.
So it was with a lot of fear that I tried out the Wimpy Kid books.
Honestly, there's a weird throwback, nostalgia thing that people about my age seem very into at this point, and it's not working for me. I can't really get into Finding Nemo. It's not because I think there's no way to hit those emotional points in animation, but because when the emotional low-point is blunted by an elephant hitting a camel with a surfboard, it's pretty hard for me to take seriously. If you took a good sad movie, like the Wrestler, and added in five seconds where he meets a little kid who runs up and punches him in the nuts for comic relief, it would kill the entire movie. But if a cartoon old man's wife has a miscarriage, it's somehow still okay to watch him use a flamingo as a sword.
Movies, TV, books, anything that is intended for children is almost always unsatisfying for me.
Calvin and Hobbes was always an exception. That never felt like it was for kids, to me. It felt like it captured what it was like to BE a kid, something that had been done before, but usually in a schmaltzy way like a dumb little kid asking his mom a question about whether or not god has a better beard than Santa.
Maybe it had something to do with the kind of kid it captured. Maybe there were kids out there who liked going to school and who played baseball b choice. But that wasn't me.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid definitely pushes those same buttons for me, too. It makes you laugh a little, the drawings are funny, and it's doesn't sound like someone speaking to a child and explaining everything.
Also, and this is a big one today, it doesn't take itself too seriously. We don't have to learn a life lesson along with the main character every time. Sometimes he pulls off a stunt and gets away without consequences, sometimes not. The main character can be a complete asshole sometimes, and he's not tied in to modeling perfect behavior all the time.
And you know what? He's right. Maybe it's not good for kids to play a prank on one classmate where they all pretend he's invisible, but if that's the behavior kids are modeling, oh well. I think we'll be fine.
So it was with a lot of fear that I tried out the Wimpy Kid books.
Honestly, there's a weird throwback, nostalgia thing that people about my age seem very into at this point, and it's not working for me. I can't really get into Finding Nemo. It's not because I think there's no way to hit those emotional points in animation, but because when the emotional low-point is blunted by an elephant hitting a camel with a surfboard, it's pretty hard for me to take seriously. If you took a good sad movie, like the Wrestler, and added in five seconds where he meets a little kid who runs up and punches him in the nuts for comic relief, it would kill the entire movie. But if a cartoon old man's wife has a miscarriage, it's somehow still okay to watch him use a flamingo as a sword.
Movies, TV, books, anything that is intended for children is almost always unsatisfying for me.
Calvin and Hobbes was always an exception. That never felt like it was for kids, to me. It felt like it captured what it was like to BE a kid, something that had been done before, but usually in a schmaltzy way like a dumb little kid asking his mom a question about whether or not god has a better beard than Santa.
Maybe it had something to do with the kind of kid it captured. Maybe there were kids out there who liked going to school and who played baseball b choice. But that wasn't me.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid definitely pushes those same buttons for me, too. It makes you laugh a little, the drawings are funny, and it's doesn't sound like someone speaking to a child and explaining everything.
Also, and this is a big one today, it doesn't take itself too seriously. We don't have to learn a life lesson along with the main character every time. Sometimes he pulls off a stunt and gets away without consequences, sometimes not. The main character can be a complete asshole sometimes, and he's not tied in to modeling perfect behavior all the time.
And you know what? He's right. Maybe it's not good for kids to play a prank on one classmate where they all pretend he's invisible, but if that's the behavior kids are modeling, oh well. I think we'll be fine.
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