WORD: The Official Blog of READ and WRITING magazines

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Another 'Gone With the Wind' Sequel. Boo! Hiss!

I'd like to report a crime.

Not a murder or anything. No, no. Nothing like that. But a crime against decency.

Have you read Gone With the Wind? If you haven't, you should. It is only the greatest book ever! No lie. The. Greatest. Book. Ever. It's about a million pages long, but it's got romance and drama and passion. The story of a ... OK, I don't even want to spoil it for you if you haven't read it. You just have to read it. It's that good. Even if you haven't read it, or seen the amazing movie, I'm sure you can quote from it. Ever said, "As God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again"? You have, don't deny it.

In the 90's someone felt it was necessary to write a sequel, called Scarlett. This was not the greatest book ever. It probably wasn't even the greatest book of the week. Scarlett told what happened to Scarlett O'Hara after everything that happened in the first book.

Meh.

I mean, yeah, I read it because I loved GWTW. But it was completely unnecessary. It wasn't even by the same author, because, well, Margaret Mitchell, GWTW's author, was dead. For almost 50 years. But I Donald McCaig wrote Rhett, the new sequel to GWTW. digress.

So, after we thought we could all put this Scarlett mess behind us and just enjoy GWTW, they have to go and do it again. According to an article on CNN, Daniel McCaig, a former advertising copywriter turned Virginian sheep herder and supposed Civil War "expert" wrote another sequel (really prequel, actually, really none of those things, I don't know). This time it's from Rhett's point of view, and it's called, obviously, Rhett. Rhett Butler is Scarlett O'Hara's love ... never mind. Read GWTW if you don't know who Rhett Butler is.

I am not happy.

I'm sure it'll be decent. And I'm sure I'll read it. But why? Why? Why take away even more from GWTW?

Well, fiddle-dee-dee!

Are you excited for this book? Do you like reading stories from other characters' points of view?

Or are you like me, and when you heard of this you just thought, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a ..."

Posted by
Jessica
on 11/1/2007
8:21 PM

11/2/2007 1:02:18 PM UTC

I never read GWTW but the movie was a classic! I do own the book though and plan to read it someday in the near future (before 2010 anyway).

Nice use of ellipses at the end there, by the way.
:)

Bry

11/3/2007 3:15:50 AM UTC

My high school girlfriends and I used to read GWTW aloud to each other on the beach, each taking a turn for a few pages. (That was in the days before sunscreen. Atlanta burned, we burned. ) Great book, great movie. (There's a reason no one's ever remade that movie!) I'm with you, Jess. Prequel, sequel, or different-point-of-viewquel, they can't be as good. Though... the concept of the story as seen through Rhett's eyes is interesting. Ah, Clark Gable. Swoon.

Deb

11/10/2007 5:58:50 PM UTC

I've never read GWTW. I agree, however with the fact that sequels and prequels can pretty much ruin a book...happens a lot with movies too. If you want to read another really good book read Artemis Fowl. Very cool article.

Dickinson

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