American Girl: Time Travel Edition

[osprey_archer]

I got my holiday American Girl catalog this week (I requested two years ago for my research project, and they have assiduously sent them to me ever since despite the fact that I never buy anything. Thank you, American Girl!), and got the surprise of my life when I opened it, because -

Well, two reasons.

First! They've brought back Samantha Parkington. Yes! The previously retired Samantha has returned. This was nice.

And second. They've redesigned all the historical dolls' clothes. This was appalling. I don't deal well with change. And I don't think this has happened ever. And it looks like they must have redone the illustrations to match, too, because they've put out new editions of the books (omnibus editions, three books in each volume. I have always disapproved of omnibuses. Omnibi?)

And! And! As if this were not enough, they've released a new book for each series: a modern day girl travels through time to visit the historical character!

Yes. American Girl has written its own visitor-from-the-modern-world fanfic. Is that even allowed?

Of course I needed to investigate. So I got the Samantha book out of the library. It's called The Lilac Tunnel, and I figured that the lilac tunnel would be the medium of time transportation, because that has a pleasantly mystical sound to it, and time travel out to be pleasantly mystical when it's not pretending to be scientific, shouldn't it?

Reader, I was wrong. The lilac tunnel is of barely more than incidental importance to the story; the actual medium of time travel is a locket, which probably could be mystical (although not, she says darkly, as mystical as a lilac tunnel. THE PERFECT MEDIUM FOR TIME TRAVEL WAS RIGHT THERE IN THE TITLE, HOW COULD YOU MISS IT?) but wasn't particularly. And! And! The whole thing was choose-your-own-adventure style, which means that none of the story lines were all that well developed, and they ended rather anticlimactically too. The heroine reopens the locket and goes back home. Without any apparent intention of ever returning! I mean really.

And also the whole thing rather requires flattening out Samantha's character, so she's very friendly and...that's about it, really. She's very friendly and a pleasure to meet and completely anodyne, and it's really rather dull.

Not only have they written their own visitor-from-the-modern-world fanfic, but they weren't even competent at it.

Comments

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

This post is beautiful.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Was it the omnibi or the outrage about the time travel locket that got you?

ALSO ALSO I am two episodes from the end of season 1 of Graceland and IF THEY KILL CHARLIE I WILL PROBABLY EXPLODE. But she is in this terrible place where she suspects Briggs but she isn't quite ready to admit it yet and THAT IS WHEN DOUBLE-CROSSERS KILL YOU, CHARLIE. WHEN NO ONE ELSE KNOWS OF YOUR SUSPICIONS.

I still think Briggs is probably not totally evil, although clearly not as lily-white as he painted himself to Mike. My current theory is that his first house got burned down as a result of something he said while high - and not high in a "drugged as part of torture" kind of high, but normal addicted high, which is why he is totally stewing in his own guilt. And presumably not-totally-evil Briggs wouldn't kill Charlie to protect his secret? But his increasingly desperate attempts to protect his secrets might still destroy her and the house.

And also I love the fact that the show basically sets Johnny up as this comic relief character, and then gives him actual emotions and makes it clear that he's the comic relief guy on purpose, because he wants to make people happy, and when everyone is refusing to be happy and Jakes doesn't even show up at his own surprise party Johnny shouts at everyone.

(Although if all my friends thought it was hilarious that I was terrified of the clowns they invited to my last surprise party, I might consider giving their next surprise party a miss, too.)

AND THE SCENE WHERE MIKE FINALLY TELL HIS SECRET TO PAIGE AND SHE IS ALL "YOUR SECRET IS A MILLION TIMES WORSE THAN I EVER THOUGHT IT COULD BE AND I'M JUST GOING TO LEAVE YOU TO LIE HERE ALONE IN YOUR HOSPITAL BED BECAUSE I CANNOT DEAL." Be still my heart.

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

It is greater than the sum of its parts!

I LOVE JOHNNY SO MUCH JFC. He's also super crazy competent, too! Dismantle bombs underwater? Can do that. Notice friend/co-worker has withdrawals after one dosage of heroin? Can do that. Run logistics on an op while the primary goes undercover? Can do that.

Haha, I actually had trouble taking that scene seriously because "YOU'RE A RAT?!" seems so OOC & 1940's gangster to me!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Right? Right? Johnny acts like this ridiculous silly person, but secretly underneath he has ALL THE SKILLS. The scene where he blew up the bomb underwater and Mike is all ZOMG HE'S DEAD ITS ALL MY FAULT, and then later he sees Johnny again and Johnny's like, Dude, easiest bomb to defuse ever. No biggie.

Also clearly the person in his house who is most in touch with his own feelings, except maybe Charlie. I'm kind of sad they won't be working together on Charlie's Briggs investigation, because they could watch each other's backs.

[kikainausagi.livejournal.com]

Arrrggghhhh, they redesigned the historical clothing? It's been long enough since I was into American Girl dolls that I can't really tell the difference, but I object on bitter principal.

Also wow, there are a lot of white, blond girls in the current lineup.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Right? Right? MY PRINCIPLES ARE SO OFFENDED.

And yes, it is an awfully blonde line-up. I suspect this reflects what sells (and what demographic they sell too), but it's still kind of sad.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Well, that sounds like a perfectly atrocious waste of a good title. I have half a mind to write my own time-travel friendship fic and poach the title so that it will have something more interesting to do.

(Full disclosure: I haven't read this book AT ALL and may be completely unfair).

Do you think Pleasant Company would send me some vintage catalogs (early 90s) if I asked them? I kind of want to revisit old times.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think that's a fair assessment of the book and was actually kind of tempted to poach the title myself. Perhaps we should collaborate.

Samantha would be a really good character to write a time-travel fic for, too, because she's close enough in time that the modern girl wouldn't be completely out to sea (particularly if she were a dedicated reader of Anne of Green Gables...), but at the same time things would be really different.

I don't know if they would send you the catalogs or not. I thought about writing to ask when I was writing my American Girls paper, but in the end I chickened out. Clearly foolish of me!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's really holding their main fans' hands too much. Readers who love Samantha (or any of the others) will imagine their own stories of going back to Samantha's time (or bringing Samantha forward to ours)--they really don't need a corporately done fan fic.

And honestly, who invents a lilac tunnel in an avowed time travel story and then doesn't use the lilac tunnel for the aforementioned time travel?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

This is my question about the lilac tunnel. It all but cries out for people to walk through it into mystical worlds - the future or the past or an alternate galaxy, anything - and it's right there in the title, how could they miss it?

I remember reading a book where the heroine walked into a mist and it took her somewhere else. Unfortunately I can't remember the title, or anything else about the story - but the author had that one image exactly right, and it stuck with me.

[kikainausagi.livejournal.com]

Is the mist time-travel book Fog Magic?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Maybe so! At any rate the cover looks rather like I remember it. It does have a lovely cover.