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Caro - Issue 1
Caro - Issue 1
Caro - Issue 1
EVERYTHING IN THIS ZINE WAS CREATED BY MARIE ANNETOINETTE, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED
That Way
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Want Me
to Be, Pt. 1
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to Be, Pt. 2
Want Me
Im reminded of a quote
from Book about Zines
here, Sometimes only
the page will listen As
a young poor Southern
Black girl, it was true;
sometimes I only had the
pages of my journal to
express everything I
felt and feared. But
while I enjoyed writing, the anonymity the quiet the
cloistered and private nature of journaling never sat-
Ive been using the phrase the girl I am and the girl you
want me to be" over and over for the last few years, and I
finally understood what I myself meant by that. Between the
girl I am and the girl you--whoever you is; my mother, my
family, society at large--want me to be, I never got to be
the girl I wanted to be and... That was a hard revelation,
you know? I'm 25, I never got to be the girl I wanted to
be, and now that chance is completely gone. It hurt. I managed not to cry but only just. That revelation felt like an
important part of my had died. After a while of trying to
keep my composure, I just thought, "Well, what about the
woman you want to be?" And I had to resign myself, you
know, and about face. That point in my life is gone and it
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over Animorphs brings back not only memories of the books themselves but of furious classroom trading to make sure everyone who was interested go a chance to read
the latest novel.
Ive been trying to buy the full set
of novels and spinoffs for awhile but the
money just hasn't been there and being
able to watch the series Nickelodeon produced was the next best thing. I sat one
weekend for my usual binge watch and was
thrown back in time. I remember the profound mixed feeling of
excitement and disappointment: excitement at the prospect of a
long-loved favorite of mine was being realized as a television
showone of the first in what is now a well-established trend
of turning YA novels into movies and TV showsand disappointment at the casting, the writing, the obviously limited budget,
and the overall execution of the series. I knew it wasnt going
to last for that reason alone, and it didnt.
Also we were just entering the world of creating actually
compelling series for teens involving real moral dilemmas, real
blood, and real character development. Animorphs was groundbreaking as a Scholastic series and is known by its fans for
one of the few if not the only childrens series dealing with
the realities of being at war. Its apparent that the TV show
attempted to capture the essence of the series, but the limitations of a Nickelodeon budget at that time worked against what
could have been a mind-altering sci-fi premier for kids was instead a parade of whitewashing, racial stereotypes, badly constructed costumes and bad animation. Cassie is much lighter
than the medium dark brown depicted in the books, all the characters are a older (not unusual nowadays with actors in their
mid-twenties playing fifteen year olds; fortunately its not
that bad), and Marco uses an amount of what the producers must
have thought was appropriate street slang I dont remember from
the character in the books. His sense of humor also isnt quite
the same and Marco's humor is one of the *highlights* of the
novel series.
However even with all those drawbacks the series still had
the power to pull me in. By the third episode the actors find
their stride and while there are some changes in how Yeerk bi-
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CREATOR/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
MARIE ANNETOINETTE
marieannetoinette@gmail.com
ABOUT Caro
Sometimes you just need an outlet for all
the questions; caro is an invitation for
brain dump and discussion, to marvel and to
reason together.
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