It always weirded me out that you could buy 'Harry Potter' books with different covers for adults; I don't think I saw other stuff like that when I was a teenager, and I always used to look in the adult section to see which of my favourite authors had a big enough crossover appeal to be listed there too. Same covers, every time. Redwall, little mice waving swords, even. Was it Harry Potter that started this craze? I think I've seen alternative covers on the Northern Lights Trilogy since. Are there any others?
(Link below is for those with an appreciation of very crude humour only. They are indeed 'adult' covers... you have been warned).
This link, courtesy of whoever's behind 'pointlesswasteoftime.com', has a series of (yes, printable) fake covers for adults to put on their Harry Potter books, and links to more. I noticed they all seem to be geared towards men, though the copies with the real adult covers are selling well to both sexes. (I wonder if anyone's produced some fake 'romance' covers for HP, heh heh).
I find this phenomenon of different covers for different readers disturbing for the following reasons:
1. Surely the point of not being a kid/teen any more and leaving home is that you can read what you like. Gone are the days of cunningly hiding things from people who don't approve, or can judge and mock you for, or worse, control, you reading matter. Now I have the increased power of being an adult, I will read what I like where I like in my own time. If that turns out to be a picture book by Barbette Cole on the tube (subway to you Americans), so be it.
2. It kind of implies the original book/product won't pass muster for adults unless improved on/changed for adults. Philip Pullman had an excellent rant about the second class status of kids'/YA lit, which I will dig out and dissect at some point, and link to.
3. It annoys me as another example of society's obsession with surfaces, and politicians and celebrities who change the cover/surface/packaging for different consumers at different times. 'How do you like this? No? OK...' *fiddles around with the 'surface'* 'How do you like it/me/us now?'
Shudder.
4. Something that annoys me about how marketers manipulate people's opinions of others. Because someone provides me with a choice of 2 covers, I can now be judged for what choice I make. When I pre-ordered Harry Potter 6, I was asked which cover I wanted, and the decision I make says something, however insignificant, about me, because I had to make the decision.
5. Harry Potter's universe is a fantastical, colourful place, and the YA/kids' cover displays that with pride. I think it's sad - 0r even disturbing - not to celebrate this. If you're reading a book with dragons in, why not have a lovely great big dragon on the cover that says, 'Hello, everyone, I like reading about really fantastic dragons!' rather than exist in dragon-denial with a plain or serious looking cover? Yaaarg.
OK, less ranting, more reading, and soon, review posting.:-)
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