【Sport Archives】

There is Sport Archivesno drama that I fear more than YA fiction drama. Sometimes, though, you've just got to hot take for what you believe in.

Take this perfectly acceptable cover for the rerelease of Judy Blume's famous book, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. After ProPublica reporter Jessica Huseman shared the new cover that seemed to suggest Margaret was texting God, strict July Blume constitutionalists immediately went on the offensive, accusing the illustrator of heresy.

Here's how the drama went down.

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The new cover for Are You There God? It's Me, Margaretactually appeared slightly less than a year ago, but it's sparked online outrage only recently. It's no surprise, really. It has all the necessary ingredients to put the internet in a foul mood: impure nostalgia, mild religiosity, texting culture, YA fiction, anxious ellipses.

I don't get it. At a certain point, Xennials like myself have to understand that the kids nowadays live in a different world of symbols than the ones we grew up in. Their Margaret probably wouldn't pray to God out loud because talking requires too much interaction and texting is way more chill. Younger generations have been relieved of the burden of spoken communication. We should be applauding this historic milestone, not denying that it exists.

One thing I'm a little concerned about is that fact that Margaret doesn't seem to have God's phone number saved to her phonebook. If Margaret doesn't have the time to call God, cool, but show some respect and at least store their phone number. And why is she identifying herself in this text? My mother signs all of her texts as well, but she's 68, not a pre-tween.

Sure, some of the criticism is understandable. The cover could have easily been designed by older adults trying to connect to the cool kids. But sometimes older adults are right, folks. Cool younger kids do text random deeply personal crap to adults not likely to immediately return their message, at least in the traditional sense.

Having read 'Are You There, God' at least 300 times as a kid, I can totally see Margaret asking God for an hmu at some random hour of the night. That INFJ is desperate!

So let's move on and get outraged about something else. Our culture is in rapid decline and needs our subtweets.