you know you love me, gossip girl

Comparison Between the Book and the TV Series:
The Gossip Girl novel differs significantly from the Gossip Girl TV series. First off, the book has more of a story behind it. Whereas, the TV series skips through most the events of the book. Within the first few episodes of the show, Serena and Dan started dating. In the novel, this relationship did not happen until about the seventh or eighth book. Another difference between the book and the TV series is that in the book Jenny is described as not an attractive girl, brown curly hair, very skinny, but with massive breasts. In the TV series she is almost the opposite, blond hair, pretty, small breasts, and skinny. I feel that even though both the book and the series have the same name, characters, plot and setting, they are still very different. I personally like the book much better. In fact, after viewing the first two episodes of the series, I had no desire to watch it any longer. But in contrast, the book series is the only one that I have ever wanted to read.

Reality Exaggerated:
Gossip Girl, the books, I feel are an exaggerated version of reality. Some of the situations and events that happen in the books are close to what can happen in real life. But, this book series is trying to captivate an audience and so of course, all the situations are going to be dramatized in order to attract readers. One example of a situation in the book that I feel is somewhat close to reality is when Gossip Girl, herself, blogs on the “gossip” that happens every so often. I feel that in real life gossip is passed around regularly but not through an actual website, this is one of the many exaggerations in the book. So, Gossip Girl is based on reality but also attracts an audience at the same time.
In order to attract readers, the author also makes the issues that the characters have in the book series seems so extravagant. Because these issues are close to reality but yet so far, the issues that the characters have seem so much worse than the ones that I have myself. But, von Ziegesar “glamorizes” these issues to the point where I would trade the issues I have with the ones Serena and Blair have any day, even though theirs are far worse. Just like Gossip Girl says, “Our shit still stinks, but you can’t smell it because the bathroom is sprayed hourly by the maid with a refreshing scent made exclusively for us by French perfumers”. Even though their issues (their shit) are terrible, they are still so perfect at the same time.

Lifestyle for Criticism:
Some may take this book as criticism for the lifestyle that this book portrays. The characters in the book live in New York City’s Upper East Side. They “all live in huge apartments with (their) own bedrooms and bathrooms and phone lines. (They) have unlimited access to money and booze and whatever these (they) want…(they’ve) inherited good looks, (they) wear fantastic clothes, and (they) know how to party.” So, basically, these kids have everything. One way that von Ziegesar may want you to see the book is in a way of critic for this lifestyle. The author may be exposing every part of this lifestyle so that others have a better view of it and can critic it more than they ever could. Cecily von Ziegesar lived the same lifestyle of the characters that she created in the book. I am uncertain if she lived through the same events in the book, but I have to believe that some of the events in the book are based on her own knowledge of this lifestyle. The message that she could be trying to portray by writing this series of books is that this lifestyle is absurd. She may ant readers to realize this message as they read. I feel, though, that some of the readers are going to think the exact opposite of this message and view the life of these characters as they way they should be living their life. I just feel that von Ziegesar needs to be careful with what she writes because some readers may take her writing seriously.