Plato’s Pharmacy

Via Jason’s Google Reader shared items feed, I learn of this travesty:

We’ve already told you about the Watchmen video game, but little did we know that that cynical cash-in was only the start. May I interest you in the Watchmen Cell Phone Game?

Glu Mobile – who are already working with Warner Bros to create mobile games based on Superman, Bugs Bunny and The Dark Knight – announced earlier this week their plans to create a game based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ groundbreaking 1980s series – or, more truthfully, based on Zack Snyder’s movie adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ groundbreaking 1980s series.

Is it just me, or is sci-fi/fantasy treated with a certain level of disrepect that other genres are not? Watchmen made Time Magazine’s list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present, and just wait, there will eventually be a toy line now. In fact, what other two books on that list already have toy lines? Why The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Lord of the Rings of course! So I wonder, what if books from other genres were treated this way? New from Mattel, it’s the 1984 Room 101 Action Playset! And who wouldn’t collect cereal box tops to send away for a Big Brother action figure? Sticking with Orwell, Animal Farm seems like a natural for a toy line, kids can re-create the exile of Snowball. A friend of mine weighs in with more suggestions over IM:

But I’m sure the accessories to the Schindler’s List Action Figures would be awesome.

…

You can go in all kinds of wrong and immoral directions with this idea.

Ibsen’s Dollhouse

Or better yet, Nabokov’s dollhouse

…

The Gravity’s Rainbow Erector Set is sure to be a top seller.

…

The video game tie-in for Cormac McCarthy’s novels could be pretty cool, what with the senseless graphic violence and all, except the game always conspires to prevent you from winning.

OK, I’ll stop now.