And just like that the entire McSweeney’s archive turned to ash. (I searched for you there before posting this; also upgraded to paid subscription to be able to make this comment, but I’d been meaning to for a while anyway… thanks)
Series juveniles fiction pretty much started with the Stratemeyer Syndicate-- This same kind of series written by many-- like Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys or Bobbsey Twins of the generations before them. (Yale has all the archives: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/530 )
Children can be responsible for other children at 11 in most places. The American Red Cross offers babysitting classes to children at age 11. For example, parents drop kids off at public libraries under the care of an 11 yo.
The spirits of both Camille Paglia and Oscar Wilde apparently entered Freddie deBoer, and acted as muses which led him to write the best possible satirical book review imaginable of a Babysitters Club book. Words fail me. Propers.
Thank you for this! It was wonderfully silly and brought me real joy.
Looking back, I wonder if my BSC-reading days developed the taste for frivolity which led me to PG Wodehouse, whose stories are just as inconsequential, except with redeeming literary value. I also sketched and doodled compulsively as a kid, and I found the BSC illustrations oddly encouraging: even a slapdash commitment to realism in art could still become "famous" in tween serial novels!
I couldn't remember reading "Snowbound" until you mentioned, "And this fucking thing is a tonal nightmare, let me tell you. There’s a real asymmetry to the plights of our characters. Like, Claudia’s story involves chasing after a dog who’s a real rascal! Also Stacey and her mom might literally die. Jessi is like 'how can I comfort this wealthy horse girl who’s inconvenienced by being trapped at her elite New England dance academy?' and Stacey and her mom are eating ketchup packets to survive. I have to hand it to a book where 'but Logan will see me without my makeup!' and “please don’t let me freeze to death in a Subaru at 13” are given equal emotional weight."
Then I remembered, yeah, that struck me as the most realistic aspect of the book. Not the ketchup packets, but that modern medicine's promise to those with chronic conditions that "you, too, can lead a normal life!" with enough diligence and technology at your disposal isn't guaranteed. "You court disaster by deviating from your routine even a little bit, including through normal childhood forgetfulness," is so obviously an empty threat to suburban kiddos — except when it isn't. Stacey's "look at all this careful calculation I must do to maintain the illusion I'm just another normal kid" was laid on thick, but I wouldn't be surprised if it spoke to the anxieties of more than one kid busy "leading a normal life!" despite medical abnormalities.
I've never before in my life wished I'd read the Babysitter's Club books . :) This reminds me of when I gave up on the Angel (the Buffy spinoff) because of how terrible it was, and then came back and watched every season because of how funny the recaps Strega wrote for Television Without Pity were.
After reading this, I need to "bake up" as well. It hurts from laughing. Thank you for posting!
This is the best thing I'm going to read all week!
I don’t really understand much of this, so it must be really smart and good!
Gonna need to bake up a potato up in here to soak up some of this salt
And just like that the entire McSweeney’s archive turned to ash. (I searched for you there before posting this; also upgraded to paid subscription to be able to make this comment, but I’d been meaning to for a while anyway… thanks)
Series juveniles fiction pretty much started with the Stratemeyer Syndicate-- This same kind of series written by many-- like Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys or Bobbsey Twins of the generations before them. (Yale has all the archives: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/530 )
Children can be responsible for other children at 11 in most places. The American Red Cross offers babysitting classes to children at age 11. For example, parents drop kids off at public libraries under the care of an 11 yo.
( I baby sat at 11. )
Hilarious
The spirits of both Camille Paglia and Oscar Wilde apparently entered Freddie deBoer, and acted as muses which led him to write the best possible satirical book review imaginable of a Babysitters Club book. Words fail me. Propers.
Thank you for this! It was wonderfully silly and brought me real joy.
Looking back, I wonder if my BSC-reading days developed the taste for frivolity which led me to PG Wodehouse, whose stories are just as inconsequential, except with redeeming literary value. I also sketched and doodled compulsively as a kid, and I found the BSC illustrations oddly encouraging: even a slapdash commitment to realism in art could still become "famous" in tween serial novels!
I couldn't remember reading "Snowbound" until you mentioned, "And this fucking thing is a tonal nightmare, let me tell you. There’s a real asymmetry to the plights of our characters. Like, Claudia’s story involves chasing after a dog who’s a real rascal! Also Stacey and her mom might literally die. Jessi is like 'how can I comfort this wealthy horse girl who’s inconvenienced by being trapped at her elite New England dance academy?' and Stacey and her mom are eating ketchup packets to survive. I have to hand it to a book where 'but Logan will see me without my makeup!' and “please don’t let me freeze to death in a Subaru at 13” are given equal emotional weight."
Then I remembered, yeah, that struck me as the most realistic aspect of the book. Not the ketchup packets, but that modern medicine's promise to those with chronic conditions that "you, too, can lead a normal life!" with enough diligence and technology at your disposal isn't guaranteed. "You court disaster by deviating from your routine even a little bit, including through normal childhood forgetfulness," is so obviously an empty threat to suburban kiddos — except when it isn't. Stacey's "look at all this careful calculation I must do to maintain the illusion I'm just another normal kid" was laid on thick, but I wouldn't be surprised if it spoke to the anxieties of more than one kid busy "leading a normal life!" despite medical abnormalities.
The world is a fuller place now
I may create a 2nd account and subscribe again so that I can :heart: this post a 2nd time.
I've never before in my life wished I'd read the Babysitter's Club books . :) This reminds me of when I gave up on the Angel (the Buffy spinoff) because of how terrible it was, and then came back and watched every season because of how funny the recaps Strega wrote for Television Without Pity were.
This was hilarious. Thanks, Freddie.
Wow. That was.... wow.
I hope you get a groveling apology from the guy who complained about Lit Week.
I've never read any of these masterpieces, more's the pity. But I know the genre well enough, having read Kafka, Lovecraft, and Eugene O'Neill.