Claudia and the Middle School Mystery! Part 1!
I needed to burn off some steam, and I didn't want to fall in the Tumblr hole, so I started my next snark. And omg, you guys, there is so much exposition! So, sorry if this is a little short, but the first three chapters are basically filler. Yeah, it's easier on me, but I feel like I'm slacking. I promise that better things will come. At least, I
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I hated Claire even as a kid. I thought she was mad annoying. And as an adult, I see just how spoiled and bratty she is. And the wild hypocrisy of calling out Jenny and never saying a word about Claire. I always related to Jenny and never knew why the BSC didn't want to sit for her. In another bout of hypocrisy, how is Jenny all that different than Charlotte? They both like doing quiet activities. And yes, Jenny has raised her voice at times but she's not even in kindergarten yet! And Karen...Jesus, don't get me started on how much I hated her as a kid, and hate her even more now. I still stand by my theory that Ann was trying to make a Ramona Quimby type character, full of imagination, outspoken, getting into misadventures. But the thing is, Beverly Cleary knew how to write a kid like that. She knew that if you wrote a kid who did something wrong, she would face consequences. Karen could be a total brat and people would just give her a finger wag and an 'Oh, you!' I feel like the BSC has so much wasted potential because Ann doesn't know how to write.
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LOL!!!!!! i always call her "suzanne whine" just because i can't stand her. :P
yeah, beverly cleary fucking rocked&ramona quimby was a bazillion times more awesome&realistic than karen ever could be. she's an evil little twat&a a sadistic bully. since she's like, ann's fucking favourite character, i can only assume that either ann was/is totally like karen, or karen is like, her spirit animal&she just wishes she could get away with all the evil shit karen does. when i read these books out to my husband, i give karen a gravelly evil spawn of satan voice.* i fucking hate karen&she&claire&ann can all go rot in a hole together.
*i give pretty much all of the characters different voices, well, the BSCers all kind of share a voice, which works, what with their hive mindedness, but yeah...i can't really read out loud without giving characters voices. it makes him laugh though.
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Ann totally fails at writing a cute kid. On purpose. When she writes an actually likable kid, it's totally on accident and she wanted them to be hated. Karen bullies. Karen lies. Karen steals. Karen snots. Karen does basically all the things that make you want to bitch slap a child and she gets away with it! I can see if she was trying to do simple wish fulfillment, but you can't write a kid getting away with everything and expect people not to hate her. If she had just made her a rich kid but still nice about it, that would still fall under the wish fulfillment umbrella without making her a total brat.
Like, let's take 'Baby-sitters on Board'. Karen could have just had her storylines be about the excitement of going on a cruise and going to Disney World. But instead Ann added that she lied and charged money and ran away. She had her lie again, without punishment, about it being her birthday. Every chapter of hers had her lying about something. And not once was she punished! That doesn't make her relatable! Real kids get punished! They're gonna look at Karen and think 'What a spoiled brat!' I know that's how it was for me.
I love that you share your Karen hate with your husband! That's so cute! I always think mutual hatred brings people closer together. That's hilarious that you give Karen a demon voice! I'm gonna have to start doing that from now on!
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--boy did she ever. i loved her books growing up! i can't wait until my nieces are old enough to read, i'm going to totally be getting them ramona books for birthdays and christmases. :)
"Now that I think about it, I never hear anything about Ann's writing. There's no criticism or praise, there's just nothing. It's really weird. I feel like we should all get together and write essays on why her writing is so toxic. Let the world know!"
--that's so true...and we totally should do that!!!!
'Ann totally fails at writing a cute kid. On purpose. When she writes an actually likable kid, it's totally on accident and she wanted them to be hated."
--ha! ikr? god, she's such a failure. the most likable, realistic kids are the ones we're supposed to hate, and the kids she obviously LOVES -- karen, are the fucking worst and were pretty much unanimously hated by the fans of her books.
"Karen bullies. Karen lies. Karen steals. Karen snots. Karen does basically all the things that make you want to bitch slap a child and she gets away with it! I can see if she was trying to do simple wish fulfillment, but you can't write a kid getting away with everything and expect people not to hate her. If she had just made her a rich kid but still nice about it, that would still fall under the wish fulfillment umbrella without making her a total brat."
--exactly.
"Like, let's take 'Baby-sitters on Board'. Karen could have just had her storylines be about the excitement of going on a cruise and going to Disney World. But instead Ann added that she lied and charged money and ran away. She had her lie again, without punishment, about it being her birthday. Every chapter of hers had her lying about something. And not once was she punished! That doesn't make her relatable! Real kids get punished! They're gonna look at Karen and think 'What a spoiled brat!' I know that's how it was for me."
--same here. i've always hated karen. she's such an entitled, monstrous little liar of a brat, i just can't stand her. in one of the karen books, not sure which one off the top of my head, she made a list of things to do to hurt another kid--bobby, i think--and the list included lying to him and telling him he was adopted. how fucked up is that? and she actually did it!!
"I love that you share your Karen hate with your husband! That's so cute! I always think mutual hatred brings people closer together. That's hilarious that you give Karen a demon voice! I'm gonna have to start doing that from now on!"
--lol!! it freaked him out the first time i made her talk with a demon voice, he was like, "WTF?!??!" and i told him, "sorry, i have to give her a demon voice to show just how evil she is." it's so much fun reading him these and laughing about them with him. there are characters he straight up hates now, right along with me. :D
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