[bsc] randomness
"A foreign dignitary's daughter named Gozzie Kunku living in Stoneybrook! How could I have been so naive?" - book 30, Mary Ann and the Great Romance.
[what follows is chipper, rambly, girlslashy, and vaguely spoilery for books 29-31. There's also a paragraph of RPFS speculation and one homophobic slur.]
Speaking of book 30, hello, glaring continuity error! In book 30, Dawn gives Mary Anne a now-we're-sisters present (it's a silver barrette). Mary Anne feels guilty because she didn't think to get one for Dawn. In book 31, Dawn is scrimping and saving to buy a now-we're-sisters present for Mary Anne, because Mary Anne bought one for her and she didn't think of it. At the end of the book, she gives Mary Anne a pin in the shape of a cat, which causes Mary Anne to cry. Well, yeah, I'd cry too, if my stepsister bought me two pieces of jewelry and I still hadn't gotten her anything!
Right now I'm reading book #29 (Mallory and the Mystery Diary), and am pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy early!Mallory -- in one of the later books that I read over the summer, (Mallory Pike, #1 Fan), she's incredibly annoying, but before the ghostwriters she's pretty damned cool. The part where she actually shows what a good and tolerant big sister she is, and the way she tutors Buddy in reading and manages to show him that reading and writing are fun.
Hey, by the way - Mallory loves writing and drawing and wants to write and illustrate children's books when she grows up, but the fact that she and Buddy write comics makes me wonder if anyone can think of another career path for her... ;)
It's bad that I squeed when Dawn called Jeff in California and thought "OMG! Jeff's in California! Do you know who else is in California right at this same point in what I'll charitably call the timeline, getting called a fag by the Cro-Mags and writing in his diary? DO YOU?"
I'm taking both books 30 and 31 (Mary Anne and the Great Romance and Dawn's Wicked Stepsister, wherein Richard and Sharon get married and the four of them adjust to living as a family) off my list of favorites, I think. Despite being a thorough Schafer/Spier OTPer in both generations, the pettiness that Mary Anne and Dawn exhibit is just a bit much. (Reminiscent of the corefour's behavior in #4, Mary Anne Saves the Day, actually - hello, cattiness.) It doesn't really make me sympathize with either girl. (Sharon and Richard, though, especially Richard, are too adorable for words omg!. And I'm once again faced with the startling realization [previously made about Natalie/Jeremy from Sports Night,] that I'm shipping an OTP that is essentially my parents. [More about this later, flocked.])
I suppose the best thing about the characterizations is that all the girls are capable of being terribly immature. Because they are 11-13 years old. And at the same time, they have occasional or regular moments of great maturity and depth, especially when they're thinking about the kids they sit for. That particular moment in growing-up, the moment when you're not a child all the time but are still childish much of the time, is just... well-captured. Good on you, Ann.
Speaking of Ann! Speculate:
Mary Anne is Ann's avatar. Mary Anne is the only BSC member with a steady boyfriend, as we are reminded in every single book. This is usually given as a sign of Mary Anne's emotional maturity, not her burgeoning heterosexuality, but it still gives me pause, and makes me wonder if Logan is Ann's beard, in a sense - perhaps even designed (though probably not deliberately) to de-intensify Mary Anne/Kristy, if, as is clear to some of us, that relationship is a reflection of Ann's ideal romantic relationship for herself.
I admittedly don't have #10, Logan Likes Mary Anne (what, me, have the complete entire collection except the hetfests? So ooc! I swear it's not intentional, though!) and haven't read the other important books in that arc recently, but it seems to me that Logan functions most as a beard, making Mary Anne seem straighter. Not, of course, that this always works...
"You're lucky to be going [to the dance]," I said.
Mary Anne smiled. "Yeah. And I want to look my best for him. Now let's see. THe last time we went to a dance I wore my green jumpsuit... Hey, could I borrow that really short, flared skirt of yours? THe blue one with the black waistband? I could wear my baggy white shirt with it."
Anything, anything.
Mary Anne got dressed. [okay, wait a moment. She got dressed in front of Dawn?!] She looked at herself in the mirror for ages. "When you have a boyfriend," she told me, "you want to look good for him." -- #31
O_O
This really reads to me like Mary Anne's repressing some pretty strong gay, right there, and flaunting her heterosexuality in front of a Dawn who might or might not be attracted to her... I mean, could this not be a Faith/Buffy story of excellence, with Buffy getting all dolled up for Angel and totally flaunting it for Faith in an effort to show, "See, I am straight. I really really am, so there's no need for you to be all gay for me because I am straight straight straight." Aaand I just compared Buffy to Mary Anne, so stopping now!
OtherTPs - Jessi and Mallory have an uncanny knowledge of what's going on under each other's clothes. Take this, from #31
"Boy, you were lucky not to be left with any chicken pox scars," Kristy said to Mal. Then she added, "You are unscarred, aren't you?"
"For the most part," mumbled Mal, glancing at Jessi.
Jessi started to laugh.
"Okay," said Kristy. "Out with it. Where are your scars?"
"In unmentionable places," was all Mal would reply.
O_O
Or this:
Jessi and I were sitting on the floor, leafing through the club notebook. Jessi was wearing a long, heart-covered sweat shirt over her dance leotard and a pair of pink pants that (although you couldn't see this) I knew were held up at the waist with a drawstring. - #29, Mallory and the Mystery Diary
It is very very important that we know how to get Jessi out of her pants how Jessi's pants are held up. Thanks, Mal.
Unrelated to girlslash (omg!), from the same book. (Mallory's been tutoring Buddy, and he's looking at her kind of adoringly...)
It was kind of the way I used to look at my fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Barnes. I had the world's biggest crush on Ms. Barnes. At the time, I thought I was in love with her. Was that how Buddy felt about me? I wasn't sure. If he did feel that way, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing. I've never worked as hard for any teacher as I did for Ms. Barnes. I got straight A's that year, something I'd never done before. - #29. I, um, might've edited it a little bit to make it more in line with my interpretation of the character. :p
Isn't that adorable? Ickler Mallory with a big-ass crush on a teacher? How can I resist! ♥ :)
Blechh. I will never pine for a boy. - #29 again.
But that's just low-hanging fruit.
A haunted house. A century-old mystery to solve. It was all too much! - #29, Mallory and the Mystery Diary. Oh, how I love these books!
ETA: Almost forgot to mention that velvetandlace wrote me Mary Anne fic of awesomeness. It's only as girlslashy as the canon, okay! *g*
[what follows is chipper, rambly, girlslashy, and vaguely spoilery for books 29-31. There's also a paragraph of RPFS speculation and one homophobic slur.]
Speaking of book 30, hello, glaring continuity error! In book 30, Dawn gives Mary Anne a now-we're-sisters present (it's a silver barrette). Mary Anne feels guilty because she didn't think to get one for Dawn. In book 31, Dawn is scrimping and saving to buy a now-we're-sisters present for Mary Anne, because Mary Anne bought one for her and she didn't think of it. At the end of the book, she gives Mary Anne a pin in the shape of a cat, which causes Mary Anne to cry. Well, yeah, I'd cry too, if my stepsister bought me two pieces of jewelry and I still hadn't gotten her anything!
Right now I'm reading book #29 (Mallory and the Mystery Diary), and am pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy early!Mallory -- in one of the later books that I read over the summer, (Mallory Pike, #1 Fan), she's incredibly annoying, but before the ghostwriters she's pretty damned cool. The part where she actually shows what a good and tolerant big sister she is, and the way she tutors Buddy in reading and manages to show him that reading and writing are fun.
Hey, by the way - Mallory loves writing and drawing and wants to write and illustrate children's books when she grows up, but the fact that she and Buddy write comics makes me wonder if anyone can think of another career path for her... ;)
It's bad that I squeed when Dawn called Jeff in California and thought "OMG! Jeff's in California! Do you know who else is in California right at this same point in what I'll charitably call the timeline, getting called a fag by the Cro-Mags and writing in his diary? DO YOU?"
I'm taking both books 30 and 31 (Mary Anne and the Great Romance and Dawn's Wicked Stepsister, wherein Richard and Sharon get married and the four of them adjust to living as a family) off my list of favorites, I think. Despite being a thorough Schafer/Spier OTPer in both generations, the pettiness that Mary Anne and Dawn exhibit is just a bit much. (Reminiscent of the corefour's behavior in #4, Mary Anne Saves the Day, actually - hello, cattiness.) It doesn't really make me sympathize with either girl. (Sharon and Richard, though, especially Richard, are too adorable for words omg!. And I'm once again faced with the startling realization [previously made about Natalie/Jeremy from Sports Night,] that I'm shipping an OTP that is essentially my parents. [More about this later, flocked.])
I suppose the best thing about the characterizations is that all the girls are capable of being terribly immature. Because they are 11-13 years old. And at the same time, they have occasional or regular moments of great maturity and depth, especially when they're thinking about the kids they sit for. That particular moment in growing-up, the moment when you're not a child all the time but are still childish much of the time, is just... well-captured. Good on you, Ann.
Speaking of Ann! Speculate:
Mary Anne is Ann's avatar. Mary Anne is the only BSC member with a steady boyfriend, as we are reminded in every single book. This is usually given as a sign of Mary Anne's emotional maturity, not her burgeoning heterosexuality, but it still gives me pause, and makes me wonder if Logan is Ann's beard, in a sense - perhaps even designed (though probably not deliberately) to de-intensify Mary Anne/Kristy, if, as is clear to some of us, that relationship is a reflection of Ann's ideal romantic relationship for herself.
I admittedly don't have #10, Logan Likes Mary Anne (what, me, have the complete entire collection except the hetfests? So ooc! I swear it's not intentional, though!) and haven't read the other important books in that arc recently, but it seems to me that Logan functions most as a beard, making Mary Anne seem straighter. Not, of course, that this always works...
"You're lucky to be going [to the dance]," I said.
Mary Anne smiled. "Yeah. And I want to look my best for him. Now let's see. THe last time we went to a dance I wore my green jumpsuit... Hey, could I borrow that really short, flared skirt of yours? THe blue one with the black waistband? I could wear my baggy white shirt with it."
Anything, anything.
Mary Anne got dressed. [okay, wait a moment. She got dressed in front of Dawn?!] She looked at herself in the mirror for ages. "When you have a boyfriend," she told me, "you want to look good for him." -- #31
O_O
This really reads to me like Mary Anne's repressing some pretty strong gay, right there, and flaunting her heterosexuality in front of a Dawn who might or might not be attracted to her... I mean, could this not be a Faith/Buffy story of excellence, with Buffy getting all dolled up for Angel and totally flaunting it for Faith in an effort to show, "See, I am straight. I really really am, so there's no need for you to be all gay for me because I am straight straight straight." Aaand I just compared Buffy to Mary Anne, so stopping now!
OtherTPs - Jessi and Mallory have an uncanny knowledge of what's going on under each other's clothes. Take this, from #31
"Boy, you were lucky not to be left with any chicken pox scars," Kristy said to Mal. Then she added, "You are unscarred, aren't you?"
"For the most part," mumbled Mal, glancing at Jessi.
Jessi started to laugh.
"Okay," said Kristy. "Out with it. Where are your scars?"
"In unmentionable places," was all Mal would reply.
O_O
Or this:
Jessi and I were sitting on the floor, leafing through the club notebook. Jessi was wearing a long, heart-covered sweat shirt over her dance leotard and a pair of pink pants that (although you couldn't see this) I knew were held up at the waist with a drawstring. - #29, Mallory and the Mystery Diary
It is very very important that we know how to get Jessi out of her pants how Jessi's pants are held up. Thanks, Mal.
Unrelated to girlslash (omg!), from the same book. (Mallory's been tutoring Buddy, and he's looking at her kind of adoringly...)
It was kind of the way I used to look at my fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Barnes. I had the world's biggest crush on Ms. Barnes. At the time, I thought I was in love with her. Was that how Buddy felt about me? I wasn't sure. If he did feel that way, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing. I've never worked as hard for any teacher as I did for Ms. Barnes. I got straight A's that year, something I'd never done before. - #29. I, um, might've edited it a little bit to make it more in line with my interpretation of the character. :p
Isn't that adorable? Ickler Mallory with a big-ass crush on a teacher? How can I resist! ♥ :)
Blechh. I will never pine for a boy. - #29 again.
But that's just low-hanging fruit.
A haunted house. A century-old mystery to solve. It was all too much! - #29, Mallory and the Mystery Diary. Oh, how I love these books!
ETA: Almost forgot to mention that velvetandlace wrote me Mary Anne fic of awesomeness. It's only as girlslashy as the canon, okay! *g*