Sayonara, Mimi.

[air_and_angels]

I'd like to offer my first recap/snark, thanks to a visit to my local used bookshop this afternoon. I kind of went round and round over the choice of book (I picked up three), because it seemed kind of harsh to snark about The One Where Mimi Dies.
But stuff that, we can't be squeamish. On to the cover, courtesy of Dibbly Fresh.

Comments

[flight__]

This is one of the very few BSC books that I actually remember vividly (this is because it was bought for me right after my father died, and I kind of went insane with tears for like a week after I read it. Who the hell bought this for me anyway? I was eight!), and I do remember that they (AMM and her ghosties) actually did a really good job with it.

What I didn't remember is all the awesome stuff you pointed out -- the vaguely racist Japanese stuff they had going on with Mimi, the weird thing with Corrie who was never mentioned again, the Addisons' D/s ring (which is obviously what Kristy's mom and Watson were doing with all the time they weren't watching Emily Michelle). But my biggest question is this:

Claudia signs to Matt, leaving me to wonder if she actually knows a sign for papier-mâché or has to give a long-winded explanation.

When did every last one of these fucking thirteen and eleven year old girls become fluent in sign language? I thought only Jessie learned it, and wasn't even like, super great, she just knew a little

[air_and_angels]

Man, I'm sorry to hear that. Do you feel like it was cathartic, or did it just exacerbate your sorrow?
And re: the sign language, yeah! I wonder whether Ann et al realised that Ameslan is actually an independent language with its own grammar, not just English rendered as hand signals. Even if they fuck up the grammar all the time, how much vocabulary can the Baby-sitters really have? I was pretty surprised Matt took the art class on his own without Haley to help interpret. Maybe his lip-reading is getting better.
Here is my favourite fact about sign language - it's from the New Zealand dialect so I don't know if it holds true arond the world. Deaf people can see clapping but don't hear applause so they made up their own applause equivalent, without wasted sound. You hold up your hands and make spirit fingers! It's awesome.

[design_star_21]

Are you an interpretor too? My sister is studying to be one.

[air_and_angels]

Nope, just a person with a lot of curiosity.

[air_and_angels]

I guess Mimi wrote the obit when she realised she was on the way out and it was probably going to be this year. It's still a little odd.
I wanted to be 'Stacey.' I thought it was the prettiest, pinkest name. And it was short for Anastasia who was totally a princess!

[plaid_slytherin]

I guess Mimi wrote the obit when she realised she was on the way out and it was probably going to be this year. It's still a little odd.

Maybe Mimi realized they were stuck in a time warp and it would be the same year for the next twelve.

(Yes, I know this is old, but I just re-read this book!)

[kahran042]

Fun fact: if I had been a girl, my parents would have named me Anastasia.

[gangwaygirls]

"We also learn that Mimi had a stroke 'last summer,' and consequently... talks like Yoda."

O TEH LULZ

"This scene really was hard for me to read as a kid."

Me too.

"(Mimi) loses her rag when her supper is served, flinging the pudding cup at the wall."

Oh, this always had me in stitches when I read it. She's all "MESS! TRASH!" and roffle.

[air_and_angels]

No-one really likes hospital food, but keep it down, Mimi.

[glitterberrys]

When I first read this book, I was pretty young, so sixteen seemed really grown-up to me, but now thinking about Janine calling the extended family to say that Mimi died...god, that's rough. I was about Janine's age when my mother's mother died, and when my mother came home from work that day? I HID. I couldn't even be in the room. (I'm not very proud of that, but there it is.)

It seemed weird that she'd want Dawn, Mal and Jessi there to me...Mary Anne and Kristy I understand, since they'd been friends forever and they knew and loved Mimi, but that had to have been way awkward for the others.

[air_and_angels]

I know! Limiting it to the Bradford Court Posse would have made much more sense.
Yes, Janine gets a pretty raw deal in this book - but then she does get to be the one who reveals the obituary and seems to be coping with the bereavement the most sanely.
I would like to think that Mimi also called her My Janine and did something special with her, they just didn't let Claudia know about it.

[kakeochi_umai]

I would like to think that Mimi also called her My Janine and did something special with her, they just didn't let Claudia know about it.

+1. I hate how Janine's almost always portrayed as a heartless bitch just because she's book smart and doesn't do well socially.

[air_and_angels]

She's a Japanese chick taking the nerdy subjects at community college... can you imagine how many guys with internet-diagnosed Asperger's are totally in love with her?

[air_and_angels]

Phew! I'm so glad it came off right. I never wanted to make fun of Mimi dying and Claudia being sad, just of the histrionic/shallow way it's sometimes depicted in the writing.
YES, it is NAME DESTINY. Seriously, did the Kishis even look up the meaning of the name before sticking their daughter with it? I've read that in Japan name meanings are considered really important and have to be positive - there was actually a law, recently relaxed, against using certain kanji characters that could be read as words like 'cancer' and 'death' to spell a child's name. (Individual kanji can be read as several different words depending on context.)