Everyone who reads for fun is going to have some literary guilty pleasure. The book equivalent of eating a Big Mac with cheese, possibly with a couple of Hershey bars shoved on top of the burger. Books that we are embarrassed to admit that we read but we read them anyway. There's money to be made writing them. The Fifty Shades of Gray books are living proof of that.
Me, I have plenty of literary guilty pleasures. However, in my case, they tend to fall less under the salacious and more under the embarrassingly innocent and simple. Don't get me wrong. Children's books don't have to be poor literature. I am not ashamed to admit I enjoyed the Harry Potter books or the Chronicles of Narnia or quite a few other books that are primarily aimed at kids.
But, let's me honest. There are also some books that are the literary equivalent of eating styrofoam.
Okay, let me start off my most embarrassing literary guilty pleasure. I like reading books that were written by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In particular, the ones that are public domain and I can download for free from sites like Project Gutenberg.
The Stratemeyer Syndicate was one of the first book mills for children's books. They turned out kiddy books by the dozen for most of the twentieth century. According to Wikipedia, it wasn't a publishing house and they tried very hard to make sure that the public didn't know that all of these books were orchestrated by a single editorial pool.
TVTropes describes the books as extruded literary product and that's a pretty good description. The Stratemeyer books were formulaic to a T. The characters are as flat as boards and about as wooden. Forget about character development or theme. These books are pure plot and you can see every twist coming a mile away.
In fact, back in the day, the moral authorities disapproved of the various series. At first, this made me laugh, since every protagonist could be a proud member of the goody two shoes guild. Then I realized that the moral authorities weren't afraid the books would turn kids into thugs and dope fiends. They didn't like them since they viewed the books as garbage.
Perhaps the most shameful thing for modern readers is the heavy ethnic stereo typing and racism. You can only push the excuse "standards were different back then" so far when everyone who isn't a white American (preferably from a good family and male) seems to have escaped from a third-rate music hall.
Okay, so I have told you why the Stratemeyer Syndicate books count as something to feel guilty about. You may be wondering how I manage to enjoy the stuff.
Well, the Stratemeyer Syndicate books are pure boy's own adventure. If you are looking for escapist fluff from a century ago, empty calories that will distract you and let you shut your brain off for a while, that's certainly something to read. And, if you are looking for boy's own, the syndicate's books are nothing if not consistent.
Like I said, guilty pleasure. And, to be honest, since the birth of my son and becoming a stay-at-home daddy, they haven't had the same allure. That's not something I need to escape from.
There are a couple of long lasting and, dare I say, decent series that have come out of the syndicate. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew came out from them and definitely have a firm place in pop culture.
But those properties are ones that are well protected and not something you get to find on Projected Gutenberg. Still, got to give credit where credit is due.
Me, I have plenty of literary guilty pleasures. However, in my case, they tend to fall less under the salacious and more under the embarrassingly innocent and simple. Don't get me wrong. Children's books don't have to be poor literature. I am not ashamed to admit I enjoyed the Harry Potter books or the Chronicles of Narnia or quite a few other books that are primarily aimed at kids.
But, let's me honest. There are also some books that are the literary equivalent of eating styrofoam.
Okay, let me start off my most embarrassing literary guilty pleasure. I like reading books that were written by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In particular, the ones that are public domain and I can download for free from sites like Project Gutenberg.
The Stratemeyer Syndicate was one of the first book mills for children's books. They turned out kiddy books by the dozen for most of the twentieth century. According to Wikipedia, it wasn't a publishing house and they tried very hard to make sure that the public didn't know that all of these books were orchestrated by a single editorial pool.
TVTropes describes the books as extruded literary product and that's a pretty good description. The Stratemeyer books were formulaic to a T. The characters are as flat as boards and about as wooden. Forget about character development or theme. These books are pure plot and you can see every twist coming a mile away.
In fact, back in the day, the moral authorities disapproved of the various series. At first, this made me laugh, since every protagonist could be a proud member of the goody two shoes guild. Then I realized that the moral authorities weren't afraid the books would turn kids into thugs and dope fiends. They didn't like them since they viewed the books as garbage.
Perhaps the most shameful thing for modern readers is the heavy ethnic stereo typing and racism. You can only push the excuse "standards were different back then" so far when everyone who isn't a white American (preferably from a good family and male) seems to have escaped from a third-rate music hall.
Okay, so I have told you why the Stratemeyer Syndicate books count as something to feel guilty about. You may be wondering how I manage to enjoy the stuff.
Well, the Stratemeyer Syndicate books are pure boy's own adventure. If you are looking for escapist fluff from a century ago, empty calories that will distract you and let you shut your brain off for a while, that's certainly something to read. And, if you are looking for boy's own, the syndicate's books are nothing if not consistent.
Like I said, guilty pleasure. And, to be honest, since the birth of my son and becoming a stay-at-home daddy, they haven't had the same allure. That's not something I need to escape from.
There are a couple of long lasting and, dare I say, decent series that have come out of the syndicate. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew came out from them and definitely have a firm place in pop culture.
But those properties are ones that are well protected and not something you get to find on Projected Gutenberg. Still, got to give credit where credit is due.
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