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zachari's reviews
370 reviews
The Bears' Picnic by Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain
4.0
an important lesson as to why one should not tempt fate.
Mama Bear needs a divorce
Mama Bear needs a divorce
The Berenstain Bears Share and Share Alike! by Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain
0.0
β²π»
I think that this was pro-papa propaganda, propopapaganda if you will, portraying him as put upon, Messiahnically suffering, to kind of cosmically make up for and reimagine his older portrayal as a horrifically tortured clown.
the Papa as producer sets him up as an kind of class symbol, the worker, put upon by Gods and Men to labor for others and live only by the sweat of his brow, but at the compensation, in part, that they could assume the trappings of patriarchy within privatized spaces called homes. the patriarch as laborer is a God as Creator myth, economically purchasing and thereby putting into reality the commodities and land his status as pater charged him with owning and possessing.
it leaves out certain important questions, which you yourself note have been occluded from discussion.
namely, what was Mama's role in this? why does she show up as a motive force behind so much than vanish without resolution. Mama ex machina [footnote π»βοΈ]
likewise, why did the cubs not notice, comment upon, discuss, negotiate, participate in building, in short, sharing in the process of production, including the communication before hand and at least some influence on the decision making process. for a family known for their almost endless Socratic dialogues on the meaning of each other's heavily Protestant informed ideas of self and soul and growing up, of being and becoming ourselves, through a lens of battle better angelbears and greener demonbears. ππ»
ππ§Έ we are instead to view the building of the pool entirely through Papa as atomized, self contained and self sufficient, at least for the purposes of the representation. he is the one who buys the pool, who tills the land, who follows every divinely ordained pool, only like Lot to be cast out of the community, or rather Jonah, cooling off under a little palm tree made of hose.
or compare him to Job, who suffers the loss of wealth, is betrayed by rather than loses his children, voices finally dismay and is asked who is he to ask for an account from his Creator God.
ππ» and what do we find at the central limit of our inward racing spiral? not Papa, but a doppelganger, a cruel joke, though he speaks it is only at a whisper, like Poe's Mr. Williams, and no one thinks to hear him. he is in his own glorification obscured , trapped, humiliated, and made into a mere tool of a narrative less interested in its characters than with introducing a trope, where sharing, commoning, is subject without agency or planning or discussion to the tragedy of the commons.too absurd to quite called tragedy and too bitter to write off as farce, we are left only with the sense of a terrible et fascinating dream.
Acknowledgements:
Phil Gonzales, thank you so much for these analyses. i loved hearing about the articles on sharing you found. i really want to read a couple of them, especially the spaceship earth ππ
also your love of not going to conferences but reading their programs is very endearing to me as an autistic person
Naomi Klein, for giving me a hyperfixation on Doppelgangers
footnote: π»βοΈ @arusha is right, Mama gets totally written out of the narrative while still herself wanting to use the pool. who is sharing here? no one, if we stipulate that with this particular order of zero sum resources means. paper is not taking his turn with the pool, neither is Mama, and the Cubs are not taking their turns out of the pool. but all the focus is on no one sharing with Papa and the Cubs are Disposesing Papa, cruel hypocritical strangely ignorant and oblivious Cubs, and Mama is completely sidelined. Poor Mama! Justice for Mama! Share and Share Alike Includes Sharing In Being A Character.
I think that this was pro-papa propaganda, propopapaganda if you will, portraying him as put upon, Messiahnically suffering, to kind of cosmically make up for and reimagine his older portrayal as a horrifically tortured clown.
the Papa as producer sets him up as an kind of class symbol, the worker, put upon by Gods and Men to labor for others and live only by the sweat of his brow, but at the compensation, in part, that they could assume the trappings of patriarchy within privatized spaces called homes. the patriarch as laborer is a God as Creator myth, economically purchasing and thereby putting into reality the commodities and land his status as pater charged him with owning and possessing.
it leaves out certain important questions, which you yourself note have been occluded from discussion.
namely, what was Mama's role in this? why does she show up as a motive force behind so much than vanish without resolution. Mama ex machina [footnote π»βοΈ]
likewise, why did the cubs not notice, comment upon, discuss, negotiate, participate in building, in short, sharing in the process of production, including the communication before hand and at least some influence on the decision making process. for a family known for their almost endless Socratic dialogues on the meaning of each other's heavily Protestant informed ideas of self and soul and growing up, of being and becoming ourselves, through a lens of battle better angelbears and greener demonbears. ππ»
ππ§Έ we are instead to view the building of the pool entirely through Papa as atomized, self contained and self sufficient, at least for the purposes of the representation. he is the one who buys the pool, who tills the land, who follows every divinely ordained pool, only like Lot to be cast out of the community, or rather Jonah, cooling off under a little palm tree made of hose.
or compare him to Job, who suffers the loss of wealth, is betrayed by rather than loses his children, voices finally dismay and is asked who is he to ask for an account from his Creator God.
ππ» and what do we find at the central limit of our inward racing spiral? not Papa, but a doppelganger, a cruel joke, though he speaks it is only at a whisper, like Poe's Mr. Williams, and no one thinks to hear him. he is in his own glorification obscured , trapped, humiliated, and made into a mere tool of a narrative less interested in its characters than with introducing a trope, where sharing, commoning, is subject without agency or planning or discussion to the tragedy of the commons.too absurd to quite called tragedy and too bitter to write off as farce, we are left only with the sense of a terrible et fascinating dream.
Acknowledgements:
Phil Gonzales, thank you so much for these analyses. i loved hearing about the articles on sharing you found. i really want to read a couple of them, especially the spaceship earth ππ
also your love of not going to conferences but reading their programs is very endearing to me as an autistic person
Naomi Klein, for giving me a hyperfixation on Doppelgangers
footnote: π»βοΈ @arusha is right, Mama gets totally written out of the narrative while still herself wanting to use the pool. who is sharing here? no one, if we stipulate that with this particular order of zero sum resources means. paper is not taking his turn with the pool, neither is Mama, and the Cubs are not taking their turns out of the pool. but all the focus is on no one sharing with Papa and the Cubs are Disposesing Papa, cruel hypocritical strangely ignorant and oblivious Cubs, and Mama is completely sidelined. Poor Mama! Justice for Mama! Share and Share Alike Includes Sharing In Being A Character.
The Berenstain Bears' St. Patrick's Day by Mike Berenstain
a surreal descent into madness under the guise of death's brother sleep as our intrepid bears somnambulate through a pastiches' den of Irish stereotypes and synecdoches.
some titles I would like to see:
"The Berenstain Bears and The Day of the Dead" or "The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Muerte"
I think that would be visually very interesting, the Berenstain's Halloween Party book I read as a kid included some very nicely done skeleton costumes and costume in general and I think that could lend well to a portrayal of the festivities.
(would dressing up as skeletons and greeting children at shopping malls be doable?)
"The Berenstain Bears and the Limerick Soviet"
give me songs about how "We Care No More For Their Martial Law Than The Bearish Army Cares For You And Me"
"The Berenstain Bears and the Gnostics Gospels"
shortly after I stopped reading these books as a kid they came out with a line of Christian books. I feel like this could be a great opportunity to explore some of the lesser known/more occult traditions in religion.
"The Berenstain Bears and the Four Noble Truths"
I think they could give Brother some tools to deal with his canonical chronic anxiety.
"The Berenstain Bears Fight Fascism"
I just want to see Mama hurl a malotov cocktail into the window of known Billionbaire Squire Grizzly's car, is that so much to ask??
"The Berenstain Bears Land Acknowledgement"
we know from the day camp book that there used to be indigenous bears living where Bear Country now is. their camp counselor even did Red Face which I think even as a kid I knew was kinda fucked up?? Do better Bear family.
"The Berenstain Bears Blow Up A Pipeline"
could be a fun family activity idk
"The Berenstain Bears Meet Cthullu"
I think there should be an Old Gods Holiday where people (or bears) dress up as their favorite Eldritch deities and give out candy at shopping malls.
some titles I would like to see:
"The Berenstain Bears and The Day of the Dead" or "The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Muerte"
I think that would be visually very interesting, the Berenstain's Halloween Party book I read as a kid included some very nicely done skeleton costumes and costume in general and I think that could lend well to a portrayal of the festivities.
(would dressing up as skeletons and greeting children at shopping malls be doable?)
"The Berenstain Bears and the Limerick Soviet"
give me songs about how "We Care No More For Their Martial Law Than The Bearish Army Cares For You And Me"
"The Berenstain Bears and the Gnostics Gospels"
shortly after I stopped reading these books as a kid they came out with a line of Christian books. I feel like this could be a great opportunity to explore some of the lesser known/more occult traditions in religion.
"The Berenstain Bears and the Four Noble Truths"
I think they could give Brother some tools to deal with his canonical chronic anxiety.
"The Berenstain Bears Fight Fascism"
I just want to see Mama hurl a malotov cocktail into the window of known Billionbaire Squire Grizzly's car, is that so much to ask??
"The Berenstain Bears Land Acknowledgement"
we know from the day camp book that there used to be indigenous bears living where Bear Country now is. their camp counselor even did Red Face which I think even as a kid I knew was kinda fucked up?? Do better Bear family.
"The Berenstain Bears Blow Up A Pipeline"
could be a fun family activity idk
"The Berenstain Bears Meet Cthullu"
I think there should be an Old Gods Holiday where people (or bears) dress up as their favorite Eldritch deities and give out candy at shopping malls.
The Berenstain Bears God Made You Special by Mike Berenstain
0.0
"God Made You Special, But At What Cost"
-Phil Gonzales, 2025
-Phil Gonzales, 2025
The Berenstain Bears' New Neighbors by Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain
0.0
in which Papa Bear is a fucking racist
The Devil's Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth
2.25
there were some weird plot holes and inconsistencies especially towards right before the climax that I thought might be intentional in a shifting dream logic way but which I think were probably just oversights. we didn't really get enough characterization or explanation to make the murderer's motivations sense and the final red hearing is particularly confusing because they definitely also were doing crimes (destroying evidence, murdering) but that gets totally ignored. the whole thing with his boss was also frustrating; instead of subtlety laying the groundwork for an interesting twist or revelation, we just keep getting hammered over the head with how mysterious and morally unaligned he is, so that it's not really that much of a reveal when we find out his real identity. my reaction was essentially "oh, sure, why not, he might as well be that."
the whole time I was groaning because the text seemed so intent on making a hero out of Fool, the titular devil's detective, and of his profession, but was hoping this was a feint. I'm glad I withheld judgement; the last chapter makes it explicit just how hopeless and counterproductive hell's police are.
overall I feel like this could have been an excellent novel with some more revision. i am still curious about the sequel and will try to read it if I can find a copy at the library.
rating: somewhere between two and three stars
the whole time I was groaning because the text seemed so intent on making a hero out of Fool, the titular devil's detective, and of his profession, but was hoping this was a feint. I'm glad I withheld judgement; the last chapter makes it explicit just how hopeless and counterproductive hell's police are.
overall I feel like this could have been an excellent novel with some more revision. i am still curious about the sequel and will try to read it if I can find a copy at the library.
rating: somewhere between two and three stars