#like Frederick didn't try to get her eaten by a spider

[alexandersimpleton]

I'm not upset about the CPC getting angry at Frederick and only accepting him once he's better, I'm angry that they do that and just accept Aurelia. Aurelia is worse now than Frederick was at the start of the series, and they're not doing SHIT.

Like I just read a post about how Aurelia shouldn't be given as much crap as she does because she's a teen, and like dude you're completely right, but it's also like I'm pretty sure Frederick is younger than she is and the CPC actually tried to drug him over an insult and never fucking apologized.

[youngestrunningleek]

Stuart Little

I just recently read Stuart Little, written in 1945 by E.B. White, so I'll review it here as my first review.

Beware! I will be talking about plot details, including the end. And a big part of the experience for me was that I didn't know where the story would go next.

Overview

    It's about a boy(?) named Stuart Little. It's hard to say much more than that, because there's no central thread. I can pitch Charlotte's Web to you: there is a pig and the barn animals, especially the spider Charlotte, are trying to keep him from getting eaten. This book, though? It's just... about Stuart Little.

    It has a really great opening line: "When Mrs. Frederick C. Little's second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse." In the first edition, the line is that he "was born". The book isn't very specific about whether he's a mouse, or a boy who just looks like a mouse.

 My Thoughts

I loved it, and I don't know what to make of it. I am glad such a strange book is considered a classic, even if I don't understand why. It's hilariously matter-of-fact, almost deadpan. Yeah, he could walk as soon as he was born. He's in love with a bird. There's an invisible car. Deal with it.

I really, really loved the bits about how Stuart lives. Early chapters explain how he gets clothes, how he gets around, and the challenges of raising a mouse-boy. It's actually a great message. People don't question his different needs, they just accommodate him. I could read an entire book about the challenges of being the size of a mouse in a world built for human-sized people. And I did! And I want more!

There's a great deal of attention paid to his clothes. From the first chapter: "Before he was many days old he was not only looking like a mouse but acting like one, too-- wearing a gray hat and carrying a small cane." Does E. B. White know what a mouse is? Is that the problem? A few sentences later, Mrs. Little makes Stuart "a fine little blue worsted suit with patch pockets in which he could keep his handkerchief, his money, and his keys." At another point he wears "a pepper-and-salt jacket, old striped trousers, a Windsor tie, and spectacles." And the whole book is like that. Stuart is a little gentleman. The world's smallest dandy.

     It kind of reads like E. B. White wasn't editing, at all. Pure 'yes and', no revisions. Or, it's like a group storytelling game, where everybody contributes one sentence at a time.

    After a few chapters of little adventures, he decides to run away from home to find the bird Margalo. And we never see her, or Stuart's family, again.

    There's a non sequitur chapter where he becomes a schoolteacher for a day, and I don't think it relates to anything that comes before or after.

    There's an invisible car, like I mentioned. Unironically, halfway through the book, Stuart's doctor friend gives him a miniature car that can turn invisible. What? That wasn't part of the premise!

    There's also a human girl, the same size as Stuart, in the later part of the book. Where did that come from? She's small like him, but she doesn't look like a mouse.

    It's like the reverse of Chekov's gun. Something new could be introduced at any moment, and something could be dropped at any moment.     To be crystal clear, I enjoy this. I like the unpredictability. And, it must be well-written somehow, because even with how odd it gets, I never lost my suspension of disbelief.     This would be an excellent exercise in storytelling. I'd ask children what they think will happen in the next chapter.     Even the ending is a kind of curveball: a telephone repairman talks for a long time about how great North is, as a direction. And then Stuart keeps driving.      Overall, I liked it, even if I don't know if it's well-written. It seemingly breaks a lot of rules about writing. It's profoundly weird from a storytelling perspective, so I'm glad it's somehow a popular book. I give it a 3/5 overall, and a 4/5 for me, personally. For further reading: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/07/21/the-lion-and-the-mouse This article talks about children's books and how Stuart Little was part of a fight over what children's book should be. Anne Carroll Moore is a fascinating historical figure. Sorry, I have no scanner, so here's some pictures of Garth Williams' illustrations.

Stuart is on a branch with the human-shaped girl, Harriet. He's dressed like a human, but he has a tail and a face like a mouse.

In the second, she's watching him swim and his furry body is on display as he looks at her. P.S.: Since my specific focus is on rats, I feel like I should bring up the one major time they're mentioned in the book. During the schoolteacher chapter, Stuart gets very mad at being compared to a rat. He's very distinctly not a rat, and doesn't want to be mistaken for one.

[alexandersimpleton]

So, I don't remember who it was, but someone keeps talking about how the Webtoon comment sections are bias against women and not men.

This is an actual fucking comment on the episode about a group of adults trying to drug a 17 year boy with spiked tea, getting angry at him for being scared of them, and at one point trying to crash his skull open with a fucking tea pot

The vast majority of comments on this episode are "lol, Freddy is so scared" or talking about Whitney, and even those who don't condone this behavior think it's only wrong because he's a better person now. Let me reiterate, the Webtoon comment section think a FUCKING CHILD being a brat makes them deserving of being intimidated, threatened and physically assaulted by several grown-ass adults!

And this is the comment section of when Frederick calls Gwen ugly

I'm sorry whoever keeps talking about it, but I'm not fucking buying it

JUST FUCKING LOOK AT THIS

And nobody give me shit about how calling a girl you just met ugly behind her back because you're stressed out about being forced into a life you didn't want is somehow worse than trying to drug a child, because this is the comment section of when Aurelia did THE EXACT SAME FUCKING THING, but the only motive being jealousy and to Gwen's face while trying to get her kicked out by her club and almost getting her EATEN BY A GIANT SPIDER

There are less comments giving Aurelia shit than Frederick! Not the same amount, fucking LESS!

This is when Blaine told his brother that Blaine ever loved him, he was a worthless loser and that he belongs at the very bottom before leaving him in a hole in the ground without human contact to get eaten by the rats

And this is when he indirectly called a girl ugly via slip of the tongue because her sister used his own insecurities (which he never told anyone other than her and probably won't tell anyone ever again for a VERY long time, mind you) against him

(a lot of stuff happened that chapter, but trust me most of the Blaine comments are like this)

DO I NEED MORE EXAMPLES!? ARE YOU NOT YET CONVINCED