Last year, a conservative book publisher released two box sets of Hardy Boys children’s mystery novels; the announcement proudly declared that the books had been “restored” to their original (often problematic) form, and declared them “the perfect introduction for reading to young people. But as Daniel Lefferts discovered when he reread both versions, there’s more to life in Bayport than what those who bemoan the “woke mind virus” might assume.
From the perspective of the far right, the Hardy brothers serve as the ideal embodiments of this fantasy: strapping young white males who are strong of body and clear of mind, resourceful and courageous and self-sufficient, willing to go to any length to protect their community from enemies who are often “dark” in appearance and of foreign extraction. They live in a perpetual summertime, never aging, never changing, never failing to restore their lives to the way they once were, before the arrival of people with strange names and sinister motives.
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Do You Actually Have to Finish That Novel?
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“Cynthia Zarin traces the rise of fascism through the diary entries of Virginia Woolf.”
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“Robert Munsch wrote ‘The Paper Bag Princess,’ ‘Love You Forever’ and other classics by performing them over and over for kids. But his stories are slipping away.”
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“As reading declines and self-censorship grows, bookshops are shuttering in the city once hailed as the Arab world’s publishing capital.”
Is Mary Oliver Embarrassing?
“Shame seemed like an obstacle to appreciating the poet. Instead, it became the key to understanding her work.”
Our Narrative Prison
“The three-act ‘hero’s journey’ has long been the most prominent kind of story. What other tales are there to tell?”
