Food made by the Devil himself In 2022, we happily left SnackWell’s brand cookies behind. The product was discontinued last year. Good riddance. For those of you fortunate enough not to have encountered these dubious treats, SnackWell’s was a brand of cookies that emerged during the 1990s heroin chic low-fat diet era. Every Clinton era kid tasted the signature Devil’s Food cookie cakes at least once. Our moms bought them en masse along with Susan Powter diet books and Richard Simmons exercise tapes.
This was a great read, and it was just a bit encouraging as it dovetails into a lot of my own thoughts on refusing to write empowerment narratives. Yes, I write about traumatized or disenfranchised people, but I would rather sit with them in those feelings than write bland power fantasy where their wrongs are cleanly, conveniently righted without any of the ugliness that these things would take.
I had repressed those horrible cookies from my mind until I saw the box and memories came flooding back. They tasted horrible. Thank god my mom only bought them once. But they are a good comparison.
As I read more and more literature I find it difficult to enjoy a lot of contemporary SFF because it feels cheap and hollow by comparison. Like a potato chip versus a baked potato. That isn’t to say there isn’t good SFF (A Memory Called Empire is quite richly constructed), it’s just that so much of it takes it’s cues from less inspired places (pop culture, fanfic).
This was a great read, and it was just a bit encouraging as it dovetails into a lot of my own thoughts on refusing to write empowerment narratives. Yes, I write about traumatized or disenfranchised people, but I would rather sit with them in those feelings than write bland power fantasy where their wrongs are cleanly, conveniently righted without any of the ugliness that these things would take.
I remember eating those cookies at my grandmother's house. Fabulous essay. I didn't know that about House on the Cerulean Sea. Gross.
I had repressed those horrible cookies from my mind until I saw the box and memories came flooding back. They tasted horrible. Thank god my mom only bought them once. But they are a good comparison.
As I read more and more literature I find it difficult to enjoy a lot of contemporary SFF because it feels cheap and hollow by comparison. Like a potato chip versus a baked potato. That isn’t to say there isn’t good SFF (A Memory Called Empire is quite richly constructed), it’s just that so much of it takes it’s cues from less inspired places (pop culture, fanfic).