Baldwin's Blitherings

Many students in HE2 yesterday were making connections between The Notebook and Salinger’s short stories… this upset me because I hate Nicholas Sparks. I will say that while the argument that both authors seem to often deal with class issues is totally relevant I can’t help but cringe and retch a little at the sound of his name.

I’m sorry people, he’s a one-trick pony, a recycler, a heart-string puller… you all fell for it! It’s okay though, so did most everyone. I even have male students that are forced to watch a Sparks flick with their girlfriends and they say, “Ah, I thought it wasn’t bad…” and I’m like, “Really?” Really really? Are you just saying that because she’s standing next to you?”

Honestly, if he just had The Notebook, I probably wouldn’t be so adverse. It would be one sad love story of class differences, and star-crossed lovers—but then he did it again… and again… and… again. Anne-Marie Bowman writes an interesting article about “The Rise of Movie Remakes”—and while Sparks is an author (making the offense much more heinous) I feel that she is right in that directors and producers recycling old ideas is now trickling down to the authors of books; “Well, people liked this one… why not just change the setting and names, and add a new disease… yea, that’ll win ‘em over!” And it does!

Am I against love stories? No. I did like Water for Elephants. I love Princess Bride (who doesn’t—it would be “inconceivable!”) But I am against super sappy love stories where everyone ALMOST gets together but then someone dies and you’re left crying your eyes out at the calamity of it all. And for Nick Sparks—this is a “rinse and repeat” type of plot line.