The "o-bitch-uary" "trend"

As "that guy" on the Whitney Houston thread (sans snark), leading to some all-time SportsJournalists.com throwdowns, I feel obligated to post this Slate column on snarky, contrarian obits:

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/roiphe/2012/02/jan_berenstain_dies_we_attack_her_.html

I understand the siren call of the contrarian position, the irrepressible desire to say the thing other people are too decent or cautious or conventional or polite to say, and yet I wonder if the right time to say that thing about someone is hours after you hear they have died. I wonder if the absolute opportune moment to attack a writer, say, is as their family plans a funeral, as their children experience that feeling Freud describes as being “torn up by the roots.”

Just yesterday, Slate’s Hanna Rosin, my own beloved editor, wrote: “The world today brings news that Jan Berenstain, co-author with her husband Stan, of the 45 years and running Berenstain Bears series for children, has passed on to a better world. As any right thinking mother will agree, good riddance.”

 

Re: The "o-bitch-uary" trend

I think such comments say more about the commenter than the recently departed.

 

Re: The "o-bitch-uary" trend

Amen, Dan.

Is there some groundswell of hate for the Berenstain Bears that I don't know about, or is this writer just a master of the clever Web form of hating everything at all times? My kids always rather enjoyed the books.

 

Re: The "o-bitch-uary" trend

Surprised me, too.

I think it's one thing to deliver an unvarnished assessment of someone's legacy - Paterno, for example. Or, yes, Whitney Houston.

But it sounds like celebrity and quasi-celebrity deaths are becoming just the latest canvas for the snark patrol to strut their stuff upon.

 

Re: The "o-bitch-uary" trend

Yes, the Magary, bro reader, GRRRRRR!!!!, even the purest things on the planet suck (because I said so) school of essay writing.

 

Re: The "o-bitch-uary" trend

Didn't read it, and an obit is not the place for such a point, but I don't like my kids reading them (we have a few, but there is so much else out there). Not much positive in them (like Franklin for example) and too often the key plot-line is that the Dad is a moron.

 

Re: The "o-bitch-uary" trend

Is that why my wife is such a fan?

 

Re: The "o-bitch-uary" trend

I loved the books as a kid. Don't know how involved she was with the PBS series, but that was ham-handed overmoralizing dreck.

 

Re: The "o-bitch-uary" trend

Rosin is married to Slate editor David Plotz.

 

Re: The "o-bitch-uary" trend

Sadly, idiotic snarky obits get read for being idiotic and snarky, while the professsional non-editorials just get read.

Loved the Bears. Shame on anyone who would say 'good riddance' about an 88-yr-old lady who dedicated her life to writing for children. Disgusting.

But to call it a 'trend' is seems an absurd generalization.

 

Michael Cera played the voice of Brother Bear for a few seasons. That's all I've got.

Well, that, and a general concern that any family that refuses to call each other by given names but instead relies on calling themselves "Daddy Bear," "Momma Bear," "Brother Bear" and "Sister Bear" are somewhat suspicious. Possibly part of some sort of cult. But I could be reading too much into that.

Anyway, RIP Jan Berenstain!

 

The Berenstain Bears And The Smartass Writer.