Part Snickers commercial and part Stephen King's Carrie for kids, this is sadly one of Stine's most phoned-in, obnoxious novels ever. Of course I'm suPart Snickers commercial and part Stephen King's Carrie for kids, this is sadly one of Stine's most phoned-in, obnoxious novels ever. Of course I'm sure it's more entertaining for ten-year-olds, who haven't been reading Stine for 25+ years and don't know his oft-reused plot devices by heart.
Still, us 90s kids will appreciate the novel's backstory--particularly Jimmy S. of Glencoe, Illinois, who won an official "Name a Goosebumps Book" contest in 1994. Over 1,600 titles were submitted and "Slime Doesn't Pay" was the winner. (The runner-up was “You, Me, and Monster Makes Three" if you're curious). According to the contest, the winning title would be transformed into a Goosebumps book. Apparently the contest gave no deadline for Stine, however, since it took him nearly 30 years to write it. And it's not even an official "Goosebumps" book at that.
There's a good chance the book never would have happened, but hardcore Goosebumps fans managed to track down Jimmy S (now co-founder of a brewing company) and even interviewed him in 2022. Renewed attention to the prize-winning title found its way back to Stine who pumped out the manuscript in record time.
Because Slime Doesn't Pay is such a love letter to fans, I decided to go with a very generous four stars. Otherwise it would have been two--maybe three, because of the cute illustrations....more
Research has, once again, taken me in strange directions. This 1866 pamphlet includes a transcription of the essay Rev. Courtenay Moore read before thResearch has, once again, taken me in strange directions. This 1866 pamphlet includes a transcription of the essay Rev. Courtenay Moore read before the Theological Society of Trinity College in Dublin.
I haven't been interested in religion for years, but this deep-in-the-archive discovery is actually fun to read. It's also a reminder of why I didn't completely hate Bible school back in the day. Essentially Moore conducts historical research and literary analysis to present arguments on the various viewpoints of what happens to the soul between death and "judgment day."
His sympathies clearly lie with belief that a soul maintains earthly existence during this time. You can eavesdrop on the living and gossip with other dead folk, for example. But be careful, this waiting area includes two tracks. One is an unpleasant pre-Hell and the other is a posh pre-Heaven where you gotta make a lot of small talk with Abraham, since that's his domain.
As a fan of ghosts, I'm all about this interpretation--for its spooky aesthetics if nothing else.
Moore does offer up alternate theories, however, including the argument for no "intermediate state" at all or, if it does exist, maybe it's only a period of unconscious sleep. In that case, you don't even realize it's happening.
As might be expected, much of Moore's evidence is pretty funny. To advocate for the intermediate state theory, he uses the example of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Moore feels it is "improbable" that Lazarus "would have been recalled to life in this world had his soul actually entered heaven." His reason? Well, "the difficulty" of necromancy is "considerably lessened" when the subject isn't already beamed off to Heaven, of course!
While his use of evidence and citations may not be substantial enough to pass an eighth-grade writing test, I have to congratulate Moore on simplifying a complex debate into a slim twenty pages. This topic haunted many theologians during the 19th century and several books, hundreds of pages in length, have been written on it.
Moore sums it all up nicely, and there's even a lovely conclusion where he writes that Christians should "make every possible allowance for differences of opinion, and judge candidly of notions opposed to our own." In today's toxic world of I'm-Right-You're-Wrong, particularly within religion, it's nice to see someone take the civil approach....more
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