Ask Baba Yaga

Where's this book been?
by Taisia Kitaiskaia | Entertainment | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 9781449486815 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 1/16/2022
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Sunday, January 16, 2022
I got this softcover from an online seller, after reading about it as one of the inspirations for Jane Yolen's Finding Baba Yaga. I'd hoped it would feature humorous ancient-Russian-witch versions of responses to typical advice-column questions - but that isn't quite what we have here.

Oh, the questions are indeed typical, ranging from relationship issues to work/life balance to existential dread. But the answers... well, they get pretty odd at times, a mix of solid advice with poetic imagery and an unusual tone of voice. Some examples:

"She won't date me, what do I do" - a very common type of letter, with the writer describing all the reasons why the "I care for you but I won't date you" girl doesn't come around. The response opens with "You two are as potatoes overgrown with sprouted eyes, all tangled-up in each other's growth. Love there may be but sense there is not, so stop wishing for all to be so clean." Then there's this advice: "Nurse a map and go elsewhere, or accept that you both love the malaise & confusions, suck the rot from each other's toes, & wake for several more months to the consternation of yr silly vegetable faces, irritable and not wholly adoring." So, yeah, basically good advice, but oh, that phrasing!

Then there's "Will I die alone?":

"Dear Baba Yaga,
My best friend just got engaged and all I can do is weep, left alone as the last of the single ladies in my circle of friends. How do I suck it up, move on, and be happy for her and her happiness when all I do is fear I will die alone, eaten by squirrels and badgers in the wilderness? How do I find my own happiness along the way?

BABA YAGA:
Everyone dies, alone in their own cauldron — yr death will be no more or less gruesome than any other’s. & happiness is a thing that passes through you, not a thing you meet & hold in yr deathly grip for ever afterwards. You are afraid; of being the last at a party without the others, but the others have gone on into a wood they do not, understand. It is the same wood you stand in, weeping. & the trees look at all of you the same, & say nothing."

I actually like that answer quite a lot, but it is a pretty blunt response to a question that would normally get answers along the lines of "Yeah, it can be tough; try volunteering or take up a new hobby, get some exercise - that can help take your mind off of things."

Often interesting and philosophical, sometimes very blunt and even crude - not what I'd expected, but it has its points!

Many of the "Ask Baba Yaga" posts are currently available on "The Hairpin" web site, here.

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at LFL - Cross St. #31 in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Monday, November 14, 2022

Released 1 yr ago (11/14/2022 UTC) at LFL - Cross St. #31 in Nashua, New Hampshire USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2022 e-less challenge. ***

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.