Ask Baba Yaga
by Taisia Kitaiskaia | Entertainment | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 9781449486815 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 9781449486815 Global Overview for this book
Registered by GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 1/16/2022
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
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.
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 GoryDetails 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. ***
[See other recent releases in NH here.]
*** Released for the 2022 e-less challenge. ***