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100 Books, #33: Claudia and the New Girl
Oct. 8th, 2013 12:14 amI have been trying to write a post about the Baby-Sitter’s Club book Claudia and the New Girl for basically forever, but it’s hard to get started because I have so many FEELINGS because CLAUDIA and ASHLEY and ART, OH MY FEELINGS OMG OMG OMG.
I first read this book when I was not quite eleven (I actually recorded it in my diary, so I have an exact date: June 8, 1999), so the feelings have had a lot of time to build up.
On a subtext scale from one to ten, Claudia and the New Girl is about an eleven. It’s not just that Claudia and Ashley become inseparable best buddies and art brain twins within days of meeting, but that there’s a physical awareness of each other in their actions. Claudia is a visually oriented character anyway, being an artist, and her narration usually includes a bunch of detail about what her friends are wearing, but with Ashley that goes into overdrive.
They first meet when Ashley, the new girl, shows up in Claudia’s English class. She looks, Claudia notes, “fragile and delicate” as she faces her new classmates. Then Ashley sits next to Claudia; and for the rest of the class, Claudia can’t stop glancing at her. On the fourth glance (Claudia’s counting, not me!) Ashley is looking at Claudia, too; and they both snap their eyes back to their papers; but then Claudia looks again, and Ashley is also looking at her.
And this is all before Ashley knows that Claudia is an artist. Ashley, also, is an artist, and it’s a plot point that she’s really only interested in Claudia because of their shared art interest - but no, it started before then; it just goes into overdrive when Ashley shows up in Claudia’s art class.
And she asks to see Claudia’s portfolio! Claudia: “On our first date?”
No, I’m making that up. But Claudia is more or less freaking out of her skin because what if Ashley doesn’t like her work and then Ashley says,“You’re very talented. I hope you know that” and Claudia is all “OMG OMG OMG.”
Claudia gets bad grades and can’t spell, and also has a sister who is a genius, and therefore has an overall pretty low opinion of her IQ. (I can’t remember if this is actually addressed in BSC, but I think you could make a good case that Claudia has dyslexia.) And the people in Claudia’s life tend to reflect this self-assessment; it’s not that Claudia’s BSC friends thinks she’s stupid, but they tend to take her at face value.
Whereas Ashley sees beyond that. She understands that Claudia is actually really smart despite her bad grades, and so when Claudia and Ashley talk, Claudia says things that she would never think to say otherwise - things that strike her as alarmingly smart. And also Ashley really understands about art, which no one else in Claudia’s life really does…
And so Claudia starts blowing off her friends to hang out with Ashley. Her friends are super mad about this, and pro-Ashley though I am, they have a point: Ashley is super intense, and she wants Claudia to commit herself totally toAshley art - and she just doesn’t get it when Claudia tries to explain that she’s interested in lots of things, her life is very big, and she doesn’t want to give that up.
Ashley: “You’re ruining your career, you know!”
I love Ashley’s intensity. She’s so serious and dedicated, and she seems to be really unable to joke around or make small talk. I think part of it is shyness, but it’s also arrogance: talking to people makes her anxious in part because she thinks (with some justification) that people her age won’t understand her or take her seriously.
And Ashley can’t stand not being taken serious. And finally she meets Claudia, who can talk to her on her level - and then the friendship falls apart...I don’t blame Claudia; Ashley demanded too much. But still, it must have been incredibly hard for Ashley.
So there are good reasons why this didn’t work out when they were thirteen. But I like to think if they met again - maybe in college - if they could get over their knotty history; if Ashley had mellowed a little, insofar as she's capable of mellowing, and Claudia became a little more focused…
They could light up the sky.
I first read this book when I was not quite eleven (I actually recorded it in my diary, so I have an exact date: June 8, 1999), so the feelings have had a lot of time to build up.
On a subtext scale from one to ten, Claudia and the New Girl is about an eleven. It’s not just that Claudia and Ashley become inseparable best buddies and art brain twins within days of meeting, but that there’s a physical awareness of each other in their actions. Claudia is a visually oriented character anyway, being an artist, and her narration usually includes a bunch of detail about what her friends are wearing, but with Ashley that goes into overdrive.
They first meet when Ashley, the new girl, shows up in Claudia’s English class. She looks, Claudia notes, “fragile and delicate” as she faces her new classmates. Then Ashley sits next to Claudia; and for the rest of the class, Claudia can’t stop glancing at her. On the fourth glance (Claudia’s counting, not me!) Ashley is looking at Claudia, too; and they both snap their eyes back to their papers; but then Claudia looks again, and Ashley is also looking at her.
And this is all before Ashley knows that Claudia is an artist. Ashley, also, is an artist, and it’s a plot point that she’s really only interested in Claudia because of their shared art interest - but no, it started before then; it just goes into overdrive when Ashley shows up in Claudia’s art class.
And she asks to see Claudia’s portfolio! Claudia: “On our first date?”
No, I’m making that up. But Claudia is more or less freaking out of her skin because what if Ashley doesn’t like her work and then Ashley says,“You’re very talented. I hope you know that” and Claudia is all “OMG OMG OMG.”
Claudia gets bad grades and can’t spell, and also has a sister who is a genius, and therefore has an overall pretty low opinion of her IQ. (I can’t remember if this is actually addressed in BSC, but I think you could make a good case that Claudia has dyslexia.) And the people in Claudia’s life tend to reflect this self-assessment; it’s not that Claudia’s BSC friends thinks she’s stupid, but they tend to take her at face value.
Whereas Ashley sees beyond that. She understands that Claudia is actually really smart despite her bad grades, and so when Claudia and Ashley talk, Claudia says things that she would never think to say otherwise - things that strike her as alarmingly smart. And also Ashley really understands about art, which no one else in Claudia’s life really does…
And so Claudia starts blowing off her friends to hang out with Ashley. Her friends are super mad about this, and pro-Ashley though I am, they have a point: Ashley is super intense, and she wants Claudia to commit herself totally to
Ashley: “You’re ruining your career, you know!”
I love Ashley’s intensity. She’s so serious and dedicated, and she seems to be really unable to joke around or make small talk. I think part of it is shyness, but it’s also arrogance: talking to people makes her anxious in part because she thinks (with some justification) that people her age won’t understand her or take her seriously.
And Ashley can’t stand not being taken serious. And finally she meets Claudia, who can talk to her on her level - and then the friendship falls apart...I don’t blame Claudia; Ashley demanded too much. But still, it must have been incredibly hard for Ashley.
So there are good reasons why this didn’t work out when they were thirteen. But I like to think if they met again - maybe in college - if they could get over their knotty history; if Ashley had mellowed a little, insofar as she's capable of mellowing, and Claudia became a little more focused…
They could light up the sky.
