Beverly Cleary is winner in third iteration of Greatest Seminar Speaker competition

Our third seminar speaker competition has come to an end, with the final round pitting Beverly “Ramona” Cleary against Laura “Ingalls” Wilder.

Before going on, I’d like to say that Alison Bechdel is the “Veronica Geng” of this particular competition, in that, even after she was defeated, she pretty much defined the parameters of the game. We’re still talking about her, whether or not she’s still in the running.

But the current matchup passes the Bechdel Test, so let’s move along.

Raghu writes:

I used my best slogan for Cleary (Cleary for the present!) in her prior round — a calculated risk, since it would have been worthless if Cleary hadn’t advanced. I am reminded of the dilemma of Karna in the Mahabharata, faced with the fearsome half-demon Ghatotkacha on the 15th day of the epic’s climactic war:

“Karna is unable to prevent Ghatotkacha from wreaking havoc on the Kaurava army, and even many of his celestial weapons are rendered useless. As the army breaks around him … Karna uses Vasavi Śhakti as a last resort. This weapon had been bestowed by Indra and could only be used once; Karṇa had been keeping it in reserve to use against Arjuna [his arch rival]. … The Pandavas were filled with grief at Ghatotkacha’s death. Krishna, however, couldn’t help but smile, knowing that Ghatotkacha has saved Arjuna from Karna.”

Cleary, then, is on her own.

Oncodoc leaps into the gap:

Let’s hear from Ms. Wilder. Her opinions without the editing imposed by her daughter might be interesting.

I don’t know about that! Rose was arguably the catalyst that made Laura’s writing so readable.

Dzhaughn riffs:

I remember these two together at a party out in the midwest summer home of William Carlos and Esther Williams. Beverly and John Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen were jamming, and I was chatting with Billy and Laura Ingalls Wilder and Melissa Gilbert and Brendan Sullivan besides some potted plants when suddently from the north i saw an olive helicopter with Michael Landon land on the roof. Right behind him were Lorne Greene and Zha Zha Gabor, Denis and Doodles Weaver, Spike Jones, Spike Jonze, Spike Lee and Peggy Lee. Paul Lynde right in the middle of everything. Everybody was shouting, Studs Terkel was roasting beef on the bbq with gin, flames everwhere, William Carlos and Esther Williams had to jump in the pool and started swimming laps. Garrison Keillor next door and said he was going to tell the story of this little house A Prairie Home Companion.

OK fine but I have no idea who this would support.

Diana plays it straight:

Cleary, for a simple reason: her books made me laugh many times.
I read all the Little House books as a kid, read some of them multiple times, but I don’t remember being made laugh by them.
Laughter during a seminar (here and there) is a good thing. Cleary can hold her own on the serious end too.

“She was not a slowpoke grownup. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

Lots of arguments here. We’ll have to go to the very first commenter, Anonymous Pigeon, for a weighing of the evidence:

While seminars should be informative, they should also be fun. Laura can tell a good story but looks at it with less of the fun approach of Beverly. 1 point to the creator of Ramona The Pest. Neither one of them is better than the other on the writing scale, at least in my opinion. No points attributed there. So overall, Beverly Cleary should win because she would be the best seminar speaker.

Agreed.

5 thoughts on “Beverly Cleary is winner in third iteration of Greatest Seminar Speaker competition

  1. Hey, I don’t know either, you’re the expert here!

    Overall, I see escape into childhood memories in the trajectory of the tournament. Li Wenwen v. Newton shows a preference for physical victory over understanding of gravity. And Leona is a cartoon witch.

    Sounds good to me. Thanks for a good time!

  2. This contest was a lot of fun! It’s interesting that children’s authors fared so well, but is it “escape into childhood memories” or is it that these people really do have big impact on us all?

    I’m also glad to see a fellow Oregonian win. You’ll have to put Ken Kesey in the next contest.

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