The Motion Picture Chums, AI, The Stratemeyer Syndicate … and Amish Romance Novels?
Volunteering at Julia’s, the used bookstore attached to my local Habitat ReStore, is a fun gig because I get this fascinating overview of random books that have made it to publication. Like: Motivating Your Man God’s Way and numerous Amish Romance novels. (Omg, I love reading the blurbs…Wanda Brunstetter, you are one prolific writer!)
(FOR THE RECORD, there are so, so many excellent books for sale at Julia’s, so please don’t let the aforementioned milieu dissuade you from popping in!)
Yesterday I saw these vintage books being prepared to shelve: The Motion Picture Chums.
Children’s literature has always relied on a group (ie “gang”) as a plot device, but “Motion Picture Chums” (lol) is throwing it waaaay back to the early 20th century.
Turns out the “author,” Victor Applebaum, is a pseudonym for the Stratemeyer Syndicate — also behind Nancy Drew and The Bobbsey Twins. The Syndicate was the brainchild of writer Edward Stratemeyer as a more financially viable and streamlined way to produce children’s books. Stratemeyer himself created the outlines and themes for ghostwriters, who used one of the pseudonyms that he owned.
Humans have enjoyed formulaic, easy-to-digest literature forever. And writing can be an “inefficient” process (depending on your vantage point). I could even go so far as to say that the Stratemeyer Syndicate was the early 20th century version of what we now call AI Slop. Of course that’s not a totally accurate comparison because it was, in fact, human effort that produced these tales. But it reminds me that there are two distinct reasons so many of us deplore the combo of AI and books.
1) The output often feels too simple and too smooth.
2) It devalues human effort and brainpower.
Personally, I give thumbs down to both, even before AI became part of our discourse. I don’t enjoy formulaic reads…but I know many do. (OK, I’m a book snob. But you should know that in 2024, the formulaic Love Me by Justin Bieber was my most played song. Sorrynotsorry it’s great for running.)
When it comes to not knowing who (or what) produces things we enjoy, this unfortunately isn’t a new concept. (See: Stratemeyer.) But … maybe we’re finally paying attention?
originally published on instagram