When Obama mentioned Sotomayor's Nancy Drew obsession — one shared, incidentally, by Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg — in his nomination speech, Robin Givhan called it a calculated move to gain the empathy of Americans through allegiance to a relatively mainstream, inoffensive heroine. Meghan O'Rourke thinks Sotomayor's taste for the books shows her reliance on intuition. Caroline Reitz, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says students with backgrounds like Sotomayor's — "city kids often the first ones to go to college" — enjoy Nancy Drew for "the lack of ambiguity in her world." And Sotomayor herself talked a bit about her childhood reading on Friday to MSNBC's Barbara McCluskey, praising Drew's "spirit of adventure." We asked Cain to weigh in on these issues — the lessons and politics of Nancy Drew, and how they relate to Sonia Sotomayor as a potential Justice. Our questions, and her answers, are below:

— Can you describe the politics of the Nancy Drew books? What is their attitude, if any, toward race, class, gender? Do the characters ever explicitly discuss political issues?

There's no overt politics in Nancy Drew books. They're conservative, in the sense that the status-quo must be maintained. Order must be restored. Nancy's father – world-renown attorney Carson Drew, certainly would have voted for Hoover. But Nancy herself has a liberal bent – she is always lending a hand to orphans and the elderly – a true Roosevelt democrat. Race is tricky in the books. The language is dated. "Orientals" abound. And there are a disproportionate number of "ethnic" heavies in the original stories. (For a town in the middle of nowhere, River Heights, was remarkably diverse – it had a Chinatown.) But there are also ethnic characters who are the victims of crime, and who are rescued by Nancy and treated respectfully. The books are much clearer on class. Nancy and her father are upper middle class. They live in a colonial. They have a housekeeper. Other characters are often defined by their class trappings. They are either wealthy people who have fallen on hard times, or very poor people, or hard working people. The early books especially pay a great deal of attention to issues of money, probably because they were written during the depression, so it was hard to ignore. Many of Nancy's mysteries involve Bad People trying to steal property from Good People. Gender. Well, Nancy's friend George was totally a lesbian. She had short hair (!) and "loved her boy's name." Nancy's other friend Bess was "pretty and plump," and afraid of her own shadow. So these two gender extremes bookended Nancy, who fell somewhere in between. She was "slim and attractive," and always well put together. She liked girly things like ballet. But she was also brave and confident and could drive a boat and change a tire.

— What are Nancy Drew's values as a character?

She's independent and curious and a problem-solver. She's also vain (she and George mock Bess mercilessly for being plump) and is always committing petty crimes like breaking and entering and driving over the speed limit.

— Is Nancy Drew a feminist? Are the Nancy Drew books feminist books?

I'm going to argue yes. I think the reason that Nancy has appealed to so many generations of girls is that she is such a strong female archetype. She solves problems by herself. She's capable and confident. Sure, she's always getting chloroformed and stuffed in a trunk, but she's gets herself out of it. She's independent. She's smart. Even Chief McGinnis asks her for help solving crimes. And she can crack a code and perform first aid. There are troubling (less feminist) attributes to her character, too. We are reminded endlessly of her popularity and good looks. But I think she makes up for it. And she rescues the men in her life (her father, and "special friend" Ned Nickerson) way more than they rescue her.

— What does it say about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor that she loved Nancy Drew as a child, and that she chose to make this fact public? How might the lessons of Nancy Drew apply to issues before the Supreme Court, like abortion, affirmative action, etc.? How might these lessons apply to the work of being a Justice in general?

I think it speaks well of Sonia Sotomayor that she read as a kid. She loved books. I don't know that it even matters which books. And I think that more than anything that is the greatest legacy of the Nancy Drew books. They were gateway reading. Girls picked them up, fell in love with the mysteries and adventure. And then put them down and picked up something better.

Much has been made of Sotomayor's reading choices, but maybe we should be glad that she read at all — and that she can remember what she read. Givhan and O'Rourke see Sotomayor's Nancy Drew period as a predictor of her adult character, but Cain's analysis is more modest — for her, Nancy Drew was just a stepping stone on the way to what has obviously become a successful and varied intellectual life. Not earthshaking, perhaps, but not bad for a girl sleuth whose hobbies were breaking and entering, eating cinnamon toast, and trying on dresses at the local department store.

Nancy Drew And The Secret Of The 3 Black Robes [New York Times]
Sonia Sotomayor And Nancy Drew? The Connections Are No Mystery. [Washington Post]
What Does Sotomayor's Love for Nancy Drew Tell Us About Her? [Double X]
Confessions Of A Teen Sleuth: A Parody [Amazon]

As a nerd, I devoured books the way other people ate sweets. My aunt timed and quizzed me once because she was sure that I wasn't reading that fast, but I was. What that meant was that I needed a practically unlimited supply of appropriate young adult books or else my parents were going to come home from work and catch me reading my dad's SciFi tomes, and Robert Heinlein is not appropriate for young girls. I hit a point pretty early on where Babysitters Club was more dessert than intellectual dinner, not that it stopped me from reading and re-reading, but I wanted something more hardy.

This is where Nancy Drew came in handy — although, not the shitty remade versions from the late eighties where she was meaner and more popular and the series was more edgy. I liked that there was a mystery but the themes weren't too adult (unlike those slutty Sweet Valley High girls), I liked that she had a couple of close friends but was sort of more isolated from everyone else her own age, and I liked that she always won even when she was up against people who were older or richer because she was smart. I liked the idea that the smart girl would always win and that she could be happy even if she wasn't the coolest kid around, and I guess this is all saying that I totally identified with her even if I never wanted to be a detective or wear a tweed skirt (though I now own 3, so, apparently I did).

I never did see the movie. Like most of the books that sustained me through my incredibly awkward childhood and increasingly pathetic adolescence, the Nancy on the screen was never going to be able to be the Nancy in my head, and I am still not willing to give that Nancy up. She was the better version of me, the one Brian Keenan would've liked back. But by the 5th grade, I was on to having a crush on Doug DiBlasio, my braces were gone, I squinted instead of wore glasses and got totally obsessed with Little Women. That's what's in the bag I'm carrying, actually, and I swear I'm not grinning just because I'm standing next to Brian.

I didn't get rid of the bangs until the 9th grade.

Nancy Drew: Curious, Independent and Usually Right [NPR]

• Karl Lagerfeld has commissioned 15 contemporary artists to create works inspired by his iconic quilted Chanel bag for a two-year touring exhibit. Kind of interesting how iconic handbags are like the Virgin Mary of now. Maybe in twenty years people will be seeing Hermes Birkin bags in their grilled cheese sandwiches and selling them on eBay. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• The dress will remain the dominant fashion trend through Spring 2008, according to the owner of luxury retailer Louis Boston, who makes some weird reference to American global hegemony. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Dooney & Bourke releases a line of bags named for Emma Roberts (Julia's niece and current star of "Nancy Drew"), with prices ranging from $210 to $235. Remember how when you were reading Nancy Drew, you thought $215 was like, enough to buy a house? Ah, kids today! [WWD, 1st item]
  
• It's a boy for supermodel Eva Herzigova and her Italian businessman common law husband. Remember how she did all those Wonderbra ads, haha? Lactation jokes never get old! [Vogue UK]
  
• Fashion muse Isabella Blow's widower Detmar hopes to create a museum to house his late wife's extensive clothing collection, is "hoping all the people she helped in her life will cough up some money to get this up and running." Ooh, subtle! [Vogue UK]
  
• Why should European luxury brands expand in China and India when there are still soooo many [brace yourselves! Fave word alert!] aspirational middle Americans stuck with Coach? [Fashion Inc.]