coyote's corner

Here it is....
Peace,
Janis
----- Original Message -----
From: "coyote's corner" <coyote@...>
To: <alwaysLearning@yahoogroups. com>
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 6:57 AM
Subject: Fw: [Stumps] Green Eggs and Subversion, Dr Seuss, Toronto
Globe,20031123


> Good Morning,
> As a follow-up to the "Cat in the Hat" posts...I thought I'd send this in.
> It offers great information about the books and the author....
> Peace,
> Janis
> Coyotes Corner
> Very Cool Stuff for the World
> Free Shipping until Dec. 21st!!
> <www.coyotescorner.com>
> 401-438-7678
>
>
> Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 5:10 PM
> Subject: [Stumps] Green Eggs and Subversion, Dr Seuss, Toronto
> Globe,20031123
>
>
> >
>
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031123.wseuss1123/BNStory/Entertainment/
> >
> > Green eggs and subversion
> >
> > By SARAH MILROY
> > Globe and Mail Update
> >
> > POSTED AT 8:57 AM EST Sunday, Nov. 23, 2003
> >
> > Dr. Seuss. Even his name is a mystery. We all know the characters he
> created:
> > the Grinch (which he claimed was a self-portrait), Horton the Elephant,
> the
> > Star-Belly Sneetches, the Whos and, of course, his most famous creation,
> the
> > Cat in the Hat, who springs to the silver screen across North America
this
> > weekend in his newest, Mike Myers incarnation.
> >
> > But who the deuce was Seuss? Tell me, oh tell me, oh tell me, by Zeus!
> >
> > I'll tell you, I'll tell you, I'll tell you, by Zeus, in a way that I
pray
> > will be not too abstruse.
> >
> > Theodor Seuss Geisel, who died at 87 in his La Jolla, Calif., home on
> Sept.
> > 24, 1991, was born in Springfield, Mass., the son of a brew master of
> German
> > ancestry. With prohibition, his father lost his business and became the
> local
> > parks superintendent responsible for, among other things, the zoo. His
son
> > Theodor liked to hang about the cages, drawing the animals.
> >
> > Geisel went on to be educated at Dartmouth College and then at Oxford
> (where
> > he studied Voltaire and Swift), coming back to the United States in 1927
> to
> > work as creative talent in the advertising industry. Esso, NBC Radio and
> Ford
> > were among his clients. Later, during the Second World War, he also
tried
> his
> > hand as a political cartoonist, publishing his rambunctious anti-fascist
> > satires in Judge, Vanity Fair, Life and PM, the legendary left-wing New
> York
> > newspaper. In 1941, Geisel was conscripted to work in the U.S. Special
> > Services Division's Signal Corps Unit in Hollywood, under Frank Capra,
> > creating films such as Hitler Lives and Design for Death -- both of
which
> won
> > Oscars.
> >
> > Meanwhile, back in 1937, he had launched himself as a children's book
> writer
> > and illustrator with the publication of And to Think That I Saw it on
> Mulberry
> > Street (which was rejected by 27 publishers before he found a taker). To
> date,
> > Geisel's 61 works for children have sold more than a half-billion copies
> > around the world.
> >
> > Next year, their maker will be celebrated across the United States with
a
> > series of "Seussentennial" events marking the 100th anniversary of his
> birth
> > -- from touring theatre shows to art exhibitions -- all generated by the
> > California-based Dr. Seuss Enterprises, a privately owned company headed
> up by
> > his widow, Audrey.
> >
> > Canada, too, is getting in on the act. This month, as theatre queues are
> > forming across the land for The Cat in the Hat, the Art Gallery of Nova
> Scotia
> > is Grinching it up with their own Whoville extravaganza: elaborate stage
> sets
> > and murals of Seuss décor, which frame drawings borrowed from the
> Mandeville
> > Special Collections Library at the University of California at San
Diego,
> the
> > repository of Geisel's drawings and papers.
> >
> > Despite all this attention, the author's motivations in writing the
works
> are
> > still largely unexplored, or worse, dismissed as mere whimsy. We even
> > pronounce his name wrong. Seuss, in fact, rhymes with "zoice" -- it was
> > Geisel's mother's maiden name. (His outsider status as a child of German
> > immigrant stock contributed, no doubt, to his lifelong shyness and
> distrust of
> > the limelight. During the First World War, he was nicknamed "the Kaiser"
> by
> > his schoolmates.) Geisel adopted the name Seuss when he was a student at
> > Dartmouth, where he studied English and contributed to the
Jack-O-Lantern
> > college newspaper. Caught drinking in his room with his friends, he was
> > suspended by the dean from the magazine as punishment, but he continued
to
> > work under his assumed name. The "Dr." honorific was adopted later,
after
> his
> > departure from Oxford University, when he abandoned his academic career,
> and
> > his father's ambitions that he would become a Ph.D., to pursue his love
of
> > drawing and cartooning.
> >
> > The very name Dr. Seuss is thus a product of Geisel's disobedience and
> refusal
> > to conform, and this is important. Geisel was a genius, and the flavour
of
> his
> > genius is iconoclastic, revolutionary.
> >
> > In the fertile garden of American childhood of the postwar period,
Geisel
> > quietly sowed the seeds of critique in works that champion justice, the
> power
> > of the imagination and the rights of the little guy, banishing
conformity
> and
> > authoritarianism and even the conventions of language itself.
> >
> > While the earlier books have their adherents, most true Seuss
connoisseurs
> > agree that the "essential Seuss" is 1957's The Cat in the Hat, which can
> be
> > read as a general call to arms for creative anarchy and freedom. The cat
> is
> > the trickster, an agent of change who wreaks havoc in stultifying
fifties
> > suburbia.
> >
> > But Geisel's other works tackle a host of political issues with
increasing
> > explicitness. The Butter Battle Book, with its escalating, fear-driven
> contest
> > between the Yooks and the Zooks, is a cautionary tale about nuclear
> > proliferation. Horton Hears a Who brings us a kindhearted elephant who
> saves
> > the kingdom of microscopic Whos from extinction. (Are the Whos the
Jews?)
> >
> > Yertle the Turtle is, by the author's admission, a take on Hitler's rise
> to
> > power. (In early drafts, Yertle sports the Fuhrer's short-cropped
> mustache.)
> > And in The Sneetches, a capitalist named Sylvester McMonkey McBean
profits
> > from the trade in imprinting and erasing stars on the bellies of the
> > trend-conscious bird-like beasts, manipulating their desire like the
> expert
> > Madison Avenue ad man Geisel himself once was. (These stars are also,
for
> many
> > readers, an echo of the Star of David borne by Jews in Hitler's
Germany.)
> >
> > Geisel's own favourite of his books, however, was The Lorax, in which
the
> > rapacious Once-ler discovers the profits to be made from chopping down
all
> the
> > truffula trees, building factories and convincing the masses of the need
> for
> > thneeds (an ambiguous knitted garment), which he produces in his
> > pollution-spewing textile factory. The Swomee Swans fly away looking for
> fresh
> > air, and the Humming-Fish die. At the end, just one seed is left from
> which
> > regeneration might begin anew, held aloft by the Lorax, a short and
fuzzy
> > prophet of environmental doom, and a repository of wisdom for the
future.
> >
> > Readings of the book have taken place in anti-logging rallies from the
> Pacific
> > Northwest to Australia, and several U.S. school boards have been
> petitioned,
> > unsuccessfully, to censor the book, with Seuss detractors alleging that
it
> > misrepresents the forest-products industry.
> >
> > Together these works are delicately coded moral parables on the perils
of
> > capitalism, xenophobia and intolerance.
> >
> > Geisel's biographer, Neil Morgan (who wrote the definitive Dr. Seuss and
> Mr.
> > Geisel with his wife, Judith), insists on the central importance of
> political
> > ideas in Geisel's work, but says that the artist thought of it rather
just
> as
> > ethics, as a case of teaching kids, and maybe their parents, what's
right
> and
> > wrong.
> >
> > "I'm subversive as hell," Geisel declared in an interview decades
earlier,
> > shortly after winning the Pulitzer Prize. "The Cat in the Hat is a
revolt
> > against authority, but it's ameliorated by the fact that the cat cleans
up
> > everything in the end. It's revolutionary in that it goes as far as
> Kerensky
> > and then stops. It doesn't quite go as far as Lenin."
> >
> > The origins of The Cat in the Hat, too, are political -- in the broadest
> sense
> > of empowering the powerless. Geisel was of the opinion that "too many
> writers
> > have only contempt and condescension for children, which is why we give
> them
> > degrading corn about bunnies." Clearly, they deserved better.
> >
> > Responding to dropping literacy rates, his publisher Bennett Cerf
> challenged
> > Geisel to write a book using just 220 easy-to-read words, a book that
> children
> > could read on their own, and an antidote to the dreary wholesomeness of
so
> > much early reading. (Green Eggs and Ham, which followed it, was written
> using
> > just 50 words.) It was, as Geisel put it, "a way of kicking Dick and
Jane
> out
> > of the school system."
> >
> > The result was a sensation and The Cat and the Hat has since been the
> subject
> > of many an academic foray. Heinz Insu Fenkl, director of creative
writing
> at
> > the State University of New York at New Paltz, who has written on
Seuss's
> > relationship to alchemy and cabalistic thought, describes the way in
which
> cat
> > (id) and fish (superego) battle for domination of the children. He
notes,
> as
> > well, that the absence of the mother makes the story frightening.
> >
> > Fenkl points to the ending as particularly charged, with the reader
asked:
> > "What would you do if your mother asked you?" Would you disclose the
truth
> > about the day, or conceal it? "Children who read this understand
> profoundly
> > the nature of this transgression," he argues. "They understand that the
> > culture of children is actually quite different than that of adults,
that
> > there are things that you keep from adults."
> >
> > Other interpretations are more political in focus. Art Spiegelman, in
his
> > essay accompanying Richard Minear's Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War
> II
> > Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel, posits the cat as a
> permutation of
> > Uncle Sam in his stovepipe hat. (In many of Geisel's earlier political
> > cartoons, the U.S. is figured as a busted-down eagle in a high hat.)
> >
> > It's worth noticing that The Cat in the Hat was written not long after
the
> > Americans ended their peacetime occupation of Germany and Japan. Can it
be
> > read, one wonders, as a parable of American interventionism, with Geisel
> > implying, albeit subliminally, that the United States always cleans up
its
> > mess? (Okay, so he had a few all-American blind spots.) Still, it's not
so
> > far-fetched when you consider that he declared Horton Hears a Who to be
> > inspired by the plight of the Japanese following the war.
> >
> > The cat also serves as the distillation of a number of figures from
> children's
> > literature. He's a cousin of Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter, another famous
> > subversive, but his oversized bow tie suggests Mickey Mouse, as do the
> white
> > gloves. (Or do we detect a touch of Al Jolson here?) Fenkl notes, too,
the
> way
> > we read Geisel's stories differently as we age, with the narratives
taking
> on
> > new meanings from our more adult perspectives. "Classic German fairy
tales
> > function in just this way," he says.
> >
> > The Cat in the Hat is not the only Dr. Seuss work to be subjected to
close
> > analysis. Philip Nel of Kansas State University is the author of the
> > forthcoming scholarly book, Dr. Seuss: American Icon, cataloguing
Geisel's
> > accomplishments and analyzing his legacy. In the course of his research,
> Nel
> > has managed to scare up some exotic academic interpretations. Jonathan
> Cott,
> > for example, has compared And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
to
> > Goethe's The Erl-King, an interpretation that Geisel evidently endorsed.
> > (Goethe's story was a favourite of his in childhood.) There is also Mary
> > Galbraith's Agony in the Kindergarten: Indelible German Images in
American
> > Picture Books, which, Nel says, "reads Mulberry Street and H. A. Rey's
> Curious
> > George in terms of intersections between the author-illustrators' lives
> and
> > German and American history and identity."
> >
> > Alison Lurie's The Cabinet of Dr. Seuss examines the negative image of
> women
> > in Seuss's books. (It's true -- they are usually the party poopers.)
Naomi
> > Goldenberg's lecture A Feminist, Psychoanalytic Exegesis of The Cat in
the
> Hat
> > reads The Cat in the Hat Comes Back as a "masculine attempt to overcome
> womb
> > envy." And Shira Wolosky's Democracy in America: By Dr. Seuss interprets
> > Geisel's work as endorsing "classic American liberal individualism while
> > exploring the dangers of extreme individualism."
> >
> > How, then, does the movie measure up to this weighty legacy? Is it a
> > desecration or a reconsecration of Seuss's masterpiece? It can't be as
> bad,
> > say, as the pseudo-Seuss books put out by Seuss Enterprises after
Geisel's
> > death, like Oh the Things You Can Do That Are Good for You -- with its
> > encouraging words about personal hygiene and the benefits of healthy
food
> > choices. Infamy!
> >
> > The critical response to the film has been overwhelmingly negative. And
it
> > certainly fiddles a fair bit with Geisel's original plot: A love
interest
> is
> > inserted for mom, who works as a real-estate agent. The daughter has an
> > electronic day timer. There is a babysitter. One's initial instinct is
to
> bury
> > one's face in one's hands and despair.
> >
> > Worse still, the essential ambiguity of the cat (is he friend or foe?)
has
> > been for the most part lost; he's now just a little too lovable. (Echoes
> of
> > the giggling Uncle Albert from Mary Poppins and Oz's Cowardly Lion
inflect
> > Myers's rendition.) In Seuss's original, the children never smile until
> the
> > very end, and we are never quite sure just whose side the cat is on.
(His
> own,
> > actually.) This uncertainty lends the character much of its mystique.
> >
> > Still, all is not lost. Thing One and Thing Two are simultaneously
horrid
> and
> > cute -- just as they should be. The fish is annoying and eminently
> > dismissable. The sets and costumes are spectacular. And the major theme
of
> the
> > work is preserved and amplified: the dichotomy between order and chaos,
> and
> > the need for both in everyone's life.
> >
> > What a movie can never do, however, is achieve all of this miraculously
> with
> > just a few sheets of paper and a pencil, the simple tools of language
and
> line.
> >
> > So go ahead and enjoy the movie, such as it is. What's not to love about
> Mike
> > Myers dressed up as a giant pussycat? "The problem is," as Nel puts it,
> "Seuss
> > is a genius. And you can't replicate that."
> >
> > More titles for fledgling dissidents
> >
> > The Rabbit's Wedding (1958) by Garth Williams. A tale of interracial
> marriage
> > between a white and a black bunny.
> >
> > The Story of Ferdinand (1936) by Munro Leaf. A pacifist bull defies the
> > patriarchy by preferring shade and quiet to the heroics of the bullring.
> >
> > Spotty (1945) by Margret and H. A. Rey. A rabbit with spots stands out
> from
> > the crowd. Will he find acceptance?
> >
> > The Last Flower (1939) by James Thurber. Set after World War XXII, the
> story
> > contemplates environmental catastrophe.
> >
> > --S.M.
> >
> > Bell Globemedia
> > © 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
> >
> > ====================================================================
> > Tim Hermach
> > Founder & President
> > Native Forest Council
> > PO Box 2190
> > Eugene, OR 97402
> > 541.688.2600
> > eFax 305.768.0115 or 541.461.2156
> >
> > web page: http://www.forestcouncil.org
> > http://www.forestcouncil.org/join
> > DEFENDING Life, Land & Liberty
> > NO MORE TAKINGS OR COMPROMISES, ZERO CUT, ZERO EXTRACTION,
> > Keep Our Public Lands FOREVER WILD & FREE.
> >
>
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> >
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>