Tempest In A Cheap Carafe
by The Evil Overlady
Social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others) have their panties in a massive twist at the news that the estate of the inestimable Doctor Seuss has decided to no longer publish new editions of six of his books, as they contain racist and offensive illustrations and written content.
The good Doctor, born Theodor Seuss Geisel, wrote and drew images, once upon a time, that were and continue to be unacceptable. Some of those were part of the war effort during World War II, when he was a part of the United States propaganda machine, along with Warner Bros, Disney, and other entertainment providers. That effort did its best to dehumanize “the Enemy” to make Americans feel no sympathy for those who died during that war.
You can find some of the cartoons from that time at Archive.org
In response to some of the posts I was seeing on Facebook, I posted the following there:
“Jesus H Fucking CHRIST, people! The Seuss books were NOT “banned”. The Seuss Estate has decided to no longer publish new copies of them.
That’s not banning, that’s business. And that’s also the reason why so many books are out of print. No one is required to keep printing something they no longer wish to print, unless there is some sort of contractual obligation that must be fulfilled.
And NO, the “Sneetch” book is not included in that development. It’s part of a short story collection called The Sneetches and Other Stories.“
The Seuss Estate has made what is ultimately a business decision. His work is in no way being “canceled”.
Pull your thumb (or whatever the fuck it is you’ve got jammed up in there) out of your ass and get a goddamned clue.
My daughter was never very interested in Seuss. We read her the Corduroy series, “Goodnight Moon,” and any of hundreds of other beautiful stories that were around at the time. I don’t think she even had a book by Seuss. The Muppets had better language skills and values and we loved a lot of the things that we read to her and that she read herself pretty quickly. Why teach nonsense when children can learn to read stories that demonstrate empathy and values?
My grandson loves books but at 22 months, his favorites are cookbooks. He has a whole bookshelf full of the old favorites, “The Little Engine that Could” — and others. But I don’t think anyone bought him any Seuss, either. 🙂