I have an essay up at Culture 11 about Dr. Seuss, consumerism, and polymorphous perversity. Here’s a quote:
Indeed, the American spirit galumphs and galerks through every one of the Doctor’s works. Like his fellow citizens, Seuss is boisterous, hearty, optimistic, profligate in invention, and not too heavy on the thought. “Yertle the Turtle,” a fascistic terrapin, forces all his pond-fellows to stack themselves in a tower so he can climb to the top. The solution? Not collective action, nor courageous resistance, but a single fed-up burp by a turtle named Mack, who just isn’t going to take it anymore. In “The Sneeches,” the sneeches with stars dislike the sneeches without stars. The solution? Not understanding, or non-violent resistance, but simply a machine which removes stars! In Seuss’ universe, there is no problem that cannot be solved by old-fashioned practicality, good will, bizarre new-fangled machines, or some combination of all three.
This was somewhat inspired by the conversation here about Seuss and Sendak, incidentally. (And more of it here.
Update: James Poulos paints me as an anti-Lockean here.
Is the “Sneeches” idea supposed to be the melting pot? I’ve got to start checking his stuff out again. From the cartoons you posted, it seems like he was a big Roosevelt liberal.
Not sure it’s the melting pot per se; I think it’s a more generalized faith in progress eventually erasing all evil.
He is absolutely a big Roosevelt liberal, yes he is. I’d guess he was maybe a little to the left of Roosevelt on, for example, racial issues (which there’s little evidence that FDR cared much about; though Eleanor did….)
At the same time he could do that Japanese cartoon, and it sounds like he favored making everyone the same, as opposed to accepting differences. It reminds me a bit of a lecture I heard about a USO canteen in Los Angeles during WWII. It was run as a showplace for race equality and all the time it was segregated.
Yeah; when I said “race” I was talking about black/white; his attitude towards the Japanese was obviously really problematic.
Historically a broad strand of liberal thought that is against racial discrimination is not necessarily in favor of accepting difference as difference…. Which is to say, you can be to the left of FDR and still not be exactly PC….
Hey, that Culture11 site is pretty great. Just got a chance to dig around. I’m actually pretty impressed by your critic, the Post-Modern Conservative.
I haven’t looked too closely at the post-modern conservative…but, yeah, I like the site a lot. A thoughtful conservative website is something I can get pretty enthusiastic about….