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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Dr. Seuss

Jack Denfeld

05:14 / 09.03.03

I've been downloading some of the books on audio. Really fun stuff. So which is your favorite?

07:38 / 09.03.03

I'm quite partial to Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now?

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:13 / 09.03.03

Fox In Socks is always fun. But more than that, What Was I Scared Of? rocks hard because it features empty pants running around at night.

Baz Auckland

14:56 / 09.03.03

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish was always my favourite. Not that I can remember much of it, I just remember really enjoying it.

Seth

22:54 / 09.03.03

The Lorax was always the best. Creepy, bleak, angry and desperately sad.

rizla mission

14:42 / 10.03.03

Sorry to bring a bit of a chill to this thread but have to say;

I went to see a screening of post-war American proraganda films the other week, and two of them were apparently scripted by Dr. Seuss (Or at least, the chap who became Dr. Seuss). And they were really, really nasty and xenophobic - aimed respectively at US troops stationed in Germany and Japan and emphasising in a rather frightening manner that, although their governments had been defeated, the local people could NEVER be trusted as it was their evil minds which had led to the horros of war! etc.
What was really unsettling was that you could see the Dr. Seuss style creeping it - loads of alliteration and snappy little phrases.

Sorry for spoiling a nice old thread about children's books, but that really kinda bothered me.

My favourite is possibly 'Green Eggs & Ham' for what it's worth.

Jack Fear

15:01 / 10.03.03

Keep in mind that in this, Geisel was a product of his times. In both fiction and "instruction"/propaganda films of the period, live-action and cartoon, the image of the enemy was systematically dehumanized. 'twere ever thus: there are British WWI poster images of "The Hun" as a slavering, red-eyed troglodyte.

There's a collection of Theodor Seuss Geisel's political cartoons called Dr. Seuss Goes To War (reviewed here).

Strangely enough, there are some who believe that Geisel was recruited by the Germans as a fifth columnist to undermine America's war effort from within—subliminally propagandizing for the Axis while ostensibly propagandizing against it.

Loomis

15:10 / 10.03.03

Oh The Thinks You Can Think! was the one for me, mainly because it was so surreal and trippy. Just making up all this weird stuff because it fits the rhyme, and then drawing impossible pictures to match the text. "What would you do if you met a Jiboo?" Beats the fuck out of me doc.

Jack Fear

15:22 / 10.03.03

Shit yourself, probably.

that

15:26 / 10.03.03

Dr. Seuss' stuff creeps me out anyway... it might not have done so much when I was a kiddly, but it certainly does now. Probably means something horrible about me. But there we go.

gingerbop

20:18 / 21.03.03

Green Eggs and Ham

00:39 / 22.03.03

Has anyone watched The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T? fucking bizarre...

doglikesparky

13:52 / 23.03.03

Dunno if this has been covered before so forgive me if I'm retreading old ground..

I heard once upon a time that the first of the books was written as a result of a bet the author had with someone in which it was proposed that a book could not be written using 50 different words or less.
Thus Dr. Suess gaver the world The Cat in the Hat which used the same words repeatedly and the bet was won.
Don't have a copy though and haven't ever had it confirmed or denied. Can anyone here?

Jack Fear

17:21 / 23.03.03

That's entirely true, and is mentioned (I think) in the bio I linked upthread.

01:13 / 24.03.03

Where have you been downloading these from, Jack?

Jack Denfeld

05:57 / 24.03.03

kazaa. sox on fox is probably the best audio so far. the fox sounds creepy.

illmatic

06:55 / 24.03.03

My personal favourite is The Cat in the Hat - that Cat ruleswith his backup Thing 1 and Thing 2). Who would win in a fight - him or Bagpuss?

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