h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In case you haven't heard, there's a flap in the US of A today. (In other words, it's Friday.) Among other issues, there's a lot of fussing because a Massachusetts librarian said Theodor Geisel, aka 'Dr Seuss', was racist. There were howls of protest.

Our beloved children's author, racist? This is just [fill in epithet of choice for someone you disagree with] idiocy, right? Dr Seuss is about truth, justice, and down with Grinches, or some such. 'A person's a person, no matter how small...' and like that. Racist, pah!

Er, well...

Try these cartoons on for size:

http://www.openculture.com/2014/08/dr-seuss-draws-racist-anti-japanese-cartoons-during-ww-ii.html

Or this film he made on the government's dime during World War II, with the help of Frank Capra, in which soldiers are urged not to be fooled into thinking that people who dance Schuhplattler are innocent:

'Your Job in Germany':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=821R0lGUL6A

Geisel was German American, and he might have been trying just a little too hard to seem 100% American here. (Not an excuse, just a possible explanation.)

There is also the amazingly weird 'Our Job in Japan', from 1945, script by Geisel, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czW1IJ-Hd1I

'Our problem's in the brain inside of the Japanese head. There are 70 million of these in Japan, physically no different than any brains in the world. Actually all made of the same stuff as ours. These brains, like our brains, can do good things or bad things, all depending on the kind of ideas that are put inside...'

This seems less racist than, frankly, Stalinist. (Stalin was into Lamarckism, big-time.) Before the war, Geisel contributed a lot of anti-Lindbergh cartoons to PM, a very leftist newspaper. (Lindbergh was antisemitic and pro-Hitler.) I wonder if the conservatives who are mad at that librarian know that Geisel worked with commies? Hm.

Would they change their minds about Dr Seuss if they read 'The Seven Lady Godivas'? (One was named Mitzi.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TheSevenLadyGodivas.jpg

Note: If you ever have a time machine, go back and buy a copy of that book. They were remaindered for 25 cents each. As the cartoonist said, he wasn't exactly an erotic artist. Now, of course, they're collectors' items.

The librarian who turned down the First Lady's offer of free Seuss books had somewhat more complicated reasons for saying, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' to the offer. Her letter is more about educational grievances than censorship. You can read it here:

http://www.hbook.com/2017/09/blogs/family-reading/dear-mrs-trump/

I particularly like the follow-up post on this same website by one Roger Sutton, who complains that 'I mean, I hate The Cat in the Hat for obscure childhood reasons of my own but that book is freaking everywhere, including every library serving children under the age of eight. And the last thing most libraries need are random book donations.'

http://www.hbook.com/2017/09/blogs/read-roger/not-simple-gifts/

The furore will settle down as soon as somebody else is '*wrong* on the internet', as Wowbagger so eloquently put it so long ago. And you may love Dr Seuss, or you may hate that Cat in the Hat as much as Mr Sutton. (I find him a big yawn.) But just keep in mind that, two days from now, we're going to put up a Create challenge that asks you to 'Be a Kid Again'. So think about what kind of kiddie lit *you* would enjoy, and write some. Maybe we'll tweet the links in the direction of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Or you could go read up on the Seven Lady Godivas...we could use a Guide Entry, Bluebottle...

PS: In the interests of full disclosure, there were these Flit ads and such:

http://www.businessinsider.com/before-dr-seuss-was-famous-he-drew-these-sad-racist-ads-2012-3#-5

No comment. (I had one, but decided to refrain.)