Comparatively obscure works
Should we be furious about Dr. Seuss, or elated, or neither?
On Tuesday, the publishing imprint Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that it would cease publishing six books by Dr. Seuss that include offensive images. In the statement, which was published on the author’s birthday, the publisher said it reached its decision after working with a panel of experts, including educators, in the service of its mission “of supporting all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship.”
The six shelved books are all comparatively obscure works in the Seuss canon: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer. Beloved classics like The Cat in the Hat and Oh, the Places You’ll Go! remain untouched. But the decision, which caused enormous uproar across the right-wing infosphere, is part of a larger debate raging across the children’s literature community.
The thing is, though, books go out of print all the time. Were people thinking all books, once published, stay in print forever? If so, get out your hankies: they don’t. Most books don’t stay in print long.
That includes relatively unpopular books by authors whose more popular books are still in print. It happens.
For decades, the works of Dr. Seuss (real name Theodor Seuss Geisel) have been considered both iconic childhood classics and bastions of liberalism. They are lauded for their celebration of all that makes us different, and Seuss books like Horton Hears a Who and The Sneetches appear frequently in anti-racism curricula for children.
But in recent years, the Dr. Seuss brand name has lost some of its shine. Read Across America Day, an annual day of programming designed by the National Education Association to get kids excited to read, is traditionally held on or around March 2, Geisel’s birthday. It usually features a lot of Cat in the Hat paraphernalia and other beloved Seuss branding. But when the NEA’s contract with Dr. Seuss Enterprises ran out in 2018, it chose not to renew the terms, leading to a lot less Dr. Seuss merch getting distributed to different schools. And this year, the NEA has pivoted away from Dr. Seuss entirely. Instead, it’s using Read Across America Day to spotlight children’s books by authors of color.
That’s not the end of the world. Variety is good. Give other books a turn. That’s fine.
And now Dr. Seuss Enterprises has decided to cease publishing six of Dr. Seuss’s books, all of which include racist caricatures.
Notably, in If I Ran the Zoo, the narrator declares his intention to put a “chieftain” (illustrated as a man in a turban) on display in the zoo; a pair of African characters are portrayed as monkeys; and a group of Asian characters, described as “helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant” from “countries no one can spell” carry a caged animal on their heads. The other books contain similar Orientalist caricatures.
Well, you know, there’s not really any pressing reason a publisher has to keep publishing those books. Publishers stop publishing particular books all the time, that’s just how publishing works. If the reason is not just “not all that popular any more” but also “also racist” then so be it.
Times change. Racist caricatures used to be normal, and that wasn’t a good thing. Lots of things used to be normal that shouldn’t have been.
As long as no one’s trying to destroy existing copies, who cares? I imagine most people have never heard of those titles.
Can’t say I’ve ever seen or read those titles. I shrug in their general direction. As Ophelia says time for other authors to have their moment in the sun, combined with private property rights, combined with even liberals in those distant days used to be steeped in systemic racism. Just reinforces how the GOP have become Outrage Snowflakes.
I had On Beyond Zebra! when I was a kid. The idea that there could be this whole alternate reality–expanded universe–beyond the ordinary really appealed to me. I remember looking at all the crazy invented letters and words and wishing they were real. I don’t remember any of it in particular; I’d have to read a copy to see what is now considered objectionable. Oh well….
I know I read And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo, but they weren’t special to me. The other three I’ve never heard of.
I have a copy of Mulberry Street; it not only has the illustration, it also in the text calls him a “chinaman”. I only purchased it for my child in the recent years (he’s 12), because I had hoped the rhyming might help foster a love of reading and bring up his language skills, as he tests at the second percentile.
I also purchased it as it is dedicated to a childhood friend of my mother, who told my mother that A Fly Went By was the author’s effort to quietly protest McCarthyism.
I’m pretty sure the world will keep revolving without more copies of Mulberry Street. (But they’ll have to tear Green Eggs and Ham from my cold, dead hands.)
I’ve seen comparisons to Huckleberry Finn, but the difference was that Twain was skewering the stereotypes, while Dr. Seuss was perpetuating them.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
That lat-s-ot, that lat-s-ot
I do not like that lat-s-ot
I’d love to banter with you all day, Maroon, but unlike you I do not read children’s books.
Just, you know, fancy books. Really long ones with all big words to ’em.
Back when my kids were little, I used to read the not Sam character in a huffy Richard Nixon voice. Works well that way.
I remember a couple of Dr Seuss books from when I was a kid. Most of my Dr Seuss memories are from when I became a parent. I read Mulberry Street as an adult, and liked it a lot. Some of the others are unfamiliar to me, as they were for Steven in #3.
I do read children’s books, sometimes because I want to read them to children, and sometimes because I like them on their own merits. It’s tricky to write a good children’s book. Dr Seuss was very good at it. There are too many celebrities who churn out dreadful books for children.
My daughter and I discussed this matter the other day. She has a small child, and she owns some of the problematic books, in which she noted concerns before the recent publisher action. Other classic books by other authors have similar problems My daughter plans to shelve the books once her daughter is more aware, and then to resurrect the books when the daughter is old enough to be able to discuss the problems. I think that sounds very reasonable.
One of the memes floating around shows a scene from Blazing Saddles, saying “you think Dr Seuss is offensive?”, which misses the entire point that Dr Seuss books are for children while Blazing Saddles is decidedly for adults. What do they think, that people want to rid the world of everything offensive to everyone? (They probably do think that, actually.)
I agree that publishers do not keep all books in print all the time, and I really wish this point were more prominent in the narrative I see. Nobody is suggesting destroying books. Libraries and used book stores do exist; many of my favorite book possessions were purchased used.
Discontinuing publication is one thing. Fine. But the beast is still not sated:
https://twitter.com/TorontoStar/status/1367554803002408964
Indeed, and going out of print doesn’t mean and never coming back. Books can go back into print as well as out of it. Virago brought a whole slew of books by women back into print; I have quite a few of them.
I too read children’s books. Re-read The Railway Children recently, then some other E. Nesbits, also Swallows & Amazons and its sequels, also The Secret Garden for about the 50th time. I’m about due to read Anne of Green Gables again.
What’s hilarious is that outraged conservatives are buying up Dr. Seuss books, mostly the “non-cancelled” ones, which is putting more money in the bank account of… the publisher that made this decision they’re so angry about.
I’d say it’s a self-own, but of course the people pushing this story are not actually sincere in caring about it, they’re just cynically ginning up outrage on a cultural issue because they don’t want to argue against COVID relief or minimum wage increases or any of the actual policy priorities of the Biden Administration. Better to just scream “Dr. Seuss! Mr. Potatohead!” and get their audience to keep tuning in, making donations, and voting.
Yeah, I really don’t understand the kerfuffle about this. Did conservatives rush out to buy up all the Aunt Jemima syrup bottles when it was announced that dear old Auntie was not going to be the syrup rep anymore?
Actually, I do understand it. Screechy said it:
Must be a day ending in “y”.
I read most of those as a kid.
Seuss Enterprises choosing to stop printing some of those books is no big deal, but some other actions taken by others are more troubling, especially eBay refusing to list used copies of them any more. It’s one thing when some old books are no longer in print, but a whole other level of purging when you can’t even buy or sell them used any more.
In the various articles I have read about this issue, I have yet to see mentioned the anti-fascist “Yertle the Turtle”, the environmentalist “The Lorax”, or the nuclear war themed “The Butter Battle Book”. I suspect conservatives are not too keen on those, however. Eh, I agree with Ms. Benson, tempest in a teapot.
The right is making hay with this not because of the particular books going out of print but that they’re books by Dr. Seuss, who is a towering figure in toddler literature. You’d better believe that the message “They’re cancelling Dr. Seuss!” is going to fall on ears that wonder what the fuss is all about. I’m wondering when all those claiming to be offended are going to be asked why they’re so damned touchy about things like a “chinaman” dressed in what was clearly traditional Chinese garb and using chopsticks. They’re anachronisms for goodness sake. Should they be dressed in Mao jackets and be waving his little red book around instead?
I haven’t read any of the books for half a century or so, but wasn’t The Cat in the Hat an anarchist, or at least a Lord of Misrule?