Becoming Dr. Seuss | Hacker News Reader

Becoming Dr. Seuss

npr.org

37 pointsacsillag20 comments

I grew up in Italy, left in 2008 at age ~30, and been living in the US since 2012. I've only barely heard about "Dr. Seuss", and had no idea who he was.

I've now read the article and it seems that he's been an important figure for many Americans, and possibly for many people around the world (not much in Italy).

In the article a multi-faceted figure emerges, as if you wouldn't be able to guess much of it just by reading his books (e.g. he didn't have kids; and considered writing for kids a step down in his career).

I find it always fascinating to "discover" an artist (writer, painter, musician, etc) by knowing his biography and reading about his personality, and then to look again at his artwork in a very different light. I guess it's the case for the ones who've read his books and will have a chance to read his biography.

I vividly remember the weird artwork of "I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew" as a kid.

Also prominent in my memory were: The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and Fox in Socks.

Hey all you nerds ... always remember that it was Dr. Seuss who coined that term (who'd want to be called a geek their whole career?)

I thought 'nerd' originated with 'Happy Days'.

Was it really Dr. Suess?

I doubted this too but a quick wikipedia search proved parent correct

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerd#Etymology

Digging a little deeper into Google N-Grams was enlightening in a different way:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nerd%2Cnerds&y...

There are lots of "nerd" occurrences before 1950!

However, looking a bit deeper:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22nerds%22&lr=lang_en&tbs=l...

These occurrences break down into a few categories:

- mis-recognition of "needs" or "herds", etc. - incorrect date assignment - possible foreign words

If you also found this interesting, I guess we both fit in Dr. Seuss's zoo.

That'll happen with most N-gram searches.

I did not know he was a Casque and Gauntlet character. Probably would not be now - it's shifted ridiculously to the SJW types, and is incestuous to a degree unimaginable.

I still cannot believe that the incredible teaching hospital there is now the Dr. Seuss Medical school.

Are you from a Tom Sharpe novel?

I find it difficult to believe that anybody still says ‘SJW’ and expects anyone to take them seriously.

I guess I could say insufferable self-important activist busybody, but at the time, Social Justice was a hot buzzword that people would claim to be embracing unironically. This was before GamerGate and the general escalation of nastiness on the internet.

Why not? It's an apt, succinct description of a very specific type of person with a very specific agenda, which lends credible context to the reasoning behind the situations in which they're involved. I find it difficult to believe that anyone still takes SJWs seriously.

Dr. Seuss, racist and misogynist (at least according to the author.)

I've read and loved several of his books, as have many kids of all kinds. I think it's best to just judge him on his excellent children's books and not flame his memory with today's outrage police.

Can the community both appreciate the excellent children’s books and consider them alongside, for example, the reality of what he did to his wife, which happened regardless of who’s writing about it? I think there’s value to that analysis beyond “outrage politics,” but you’ve gone ahead and written off any exploration of the nuances of Seuss’ personal character. So far, nobody in this thread is suggesting we forget the books and demonize Seuss, but you’ve completely shut down any discussion about his character as if that outcome would be one of two options.

Since when is an accurate recount of history "flaming?" Dr. Seuss created a number of racist cartoons, which is part of the nuances of his history which this book see as its purpose to unpack.

Yes, it would be easier to love his childrens books without knowing his full body of work, but to ignore those is whitewashing a piece of reality.

Whitewash the past or stand in outrage, are these the only two options? Some works can have a redemptive quality, no?

To our credit, Western culture has shifted in only 50 years from high public acceptance of racism and misogyny to almost none. In that time, we went from Rosa Parks to minority and female politicians, astronauts, SCOTUS judges, etc. We all grew up with Dr Seuss in the former group. I remember hearing the N word plenty of times growing up from my peer group's parents and it's almost gone now. At the time socially conscious people were more concerned with nukes (Green Eggs) and logging (Lorax).

So don't whitewash the history and don't bury the babies with the bathwater, that was him but it wasn't perceived as good or bad at the time.

Now we've shifted from racial tribalism to ideological. This time seems dangerous too.

> nukes (Green Eggs)

Think you mean the Butter Battle.

Ah, both maybe.

I can't find a reference, but I'd heard somewhere Sam-I-Am was a thin metaphor for Uncle Sam, trying to convince the public to accept green (ie nuclear glowing) eggs and ham as normal and acceptable in exchange for the benefits of nuclear bombs and power.

Perhaps, but the existence of apocryphal Seuss stories seems likely as well.

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