One fish, two fish, red fish, blah fish?

Star-bellied sneetches are racially superior.

those truffula trees aren't going to cut themselves
nor do the thneeds knit themselves

Farkin star-bellied sneeches. Fark 'em all.

There's a fascinating book about his World War II art, Dr. Seuss Goes To War. Some racist stuff in the vein of how Superman and Bugs Bunny cartoons of the era would have awful German and Japanese stereotypes. IO9 had a feature on some of them back in May./

Ambitwistor: Star-bellied sneetches are racially superior.

That story was clearly an allegory about tattoos.

I would not use oil in my car
I would not use oil on lamarr

FTA: Moto-raspus, or a Moto-munchus?

Lesbians?

Oh my.

Yep, but I still read his stories to the kids at bedtime.

/in other words: Not a fark was given that day.

In fairness, he started in advertising and *then* went into books... which is sort of the reverse of selling out, subs.

Random Bastage: Farkin star-bellied sneeches. Fark 'em all.

I bet those star-bellies pal around with people who are known to butter their bread butter-side down, if you know what I mean.

A little background trivia: Ted Geisel could have just sat back and been another rich heir (his Grandfather founded the Kalmbach and Geisel Brewery), but Prohibition ended the family business, so Ted had to make a living doing cartoons for everything from Punch (a 1930's predecessor to Mad Magazine) to Flit adverts.

No! Say it ain't so!

Brick-House: [media.egotvonline.com image 500x410]

WhippingBoy: Ambitwistor: Star-bellied sneetches are racially superior.

That story was clearly an allegory about tattoos.

I once had a boyfriend with that tattoo. Beer belly and all.

Correction: The magazine he worked for was called Judge, not Punch.

Link

Speaking of bogus hate crimes.

It's kind of interesting (and sad) that he was able to do both those cartoons without a trace of irony.

fta": writing "Horton Hears a Who!" as an allegory for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the U.S. occupation of Japan after the war. He concludes that "a person's a person,"

I like how he left out the last part of that line "no matter how small". Lot of people got smalled after the A-bomb landed on them.

This just in: Dr. Seuss started out in advertising in the 40s and 50s.

Should he have killed himself as Bill Hicks suggested?

Coelacanth: Dr. Seuss got a lot of credit for putting Japanese-Americans into internment camps, although he was working for William Randolph Hearst at the time.

Well, at the time people had vivid memories of Pearl Harbor. No one seems to complain about the anti-German anti-Nazi cartoons.
The internment camps were a mistake though.
Note: Not all German Americans have pointy noses and chins either.

Hey, ya know what? He was a man - a human being. Like all of us, with some good, some bad, and to a large extent a product of his times.

Does a guy have to be completely without taint before any of the good he does can be appreciated?

Remember, before the ads and the books, he got started doing cartoon scripts for Warner Bros., back in the heyday of Termite Terrace - including a whole lot of wartime 'toons for the military. (Anyone remember Private Snafu?)

So, yeah, some of his stuff included stereotypes that we regard as incorrect today. Were they done with malice? Or were they just there because society was marinading in them?

Not sayin' they're OK - just that it's nice to see that people growing up in an imperfect society (Oh! Look! Like the one we're living in today!) can occasionally rise above the problems with their cultures and produce things of lasting worth - like most if not all of the Dr. Seuss books.

/Judge not, lest ye be judged, by people from the future who are *Offended* that we didn't have the smarts to live the way *their* Perfect Society(tm) is organized./

-- just sayin'

"Dr. Seuss Goes to War"
ISBN 1-56584-704-0
A great read with tons of his editorial works.

This just in: People in the past often said/did racist things because it was acceptable at the time.

Ignore his civil rights and hippie tree, get outraged! DO WHAT SUBBY COMMANDS YOU

JosephFinn: There's a fascinating book about his World War II art, Dr. Seuss Goes To War. Some racist stuff in the vein of how Superman and Bugs Bunny cartoons of the era would have awful German and Japanese stereotypes. IO9 had a feature on some of them back in May./

seconded. really interesting stuff. i would say that Dr. Seuss's subsequent writing and works and the good they did ultimately balanced out any negativity of his war propoganda, or at the least proved he wasn't a hateful man

Mean Daddy: Link

Speaking of bogus hate crimes.

Oh.

I think a lot of Farkers caught that one.

"Commercial artists try to eek out a living wherever they can," says illustrator and children's book author Wendell Minor.

It's because they can't spell.

The word is "eke."

/pet peeve
//along with sneetches.

JeezusPriest. You gotta love how they Got shiat Done in the days before OSHA.

Draw thousands of cartoons of white guys with goofy exaggerated features - okay. Draw one cartoon of a black guy with goofy exaggerated features - racist.

And, by 1954, Geisel had a change of heart, writing "Horton Hears a Who!" as an allegory for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the U.S. occupation of Japan after the war.

What? That... but.. it's not.. ah... hmm. Crap. I never thought of that. I knew about "One fish Blue fish" being about the battle between states' rights and federal authority, but I didnt know about Horton.

ThrobblefootSpectre: Draw thousands of cartoons of white guys with goofy exaggerated features - okay. Draw one cartoon of a black guy with goofy exaggerated features - racist.

because those "goofy" images of black people are associated with a systematic system of racism that oppressed an entire class of people for centuries and still shapes our public discourse today. not true with the white people

not to say i necessarily condem Dr. Seuss for his drawings. as much as i hate to use the "it was a different time" trope, its quite probable that in the time when he did them, he wouldn't have understood the impact they had in the same way that we can appreciate looking back.

Yes, because when you are at war with other nations, you know trying to kill them while they try and kill you, it is very important that you not disrespect them in cartoons, because that would be wrong.

Wait'll they get a load of Herge

Jaws_Victim: This just in: People in the past often said/did racist things because it was acceptable at the time.

Ignore his civil rights and hippie tree, get outraged! DO WHAT SUBBY COMMANDS YOU

That's not what subby said at all. You sound like you came in pre-butthurt. How about you tell us all how persecuted you are?

Jaws_Victim: This just in: People in the past often said/did racist things because it was acceptable at the time.



Are you saying that means it is okay to be racist as long as other people are?

tlchwi02: ThrobblefootSpectre: Draw thousands of cartoons of white guys with goofy exaggerated features - okay. Draw one cartoon of a black guy with goofy exaggerated features - racist.

because those "goofy" images of black people are associated with a systematic system of racism that oppressed an entire class of people for centuries and still shapes our public discourse today. not true with the white people

not to say i necessarily condem Dr. Seuss for his drawings. as much as i hate to use the "it was a different time" trope, its quite probable that in the time when he did them, he wouldn't have understood the impact they had in the same way that we can appreciate looking back.

That cartoon was no more "racist" than the scene from Pirates 2 where Jack Sparrow is taken by the native tribe. Like in most cases, the people who see "racism" in such things are more racist than the people who don't notice anything at all.

HeartBurnKid: [www.collectorsweekly.com image 445x743]

It's kind of interesting (and sad) that he was able to do both those cartoons without a trace of irony.

Racism and nationalism don't always line up precisely.

jonny_q: That cartoon was no more "racist" than the scene from Pirates 2 where Jack Sparrow is taken by the native tribe. Like in most cases, the people who see "racism" in such things are more racist than the people who don't notice anything at all.

good point, drawing them as big lipped, grass skirt wearing jungle cannibles would totally not be considered racist in this day and age. In fact, i just got tickets to a minstrel show and i ended up with an extra if you're interested?

tlchwi02: jonny_q: That cartoon was no more "racist" than the scene from Pirates 2 where Jack Sparrow is taken by the native tribe. Like in most cases, the people who see "racism" in such things are more racist than the people who don't notice anything at all.

good point, drawing them as big lipped, grass skirt wearing jungle cannibles would totally not be considered racist in this day and age. In fact, i just got tickets to a minstrel show and i ended up with an extra if you're interested?

Drawing whom? What if he was drawing cannibals? Would it still be racist to draw them as cannibals?

By the way, if you're a Suess fan, you should get over to the UCSD campus library and check out their displays of his classic work, original drawings, and sculptures. I dropped in with the wife & kids a few weeks back, and it was farking AWESOME. Original sketches, manuscripts, etc...some of his advertising work like what you see in TFA...plus, if you go on the weekend, parking is free.

tlchwi02: good point, drawing them as big lipped, grass skirt wearing jungle cannibles would totally not be considered racist in this day and age.

No more "racist" than parodies of American culture portraying exaggerated stereotypes of Americans - which abound in popular media. But do it about a Japanese person, and it's "racist". I'm just not buying it. The people who see the racism, focus too much on skin color.