Dr. Seuss and the Sin of Wrath
On his birthday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that the following books will no longer be published. Cherish the copies you have, parents. There will be no more printed.
- And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
- If I Ran the Zoo
- McElligot’s Pool
- On Beyond Zebra!
- Scrambled Eggs Super!
- The Cat’s Quizzer
This list includes four of my favorite books to read to my children, phantasmagorical flights of fancy which memories are more precious to me than fine gold.
For what thoughtcrime? The Boston Herald reports:
“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises said in a statement that coincided with the late author and illustrator’s birthday.
“If I Ran the Zoo” includes a drawing of two bare-footed African men wearing what appear to be grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads. In “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” an Asian person [sic] is portrayed wearing a conical hat, holding chopsticks and eating from a bowl.
The article goes on to say that Theodor Geisel, before he was Dr. Seuss, once in a school play appeared in a Minstrel Show, and wore blackface make up. This was apparently some year before A.D. 1925. (For reference, this is three years before The first machine-sliced and machine-wrapped loaf of bread is sold in Chillicothe, Missouri. It is literally a complaint from a time before sliced bread.)
Please note that these pictures are deemed hurtful and wrong for being charming but truthful portrayals of the exotic traditional dress and appearance of men of other lands.
Cancel culture now means eliminating all images, references and portrayal of folk of any lands outside North America.
In other news, Curious George, the Muppets, and Mr. Potato Head have also been declared doubleplus ungood. They join the Land o’ Lakes butter Indian Princess, Aunt Jemima, Eskimo Pie, Mrs. Butterworth, the Cream of Wheat Chef, and Uncle Ben into unpersonhood.
Cancel culture also means to eliminate all images, references and portrayal of all minorities whatsoever from North America.
Since Speedy Gonzales and the Dukes of Hazard, not to mention the other Uncle Ben, also fell under the ban of anathema, so apparently both Southern and Southwestern Culture must be eliminated, in the name of cultural inappropriation, or cultural dysphoria, or something.
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Friends, at such times, weakness takes me by the knees. I fear contempt and wrath toward the enemy will overwhelm reason, and that then I will curse and damn the fools as unforgiveable.
And what shall I do if heaven overhears such a curse, and returns on me that same damnation? Shall the unforgiving find forgiveness? Shall the wrathful escape divine wrath?
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
