GREAT BOOK. ( )

I used to read lots of Dr. Seuss’s books to my oldest daughter, and this one was the one she liked the most (I wanted her to grow-up bilingual which she did). Dr. Seuss was such a wonderful writer. My favourite story was the one with the pale green pants: "What Was I Afraid of?" but “The Sneeches” is a wonderful example of the pointlessness of trying to get in with the “In Crowd”; and The Lorax was ahead of its time as an environmental warning. We loved and continue to love its rhythms and rhymes but more importantly, their lesson about right and wrong. They are a lot of fun and many of them convey very important life lessons...such as "Yertle the Turtle", a take on the fall of Hitler type characters, "Horton Hears a Who" In which the lesson is that all people matter "no matter how small" and the "Lorax" who speaks for the trees against the assault from greed. Dr. Seuss has been attacked through the decades by the right wing for their philosophy of humanity. Dr. Seuss also aids children in learning to read...as they quickly memorize his primary works and anticipate the end of each line.

Many years ago, I realized that one of my other favourite childhood books, “A Fish Out of Water” by Helen Palmer, was actually written by Helen Palmer Geisel, Dr. Seuss's wife. What a marvellous couple they must have been. I am assuredly not calling for censorship by mob, or for banning works, or indeed for book-burnings or some sort of literary damnatio memoriae or whatever other paranoid spectre some bigots would like to project onto me. I fully believe in the right of anybody to write whatsoever they please, and to publish it howsoever they are able. Of course, 'you have the right to publish your work' does not equal, 'you have the right to have your work published'. I also fully believe in the right of publications to exercise judgement when it comes to submission, and the right of buyers to support/not support a business if they agree/don't agree with its principles. I am utterly opposed to the banning or censoring of bigoted books. But if prevailing standards in cultural sensitivity, if increased social awareness on the part of both publishers and authors, if the willingness of more patrons to speak up against hatefulness and to do so with their wallets, means that bigots have a harder time getting published? Well, gosh, I gotta tell you, I just don't feel too torn up about that. More generally, why on god's green earth does everybody assume that this sort of thing will necessarily lead to creators having to 'water down' their work in order to not be racist/sexist/homophobic? Why is that the nightmare death-of-culture scenario everyone immediately jumps to? Why aren't we going, "Well, maybe this will push creators to try harder, to reach higher, to be better; to think more deeply and more broadly and more empathetically?" Why isn't that something to aspire to? ( )