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xterminal's review
4.0
Philip Nel, The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats (Random House, 2007)
There are two different ways people will react to this book. It seems possible to me that you may be able to use it as an acid test for whether you want to keep your friends around.
The first type of person will flip through the book (or, if the word “annotated” is familiar, won't even need to do that) and then proclaim that such a book would destroy his or her enjoyment of The Cat in the Hat (and its sequel, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back), because this is “overanalyzing” and “not germane to enjoyment of the books in question.” (This is, of course, assuming “germane” is in this person's vocabulary.) There will be others who will read the book and come out the other side with the same opinion.
The second type will read it and gain entirely new dimensions of enjoyment for CitH and CitHCB, understanding that the more you know, the better off you are, in general.
Sure, the information here is in many senses trivial, and one doesn't need to trace the idea of the pink spot (from CitHCB) being a symbol of communism, and the debate over whether Voom is a symbol for a nuclear weapon. But it's fascinating stuff. Even more fascinating is Nel's collection of rough drafts of many of the pages, and his notes on Seuss' process of revision; how important is the position of Sally's left arm in a given picture? Very important, according to Seuss, and Nel shows why sometimes even the most minor of revisions made the final book better than the draft he's examining.
This is great stuff. Read it, and you'll like Sr. Seuss' books even more. And kick those people to the curb who blather on about how awful it is that even kids' books can't be simple any more. ****
There are two different ways people will react to this book. It seems possible to me that you may be able to use it as an acid test for whether you want to keep your friends around.
The first type of person will flip through the book (or, if the word “annotated” is familiar, won't even need to do that) and then proclaim that such a book would destroy his or her enjoyment of The Cat in the Hat (and its sequel, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back), because this is “overanalyzing” and “not germane to enjoyment of the books in question.” (This is, of course, assuming “germane” is in this person's vocabulary.) There will be others who will read the book and come out the other side with the same opinion.
The second type will read it and gain entirely new dimensions of enjoyment for CitH and CitHCB, understanding that the more you know, the better off you are, in general.
Sure, the information here is in many senses trivial, and one doesn't need to trace the idea of the pink spot (from CitHCB) being a symbol of communism, and the debate over whether Voom is a symbol for a nuclear weapon. But it's fascinating stuff. Even more fascinating is Nel's collection of rough drafts of many of the pages, and his notes on Seuss' process of revision; how important is the position of Sally's left arm in a given picture? Very important, according to Seuss, and Nel shows why sometimes even the most minor of revisions made the final book better than the draft he's examining.
This is great stuff. Read it, and you'll like Sr. Seuss' books even more. And kick those people to the curb who blather on about how awful it is that even kids' books can't be simple any more. ****
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