Lorax Revisionism

Jesse Walker | August 2, 2005

Jonathan Adler and Paul Feine offer a free-market interpretation of The Lorax.

Comments

Warren|8.2.05 @ 12:18PM|#

Hey look, my childhood left me with a deep affection for many of the books by Dr. Seuss, but the fact is, he was a commie pinko turd, and works like The Lorax are nothing short of propaganda aimed at indoctrinating young minds.

Of course it�s easy to dissect its failings, and revise its message, but try telling that to a four-year-old. Kids grow up listening to this crap for four years and it takes forty to undo the damage.

|8.2.05 @ 12:19PM|#

Even as a young child I was uncomfortable with the preachiness of "The Lorax" and disputed the conclusions at which Seuss evidently intended his readers to arrive.

|8.2.05 @ 12:20PM|#

I guess some of us are born libertarian.

|8.2.05 @ 12:30PM|#

db,

And some have libertarianism thrust upon 'em.

|8.2.05 @ 12:43PM|#

I always thought the story was about scarcity. The scarcer the commodity the more expensive it becomes. The Once-ler as he cuts each tree down means the remaining ones were worth more. Just like in a housing subdivision when near completion during a housing bubble. I think the story should be updated with houses instead of trees.

|8.2.05 @ 12:50PM|#

Warren, how is a parable which can be viewed in both free-market and resource-controlled perspectives a work of propaganda?

Strong word for a story aimed at kids; maybe "Starship Troopers" shouldn't have been available to me as a kid?

|8.2.05 @ 1:03PM|#

You know, I never really thought about it before, but aren't all the consumers in The Lorax - the people who are buying all the Thneeds - pretty much invisible? They're happily buying everything the Once-ler makes, but whether Thneeds improve their life or anything (after all a Thneed is supposed to be something "everyone needs") is left out. I guess the (subtle, perhaps even unintended) point is that consumer "needs" are unimportant or unreal.

Warren|8.2.05 @ 1:06PM|#

Rich,
If you were reading "Starship Troopers" in elementary school, I salute you. Perhaps you skipped right over "The Lorax" and other Seuss titles. I can't believe you've ever seen it, because I can't believe anyone (even its boosters) would deny that it�s a Green policy primer. Only through exposition and revision can it be seen as supporting libertarian principals.

|8.2.05 @ 2:35PM|#

Warren, my folks did a pretty decent job making sure that we had in the house everything Heinlein, Niven and and L. Neil Smith ever wrote (Asimov too, but that was a lost cause long before I was born).

And I agree that Seuss' intent was likely that it would suggest to kids that sharing is good; but my point is that handing your children "Green policy primer(s)" is only a problem if you aren't sharing other things with them.

Propaganda still seems a strong term for his work - "Horton Hears a Who!" seemed to me to be a lesson in the difficulty and reward of keeping one's word, though many see parallels to the anti-abortion movement.

|8.2.05 @ 2:38PM|#

...and there's a stack of Seuss' books on my daughter's bookshelf - I could probably quote "The Lorax" and several more of his books word for word (and some other Gawdawful stuff too, if you'd like. :)

Warren|8.2.05 @ 2:55PM|#

Rich,
As I said, Seuss had a profound impact on me as a child. I still hold much of his work dear, too many to list even. Stuff like Horton and Sneetches are moral parables that I approve of (even as I approve of the seditious message of Cat In The Hat). However, The Lorax and a few others (mostly stuff he wrote later that I didn't read growing up) are just awful, and I think �propaganda� is a fitting term. I agree with you that good parenting will more than make up poor influences (be they literature, television, or that bad crowd she hangs around with).

|8.2.05 @ 3:06PM|#

Warren, it's just curious to me that those Seuss books with which you disagree get labeled as propaganda, and others are moral parables.

On the other hand, I probably use the same litmus test to label the books that she gets from some family members (most of which end each couple pages with "Amen."), so I guess I'll stop bitching.

|8.2.05 @ 3:07PM|#

...and another postscript - we threw away the TV when she was born in the hopes that she'll end up smoking dope with a crowd that reads Sartre.

|8.2.05 @ 4:41PM|#

Read the following instead:
M. Hammock, J.W. Mixon, Jr. and M. F. Patrono, "Lessons from The Lorax," Journal of Private Enterprise, 16 (2000). Winner of Best Educational Note award.

Warren|8.2.05 @ 5:05PM|#

we threw away the TV when she was born in the hopes that she'll end up smoking dope with a crowd that reads Sartre.

That's Awesome! Hope you got some Rand lying around too. Preferably in a corner on the top shelf or locked in a drawer with other �dangerous� material. That way she'll be sure to read it.

|8.2.05 @ 8:19PM|#

I just went and checked out the Wikipedia article on Seuss - I had no idea that his rhyme schemes were that strict and sophisticated. Or that he wrote for Liberty - maybe it was something different than the current magazine by that name? One of my favorite Seuss books, and one I always thought was pretty free of subtext, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, is described as expressing "confidence that leaders--even non-elected leaders--will do the right thing." I somehow failed to take that lesson away from it.