74 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
74 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
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Freud on Seuss
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a book review by Josh LeBeau
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(copied from the Koala, UCSD's humour newspaper, which has no
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copyright notices in it anywhere)
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The Cat in the Hat
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by Dr. Seuss, 61 pages. Beginner Books, $3.95
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The Cat in the Hat is a hard-hitting novel of prose and poetry
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in which the author re-examines the dynamic rhyming schemes and
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bold imagery of some of his earlier works, most notably Green
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Eggs and Ham, If I Ran the Zoo, and Why Can't I Shower With
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Mommy? In this novel, Theodore Geisel, writing under the
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pseudonym Dr. Seuss, pays homage to the great Dr. Sigmund Freud
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in a nightmarish fantasy of a renegade feline helping two young
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children understand their own frustrated sexuality.
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The story opens with two youngsters, a brother and a sister,
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abandoned by their mother, staring mournfully through the
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window of their single-family dwelling. In the foreground, a
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large tree/phallic symbol dances wildly in the wind, taunting
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the children and encouraging them to succumb to the sexual
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yearnings they undoubtedly feel for each other. Even to the
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most unlearned reader, the blatant references to the
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incestuous relationship the two share set the tone for Seuss'
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probing examination of the satisfaction of primitive needs.
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The Cat proceeds to charm the wary youths into engaging in
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what he so innocently refers to as "tricks." At this point,
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the fish, an obvious Christ figure who represents the
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prevailing Christian morality, attempts to warn the children,
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and thus, in effect, warns all of humanity of the dangers
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associated with the unleashing of the primal urges. In
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response to this, the cat proceeds to balance the aquatic
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naysayer on the end of his umbrella, essentially saying,
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"Down with morality; down with God!"
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After poohpoohing the righteous rantings of the waterlogged
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Christ figure, the Cat begins to juggle several icons of
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Western culture, most notably two books, representing the Old
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and New Testaments, and a saucer of lactic fluid, an ironic
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reference to maternal loss the two children experienced when
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their mother abandoned them "for the afternoon." Our heroic
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Id adds to this bold gesture a rake and a toy man, and thus
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completes the Oedipal triangle.
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Later in the novel, Seuss introduces the proverbial Pandora's
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box, a large red crate out of which the Id releases Thing One,
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or Freud's concept of Ego, the division of the psyche that
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serves as the conscious mediator between the person and
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reality, and Thing Two, the Superego which functions to reward
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and punish through a system of moral attitudes, conscience,
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and guilt. Referring to this box, the Cat says, "Now look at
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this trick. Take a look!" In this, Dr. Seuss uses the
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children as a brilliant metaphor for the reader, and asks the
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reader to re-examine his own inner self.
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The children, unable to control the Id, Ego, and Superego
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allow these creatures to run free and mess up the house, or
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more symbolically, control their lives. This rampage
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continues until the fish, or Christ symbol, warns that the
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mother is returning to reinstate the Oedipal triangle that
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existed before her abandonment of the children. At this
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point, Seuss introduces a many-armed cleaning device which
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represents the psychoanalytic couch, which proceeds to put
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the two youngsters' lives back in order.
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With powerful simplicity, clarity, and drama, Seuss reduces
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Freud's concepts on the dynamics of the human psyche to an
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easily understood gesture. Dr. Seuss' poetry and choice of
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words is equally impressive.
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