Welcome to Seuss-ville!
BY CANSU ORANÇ (PSYC/IV)
oranc@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
Those who read my last column might remember that I was going to talk about someone named "Dr. Seuss." No, he's not a foreign otolaryngologist who I would recommend in these marble-cold days, nor a dentist who would spread terror in his clinic (and my mouth). In fact, he's a very clever children's book writer, an illustrator, and a cartoonist who makes subtle plays on words and fun rhymes.
Have you seen How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey? Remember the green hairy monster-like "thing" who hates holidays? That's the Grinch! He's only one of the characters Dr. Seuss created, along with many others like The Cat in the Hat and Horton the Elephant. I don't want to call his characters "fictional" since I don't think they are. I know Santa is not real, but Dr Seuss's characters could be. I don't want to bother you with too much biographical information. I just want to introduce him to you so you can dive into his magic world in your own way.
He was a 1904-born American writer of a German descent named Theodor Seuss Geisel. Here's the story beyond his pen name: He was very much into drawing and humor since childhood. In Dartmouth College, he was the editor of the college humor magazine. When he was caught drinking in his dorm room with his friends, he was put on probation and was kept from the magazine along with all other extracurricular activities. He then began to sign his cartoons with different names, like just "Seuss." But how did he become a doctor? Well, he was not a real one. He entered Oxford pursuing a Ph.D. in English literature. However, he was more interested in drawing in his lectures than listening. Thanks to his future wife, who he met at Oxford, he realized he only wanted to draw. He didn't graduate at the end, but he gave himself a doctorate and began to sign his work as "Dr. Seuss."
Dr. Seuss created the stories of his characters not solely with his words but also his illustrations that take you into the stories. His books are read to English-speaking children all over the world to teach them to read. They don't even realize they're learning since they're too busy laughing. I think he has also much to say to adults. He didn't hesitate to express his personal opinions and political standing into his stories and cartoons. How the Grinch Stole Christmas, for example, is known to be a criticism against the capitalist excess of the Christmas season. Yurtle the Turtle supports unionization, and Horton Hears a Who is a cry for basic human rights: "Because, after all, a person's a person, no matter how small."
I don't know how you pronounced his name while reading this column, so let his friend Alexander Liang say the last words:
You're wrong as the deuce
And you shouldn't rejoice
If you're calling him Seuss
He pronounces it Soice.