I have been thinking about this on and off for a few weeks now. Lessons we learn from books and the books we 'should' be reading. There are books we are told are worth reading more than once in life: The Little Prince, The Alchemist, Siddhartha etc. Books that are supposed to “expose” new secrets and lessons in life, depending on when they are read.
The Little Prince, and books of this type are often referred to as allegories.
"As a literary device, an allegory in its most general sense is an extended metaphor. As an artistic device, an allegory is a visual symbolic representation."
As we are dealing with books, and words, not images, we’re talking about a really extended metaphor – something that can be viewed and interpreted as many ways as there are people reading it.
In the context of these timeless books, and why they are suitable for children and adults can be shown visually, albeit it in a round-about way.
When a child, and an adult here the words “It’s raining cats and dogs” they see the following:
And with this in mind - A scene from The Little Prince: (synopsis taken from Wikipedia)
In the desert, the narrator meets the little prince, who asks him to draw a sheep. Not knowing how to draw a sheep, the narrator shows him the picture of the elephant in the snake. To the narrator’s surprise, the prince recognizes the drawing for what it is. After a few failed attempts at drawing a sheep, the narrator draws a box in his frustration, claims that the box holds a sheep inside. Again to the narrator’s surprise, the prince is delighted with the result.
Perhaps a child would see this as what it is on paper. Someone trying (and persisting - a good lesson) to draw something, again and again, until they just draw a box, because they don’t really know what the sheep looks like.
The lesson on perseverance follows through to the adult, but an adult understanding of perseverance, and what a solution is (the solution not necessarily being the “correct” answer to the question, but still being a solution - is very different to the viewpoint a child has on things.
The same analogies can be drawn from the Alchemist (just a story, or a moral lesson?), Siddharta, and many more books, I am certain. But why is it that these are the books we return to as adults, as opposed to the works of our truest childhood books, depending when you were a child, of course?
I recently stumbled across a quote:
"Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened"
It was such an amazing and profound piece of advice, given when I read it - and not in a million years would I have guessed the author - Theodor Seuss Geisel - or Dr Seuss.
Surely such pearls of wisdom, scattered about our days and lives would help put things in perspective?
Is it perhaps the illustrations? Perhaps by the time we read The Little Prince we’re already reading to ourselves, as opposed to the day’s of a parent sitting on the edge of the bed, reading a line, and then turning the book for you to see the beautiful image that accompanied it?
Like fairy tales, these stories tell a moral tale. A lesson we should learn as children, and as adults. Personally, I have forgotten a lot of my childhood, and most of the stories read to me, and by me.
Reading these quotes filled me with a nostalgia for something I’d total forgotten, and something that communicates life's lessons better than all the iVillage articles and self help books a woman, or man, can find.
Don’t give up! I believe in you all.
A person’s a person, no matter how small!
And you very small persons will not have to die
If you make yourselves heard! So come on, now, and TRY!”
Though “Dr Seuss” (Geisel) books were about green eggs and ham, or a cat in a hat, or an elephant on nest, they were indeed moral tales, and guides to life. It is said that Geisel made a point of not beginning the writing of his stories with a moral in mind, stating that “kids can see a moral coming a mile off,” he was not against writing about issues; he said that “there’s an inherent moral in any story,” and he remarked that he was “subversive as hell.”
Perhaps the fact that the morals are much simpler - bite-size pieces of life lessons - and not the ever changing lessons from the books of Paulo Coelho etc, make them uninteresting to adults – but perhaps we should take a closer look.
These books have focused on numerous issues that plague us to this very day, and they were written quite some time ago:
The Lorax (1971), about environmentalism and anti-consumerism;
The Sneetches (1961), about racial equality; The Butter Battle Book (1984), about the arms race;
Yertle the Turtle (1958), about Hitler and anti-authoritarianism;
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957), criticizing the materialism and consumerism of the Christmas season; and Horton Hears a Who!(1950), about anti-isolationism and internationalism.
Those who know me know I am no fan of the pun – but perhaps in taking a closer look at the actual content of Dr Seuss’s book we should remember not to judge a book by it’s cover – or illustrations.
Dr Seuss quotes for adults: (I started finding the ones I loved but there are just too many! – go here for the rest)
“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
— Dr. Seuss
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
— Dr. Seuss
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go...”
— Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You’ll Go!)
“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
— Dr. Seuss
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
— Dr. Seuss (Happy Birthday to You!)
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
— Dr. Seuss (I Can Read with My Eyes Shut)
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”
— Dr. Seuss (Horton Hears a Who!)
“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.”
— Dr. Seuss
So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you’ll move mountains.”
— Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You’ll Go!)
P.S.
Turns out Geisel was a brilliant author and marketer:
Geisel’s pen name is regularly pronounced /ˈsjuːs/ SEWSS, an anglicized pronunciation inconsistent with his German surname. He himself noted that it rhymed with “voice” (his own pronunciation being /ˈsɔɪs/ SOYSS) and Alexander Liang (his collaborator on the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern) wrote of him:
You’re wrong as the deuce
And you shouldn’t rejoice
If you’re calling him Seuss.
He pronounces it Soice.
Geisel switched to the anglicized pronunciation from German [ˈzɔʏs] because it “evoked a figure advantageous for an author of children’s books to be associated with—Mother Goose” and because most people used this pronunciation.
