According to Linda Salem in her essay on Edward Gorey’s
personal library, “Nonsense evokes discomfort and tension in audiences.
Ridiculous, paradoxical, and unpredictable, it is at the same time meaningful
and meaningless. It disturbs and tricks readers’ expectations” (232). The
genre, then, encourages a reconsideration of the familiar by causing the reader
to feel uneasy about the subject of the literature at hand. Dr. Seuss’s
cautionary tale, The Butter Battle Book
(1984), teaches its readers about tolerance and respect. John Hursh quotes
Thomas Fensch: “While [Seuss’s] book received significant criticism when first
published, it also received considerable praise. Writer and illustrator Maurice
Sendak remarked: “Surprisingly, wonderfully, the case for total disarmament has
been brilliantly made by our acknowledged master of nonsense, Dr. Seuss. . . .
Only a genius of the ridiculous could possibly deal with the cosmic and lethal
madness of the nuclear arms race” (n.p.). By subverting reasoning, the text cautions
its readers against immorality.
While Dr. Seuss may have received a balance of criticism for
his tolerance and demilitarization message in The Butter Battle Book, Michael Ian Black was accused of being an
immature American for his childish nonsense book, A Child’s First Book of Trump (2016), which was meant for adults.
Black’s rhymes coupled with Marc Rosenthal’s illustrations are reminiscent of
Dr. Seuss’s nonsensical, artistic style. The text, according to the July 5,
2016 New York Times article, was a “.
. . perfectly timely parody picture book intended for adults that would be
hysterical if it wasn’t so true.” In genuine nonsense form, the piece cautions
its readers against sightings of the “Americus Trumpus” (n.p.):
So what shall you do with a Trump running wild?
The answer is all up to you, my dear child.
Run away screaming? Or maybe you fight?
Reason and logic will only incite it.
You can cover your ears or run up a tree,
But the best thing to do is . . . (n.p.)
Adults (the
intended audience), however, found the piece immature and indicative of sore “losers.”
Kayla Welch commented on the New York Times article on November 7, 2017:
This book is the perfect example of why our country – namely
the left – is so immature. I’m a libertarian, I voted as such, and yet I cannot
understand this immaturity from people who have the right to vote.
Your side
lost, so did mine. Grow up and please do not instill such immaturity in your
child. . .
Another
commenter, Jason Powell, responded on November 6, 2017 by saying “Written by the
haters for the losers. Don’t read this to your kid if you want the child to be
an achiever.” The comments these adults make point to several issues, but the
question of the child audience is probably easier to consider in such a short
discussion. How does one determine the criteria for a child audience? What are
the criteria for children’s literature as a genre? Certainly, this text could
entertain a child as well as Little Red
Riding Hood.
Children know the difference between right and wrong. They
know the difference between moral and immoral. In a CNN video published to
YouTube on March 4, 2016, some confident children respond to news clips of the “Americus
Trumpus.” When Trump complains that a million-dollar loan from his father was
not very much, one young person responds mockingly: “It hasn’t been easy for
me, but I’m filthy rich.” Another young person responds to Trumps comment about
Rosie O’Donnell by saying, “If he’s going to be rude to ladies, he shouldn’t be
a president.” Is it not possible, then, that children can handle discussions
about complex topics in the literature written for them?
(KT)
Works
Cited
Black, Michael Ian, and Marc Rosenthal.
A Child's First Book of Trump. First ed., 2016.
"Children react to Donald Trump." https://youtu.be/3DcDdHdImM4. CNN. 4 March 2016.
Clark, Dorothy., and Linda C. Salem.
Frontiers in American Children's Literature. 1st unabridged. ed., Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2016.
Hursh, John. "Exploring Civil Society
Through the Writings of Dr. Seuss: International Law, Armed Conflict, and the
Construction of Otherness: A Critical Reading of Dr. Seuss's The Butter Battle Book
and a Renewed Call for Global Citizenship." New York Law School Law
Review, 58, 617 2013 / 2014.
https://advance-lexis-com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/api/document?collection=analytical-materials&id=urn:contentItem:5CFF-JJ30-00CV-20HP-00000-00&context=1516831.
Accessed December 9, 2018.
Seuss. The Butter Battle Book. Random
House, 1984.
