November 29, 2005

• Yeah.
• The symbolic anthropology part of my brain is about to explode.
• I wonder how many of these changes were mandated because someone complained and the publishers caved, rather than made preemptively out of an acute sense of political correctness? Sad. Just sad. I mean, I get why some of it was done, but... *sigh*
• Scarry died in '94, and was not old by our standards (74) and did not lose his faculties with age. He was responsible for the new art which was added after complaints about ethnic and gender stereotyping increased during the '60s & '70s.
• Revisionist Historians!!!! I knew it!
• Scarry fucked up big time. It's a HOLIDAY tree.
• On the topic of books we grew up on, Stan Berenstain died on Saturday. I remember reading the Berenstain Bears books to my siblings.
• Stan Berenstain died on Saturday From my own bearish corner of the world, I'm officially bummed. Though of couse, he lived for a good long time as well...and the books are still here. And I've just been introduced to a very, very funny TV show not available in the States. Okay, so I won't be bummed for the rest of the day, but a bear's gotta show solidarity, y'know? I always loved the Berenstain Bear book with the haunted house or some such thing...and the one looking for the perfect picnic spot...and...
• Oh (hu)man! One of the comments about the kid who "goes" to breakfast cracked me up. The changes in ribbons and terminology are interesting - I wonder what kind of changes, if any, Scarry made pre-publication in '63. Maybe it's the paper/printing quality or something else, but the scans of the older ones seem to have richer colors and definition, even when comparing identical details.
• oh! i really wish i still had my copy from the early 80s - i had the german/english version, but the pictures were the same. i wonder how much he'd changed by then. probably most of it. a lot of the comments sound like "pish-posh! political correctness sucks!" but i actually find the changes really comforting...
• Mind, I was reading my nephew whatever the one is where you do a quick tour of Europe and a few other places - the book had been mine when I was a lad so unreconstructed stereotypes were the order of the day, which was a bit shite. Can't beat a fox on a bike in a kepi though.
• fwiw: recent metafilter thread
• Yeah, I don't really get the "Darn including women and changing with the times!" type of comments.
• I was aces at finding Lowly Worm.
• My son is a huge fan of Richard Scarry. His favorite is Cars and Trucks and Things that Go. He can find Goldbug on almost every page, and can imitate the sound of any vehicle.
• I remember one of my favourite pictures was of the rabbit family going on vacation or something, and they had their gazillion rabbit children in this big bus with all their bicycles tied on top.
• Richard Scarry loved money.
• What's not to get, meredithea...it's sad.
• Like Zorro!
• Okay, what's with the Zorro thing? I feel so...uncool.
• Richard Scarry was the GREATEST. I just finished digging through boxes, looking for my old Scarry books. Didn't find any, but I did find a book from my second favorite - Mercer Mayer's "Little Monster at Work," published in 1978. Little Monster, unable to decide what he wants to be when he grows up, takes a tour of the working world. I spent half an hour poring over the illustrations. I was surprised to encounter a fairly substantial dollop of racial caricature, a Chinaman monster in a little Chinese junk, floating down a river. Pretty awful. Worse because it's completely out of tune with the rest of the illustrations. Other than that, it's really more antiquated than anything else. Reading it to a child today would require explaining arcane curiosities like stock tickers (printing actual ticker tape), slide rules, that sort of thing. Not a single computer in sight, of course. I find myself with a strange urge to leave the world of system administration, and apply for work as a lobster fishermonster.
• Eep, I forgot to put the word "Chinaman" in quotes, to indicate that it's Mayer's word, not mine. Personally, I would call a man from China a Chinese man. Perhaps Asian. (Certainly never "Handsome pilot." But is it too late to change my login to "Pretty Stewardess"?)
• I call my Chinese baby all sorts of names.
• Okay, what's with the Zorro thing? I feel so...uncool. From: Bad Sex in Fiction awards 2005 - Like Zorro! posted by Chyren at 02:56AM UTC - 18 comments (18 new)
• Maybe I don't find it sad because my mom and dad would edit these things out of my books to begin with? I was born in '76, and my parents would regularly reassign the gender of some of Scarry's characters when I went through a random "Is it a boy or a girl?" phase when I was little. Characters would be a boy one day, a girl the next (out of feminism or forgetfulness? Both are equally likely). They also gave me a dump truck for my Barbie to drive around, and told me I could be like Reggie Jackson when I grew up if I wanted to be. (Of course, I didn't want to be like him, I wanted to be him. When I found out I couldn't be Jackson, I decided to become a utility infielder instead.)
• Sorry meredithea, I was being sarcastic. I don't really get the "Darn including women and changing with the times!" type of comments either. Thanks for your levelheaded reply though :)
• I find it sad because many of the revisions seem wholly unneeded. Changing the cop stopping the black guy? OK, I can see that. There's a definite stereotype there that shouldn't be perpetuated. But changing things like the 'beautiful screaming lady', which I'm not so sure presents the same kind of politically incorrect message, strike me as sad and unnecessary. The work as it exists may be old fashioned, but not at all damaging and needing to be fixed. Other changes, intending to promote a positive message (such as that women can become construction workers or firefighters too), are laudable, if perhaps overrepresented (looking at these examples). Maybe it's just that I don't like the thought of my Richard Scarry being tampered with. Idunno. Perhaps not seeing the little Indian mouse in the canoe as inherently racist means that I'm not as sensitive to these issues as I should be.
• I don't think that it's an issue with the mouse being portrayed as a native american so much as the *way* the native american mouse was portrayed. The costume he was wearing, with the single feather sticking out from his head band, is akin to the old "cannibal" stereotype with a bone in his hair. I'm glad they changed it.
• Hey techsmith! Sorry, my sarcasm meter is broken today. I have a sinus infection and am on much funny medicine. Weeeee!
• Personally, I would call a man from China a Chinese man. Perhaps Asian that's what i do too! I go "Hey Asian!". It works! "Hey Asian Man" however doesn't seem as effective.
• "Hey Angry Asian Man!" "Hey Asian!" sounds like it would sound like "Haitian" after spoken a few times in rapid succession.
• Was too old for this author. Think Wally Tripp is one of the best living illostrators of kids' books, Marguerite Go Wash Your Feet and A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied His Horse to Me will plewase any age over two.
• He is a good illustrator, but "Rose's are Red, Violet's are Blue"?! Gack.