The Politics of Dr. Seuss

This post was written by Kevin Holtsberry on November 21, 2003
Posted Under: Books: Views

With Cat in the Hat making a splash at the box office, John Miller takes a look at the political ramifications of Dr. Seuss. While recognizing that Theodore Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, was a liberal and that his stories mostly reflected that, Miller offers his choice as a favorite:

My favorite Seuss book is one that many people don’t know about: I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew (1965). Seuss may not have realized it, but the theme of Solla Sollew is powerfully conservative.
Unfortunately, it was not Seuss’s most commercially successful book — sales were disappointing, even though it was written and issued during his heyday. The Morgan’s describe the book this way: “a somber morality tale, a Seussian Pilgrim’s Progress with the message that one can’t run away from trouble.” Yet it’s far deeper than that. In truth, Solla Sollew is a warning against what Eric Voegelin called immanentizing the eschaton. Put in plain English: Don’t seek heaven on earth.

Leave it Miller to connect Eric Voeglin and Dr. Suess!

Useful Tools:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • TwitThis
  • E-mail this story to a friend!
  • Print this article!

Reader Comments

believe you me, dr seuss definately knew the deeper meaning in his stories. by the way you say that “dr seuss may not have realized it…” it sounds like you didnt know that he used to be a POLITICAL CARTOONIST in a newspaper called the PM.
maybe you should brush up on your dr seuss.

-emily

#1 
Written By emily on December 8th, 2003 @ 6:16 pm

PLEASE check out HORTON HEARS A WHO (the video). Definately conservative. I believe most of his work is.

#2 
Written By laura parker on November 9th, 2004 @ 7:54 pm

Wha??? Dr Suess was no conservative-he was a old school liberal, and they were big on personal responsibility. Cons today just wanna ban bad behavior, and libs like suess felt like you should know whats right and wrong and make your own choices,not the government.

#3 
Written By dave on November 21st, 2004 @ 9:50 pm
Next Post: On vacation