The Current Recall of Dr. Suess Books
I haven't studied this in any detail. But it's now in the news that the estate of Dr.Suess is withdrawing several of his books from publication due to some racist material in these books that was considered OK at the time of original publication. My story here is not about that controversy, but about why I am feeling some small personal satisfaction over the withdrawal of the first Dr. S book, [i]To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street[/i]. This is not for any racist reasons, or any dislike of the Dr. Suess books (which I like a lot). But for years, as a kid, I really, and quite unfairly, hated Dr. Suess and his books because of a personal reason involving his first published book.
My mother was extremely abusive to me in every way. There were reasons for this that went back to how my father had behaved toward her during their marriage, and her involvement in the Communist Party USA (the one controlled by the Soviet Union; it died in 1989, right before the fall of the Soviet Union in '91).
My mother could pretty much get away with anything she wanted to do to me and did. For one thing, she was the director of a nursery school and was known as a child development expert who gave parenting seminars in which she urged parents to raise their children gently, lovingly and non-violently. No one could ever believe the truth about how she violated her every stated principle in raising me! It also helped that she adopted me. For some reason, people always seem to believe that adoptive parents have unusually big hearts and spoil their kids rotten. Not true, because people adopt children for the same reasons people have children the usual way; because they want to have children. The would-be parents get a child, and the child gets parents. As an adopted person, I have noted before (and on this website) that adopted parents are no better or worse than other parents. Also, being abused as an adopted child is the only situation in which you not only have to endure abuse; if you dare complain about it, you're told you need to be grateful!
So, as a child, I endured extreme abuse, physical and emotional, and, of course, no one would believe me. And if I told anyone, they would go right to my mother and the abuse would intensify.
One way my mother ensured no one would ever believe me was to tell everyone she knew that I was mentally ill and my mental problem was that I didn't know the difference between what I imagined and reality. My mother was an excellent liar who could convince people of pretty much anything and everyone bought into this idea. When the first Dr. Suess book was published, she bought a copy of the book and carried it with her everywhere she went. When she talked to people, she told them it was a book about the power of imagination, and she'd bought it for me to help me learn the difference between reality and my delusional fantasies. People thought she was wonderful for her to take such a kind and tolerant approach to the awful lies I'd told about her.
Her attempt to use the Suess book to show that she was taking a kindly approach to my "lies" was very successful and worked really well. I really hated that book although I was sure then, and still am sure now, that Dr. S never meant it as a way of implying that abused children were lying about their abuse. The book is a happy celebration of the fun use of imagination, not an attempt to prove that imaginative children are deceptive.
My mother carried that book around for weeks before she finally gave it to me. I had not lied about her abusive, even outright sadistic, behavior, but I did decide to lie about my reaction to the book; I pretended to love it, perhaps to avoid arguments and more people not believing me. And to avoid a bad reaction from my mother as she succeeded so well in getting people to believe only her side of the story. I resented Dr. Suess for helping her to do that. He seemed to me to be yet one more facet of a world in which bullies are believed over their victims.
My mother was extremely abusive to me in every way. There were reasons for this that went back to how my father had behaved toward her during their marriage, and her involvement in the Communist Party USA (the one controlled by the Soviet Union; it died in 1989, right before the fall of the Soviet Union in '91).
My mother could pretty much get away with anything she wanted to do to me and did. For one thing, she was the director of a nursery school and was known as a child development expert who gave parenting seminars in which she urged parents to raise their children gently, lovingly and non-violently. No one could ever believe the truth about how she violated her every stated principle in raising me! It also helped that she adopted me. For some reason, people always seem to believe that adoptive parents have unusually big hearts and spoil their kids rotten. Not true, because people adopt children for the same reasons people have children the usual way; because they want to have children. The would-be parents get a child, and the child gets parents. As an adopted person, I have noted before (and on this website) that adopted parents are no better or worse than other parents. Also, being abused as an adopted child is the only situation in which you not only have to endure abuse; if you dare complain about it, you're told you need to be grateful!
So, as a child, I endured extreme abuse, physical and emotional, and, of course, no one would believe me. And if I told anyone, they would go right to my mother and the abuse would intensify.
One way my mother ensured no one would ever believe me was to tell everyone she knew that I was mentally ill and my mental problem was that I didn't know the difference between what I imagined and reality. My mother was an excellent liar who could convince people of pretty much anything and everyone bought into this idea. When the first Dr. Suess book was published, she bought a copy of the book and carried it with her everywhere she went. When she talked to people, she told them it was a book about the power of imagination, and she'd bought it for me to help me learn the difference between reality and my delusional fantasies. People thought she was wonderful for her to take such a kind and tolerant approach to the awful lies I'd told about her.
Her attempt to use the Suess book to show that she was taking a kindly approach to my "lies" was very successful and worked really well. I really hated that book although I was sure then, and still am sure now, that Dr. S never meant it as a way of implying that abused children were lying about their abuse. The book is a happy celebration of the fun use of imagination, not an attempt to prove that imaginative children are deceptive.
My mother carried that book around for weeks before she finally gave it to me. I had not lied about her abusive, even outright sadistic, behavior, but I did decide to lie about my reaction to the book; I pretended to love it, perhaps to avoid arguments and more people not believing me. And to avoid a bad reaction from my mother as she succeeded so well in getting people to believe only her side of the story. I resented Dr. Suess for helping her to do that. He seemed to me to be yet one more facet of a world in which bullies are believed over their victims.
70-79, F
