Protest here, protest there.
Protest, protest everywhere.
I have the greatest protest of all. And I will take it straight to the top. My Dad always taught me to go to the Top. “Contact the decision maker. The person in charge. The CEO.”
But is there one? Who is it? Google is no help finding the answer.
This is not a philosophical or a religious discussion, but I have an issue with the Death Decider.
“Death Decider, why are all the funniest people disappearing into the great beyond?”
Your latest cruel act, DD, was just last week. How could anyone kill off Maurice Sendak? This is not a Season Finale of a soap opera. This is real life. You can’t kill off a clever, wonderful writer and artist and expect his fans to accept that. I loved his book, “Where the Wild Things Are,” and still recite ,”going once, going twice, going chicken soup and rice” from another of his books, “Chicken Soup and Rice.”
Remember Al Hirshfield? He was my special delight; a man five months short of 100 years old, who drew theater cartoons for The New York Times. He always secretly included his daughter, Nina’s name somewhere within the cartoon. That was a ritual every Sunday. I grew up searching for “Nina” while loving his drawings.
And how could they let Charles Schultz off the hook? Or did they lower the hook? Maybe they just lowered the boom.
Charlie Brown, Peanuts, Snoopy and Lucy; we love these characters. There should be a law against eliminating people who make us laugh. The world needs more laughter. We need these laugh sponsors.
So join me. Write in. March.
Before it’s too late.
Thanks, Maurice
Maurice Sendak’s 1963 “Where the Wild Things Are” unlocked a scary, psychologically nuanced, inner world long taboo in mainstream children’s books. Mr. Sendak once told me that King Kong was a great character and had influenced him when he created “Wild Things.”
“You’re supposed to be frightened of these things. Kids need Kongs to help them conquer their anxiety,” he said.
Maybe “Wild Things” is not your particular inspirational tipping point. Mr. Sendak’s 1970 “In the Night Kitchen” also spooked a generation of readers. Mickey, the naked 3-year-old protagonist, and the whorl of sexual innuendos that floated around him, were shocking in their day. And, if Mr. Sendak’s work, in general, conjured demons, “In the Night Kitchen” kindly presented a way of using imagination to conquer them.
The artists and designers here are direct beneficiaries of Mr. Sendak’s genius. He revolutionized narrative and conceptual illustration through the way he interpreted his own influences; he drew from the past to illuminate the present.
“Night Kitchen,” his stylistic homage to the comics artist Winsor McCay (who created “Little Nemo in Slumberland”), is a mash-up of comic strip hilarity, expressionist and surrealist absurdity, and has inspired illustrators to revive passé styles and to use them as foundations for new ones. Mr. Sendak’s agility with sly pictorial autobiography encouraged illustrators to inject personal symbolism into otherwise depersonalized commercial art.
Mr. Sendak was not the only illustrator to explore these recesses. But he opened a rich vein of possibilities for other artists whom he inspired, and who created their own symbolic visual languages, with which they could tell two or more stories at once — one for the public, the other for the self.
“Wild Things” and “Night Kitchen” exemplify Mr. Sendak’s skill at bifurcation. He often objected to being called a children’s book illustrator, despite his success at it. His heroes were not children’s favorites, but rather Mozart and Melville. One of his proudest illustration jobs was Melville’s “Pierre: or, the Ambiguities,” a truly inspiring suite of 30 drawings that, on the scale of memorable images, is as weighty as his most important books. Probably there’s not a child who has ever seen it.
STEVE HELLER writes the “Visuals” column for The New York Times Book Review.
MorristownMemos 
Comments on: "PROTESTS" (26)
Maurice Sendak was one of my all time favorite authors, and his brand of humor will be greatly missed. I think Tim Burton owes a lot to Mr. Sendak. As to his death, someone once said something to me about a mutual friend at his funeral that they thought our friend, though only in his mid-forties at his seemingly untimely death, had done his best work at that point and everything from that moment on would have been redundant or mediocre which would have worn off the brilliance of a body of work that was well-done. I’ve often thought of that conversaation, especially when someone has died and left behind something artfully brilliant and beautiful or even been an example of selfless love that touches us all, I think maybe beyond this point, he or she would not have liked his or her legacy. Maybe the choices made would have compromised their brilliance in some way and thus compromised our pleasure and growth through their art. We will miss them terribly, but maybe they knew better.
At least that is how I deal with the pain of losing brilliance and loveliness from our world. . .
Excellent post. Thanks so much for reminding us all that someone wonderful came hung out with us for a while. ET
Eleanor, that is a beautiful response. You give us something to consider that makes the loss more acceptable.
I sooooo agree! I confess, I’ve never read his books. I intend to remedy that! He sounds brilliant. They may have been banned here for sexual innuendo – books were banned for less!
Thanks for visiting my blog too
That possibility never occurred to me….
Wonderful post Ronnie. It’s too bad we’re not in charge of everything, I think we could do a lot better choosing whose cosmic table is ready!
Right! Present company excluded, I presume?
Ha ha! Yes you presume right Livingston! 😀
Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” is one of my grandkids’ favorite stories. Something scary and yet sweet in that story. When Max comes home after his l-o-n-g journey, his supper is waiting for him … and it’s still hot. (Message: Mom loves him even though he was a little stinker.) Something we all need to hear.
Our children loved it too: our son even had one of the stuffed monster characters.
So sad how “all good things must come to an end. . . .”
…and good people!
Fortunately, the work they left behind will continue to be enjoyed by future generations. All three — Sendak, Hirschfeld, and Schulz — were brilliant artists who gave us unique glimpses into life. Thank you for this glimpse into their lives.
You’re right; their work will live on for future generations to enjoy. I just think they should be rewarded with very long lives for bringing so much laughter to us.
Funny is as funny does……
You may call me funny, but looks aren’t everything!
Thanks for your comment.
Lol.Great work Ronnie 🙂
Thank you, as always, Jake.
Hi,
Oh how dare they try to take laughter out of our lives, they will not succeed.
No, never.
Hmmm, trying to decide is I should still be as funny as I try to be!
Scott
Yes, please do!
Laughter lightens the Soul Ronnie.. and we begin to feel Happy! that would never do now would it.. Not when those powers that be spend so much of their time depressing us into our shells so we do not Protest. They want us Unhappy and insecure… That we are are more controlable.
Here’s to Snoopy and Lucy!… Wishing you a Great Weekend Ronnie.. Full of Laughter xxx
Thanks, Sue; I wish you lots of laughter.
I can understand your desire to protest the loss of people who make us laugh, but I fear your efforts will be in vain. We will just have to honor the memories of those who made us laugh, but enjoying their legacy while we look for someone to try to fill the void left behind.
OK, if you insist. I nominate you as one of the ones to fill a funny void.
That’s a lot of pressure, but I’ll certain try my best to be funny.