The other hand of this discussion is that artists do have personal views on politics that are interesting to know & hellip; that lend us some insight into their work and their times. The most interesting thing I've learned about Ted Geisel's political views came from a These Days interview I did almost nine years ago with a man who edited a book of old political cartoons by Geisel.
The book was called Dr. Suess Goes to War. The drawings you see in those old Geisel cartoons are immediately recognizable as having come from & ldquo;Dr. Suess. & rdquo; But they had nothing to do with the Whos down in Whoville and everything to do with the U.S. involvement in World War II. During that war, Geisel was a political cartoonist for the New York Daily newspaper & ldquo;PM. & rdquo;
In the run-up to war, many Americans had a stubborn non-interventionist attitude. & But Ted Geisel believed this country needed to get involved. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and Germany's declaration of war on the U.S., Geisel did many cartoons mocking Adolf Hitler, painting him as a dangerous buffoon. But to Americans today the most interesting Geisel cartoons are the ones that reflect his views on race.
On matters of black and white, Geisel was progressive. He was especially critical of the employment discrimination that prevented African Americans from working in the war industries. One cartoon shows a man playing a piano and wearing a coat with the words & ldquo;War Industry & rdquo; on it. The caption reads, & ldquo; & hellip;if you want real harmony, use the black keys as well as the white! & rdquo;
Geisel's blind spot, one shared by most Americans of the time, was his portrayal of Japanese Americans. & During WWII, the government herded ethnic Japanese into concentration camps in the Western U.S. Geisel's cartooning expressed plenty of fear and distrust of Japanese. One cartoon showed a line of Japanese-looking people walking along the coast of California, being handed little packages of TNT. The cartoon caption says & ldquo;Waiting for a signal from home & hellip; & rdquo;
So what's the moral of this story? Maybe it's simply the fact that gifted writers and artists aren't much different from the rest of us. Ted Geisel was enlightened on some issues but not on others. Ezra Pound was a great poet. But he was also an anti-Semite and a fascist.
Let's just say a person's a person no matter how small or how big. &
