On Sun, Dec 01, 2002 at 07:10:37PM -0500, Erik Reuter wrote: > That's an interesting cultural difference. I wonder if anyone has > written about that difference before. Off to do some web searches...
I haven't found a lot. Two interesting things I found are below. Apparently, Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) went to Oxford, http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y65553F92 Oxford . Founded in 1167, Oxford is now comprised of 35 individual colleges. Enter the Bodleian Library where alumni such as Margaret Thatcher, Stephen Hawking, Dr. Seuss and JRR Tolkien studied for their degrees. Students can visit the Ashmolean Museum, attend a choir recital, go rowing on the Isis or check out the popular Eagle and Child Pub. >From http://www.politicalcartoon.co.uk/html/history8.html In the United States Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904-1991), the best selling American author of all time, is a household name. Recite the first half of a Seussian line today, and someone nearby will supply the rest. Many of his books have been turned into videos (animations he himself worked on). How the Grinch Stole Christmas became the disastrous Hollywood production, The Grinch, starring Jim Carrey; a Broadway musical, Seussical, also died of asphyxiation. The whimsy that is a Seuss staple dies easy, especially when producers throw money at it. But Dr. Seuss doesn't travel well. He is well-known in Australia but less so in Great Britain (and hardly at all in the non-English speaking world). To gain some idea of Dr. Seuss.s popularity, those in Britain today might think Harry Potter. Better, think Beatrix Potter some time ago. She is more to the point because her balance of pictures and text more nearly approximates that of Dr. Seuss. But where the prim and proper Beatrix Potter introduced children to big words ("with alacrity," for example), the zany Dr. Seuss kept his vocabulary simple.single syllables in the two wildly successful books The Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish , both of which he wrote explicitly for beginning readers. His long words he made up: Big Boy Boomeroo, Yazzmatazz, Beezle-Nut. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
