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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:04 am
Deconstructing Dr. Seuss - An "Owed"
Author: Phil Frankenfeld
"OWED" TO NAOMI GOLDENBURG'S
"A FEMINIST PSYCHOLANALYTIC EXEGESIS OF
'THE CAT IN THE HAT COMES BACK'"
A Real Talk She Delivered at the American Psychological Association in New York, Monday, August 14, 1995
The queens and grand poo-bahs
In their postmodern palaces
Had time on their hands
But no grist or analysis!
Obliquely their Oobleck
At "canons" they'd fired
But tenure committees
Bayed, "That's not inspired!"
When lo, and behold
Their tip-top thinkeroo
Thought up a thunk thoughtling
So lively and new!
"Who cares about Shakespeare?
Flaubert? What a nuisance!
We must deconstruct
Something new--with inSeussiance!
So she switched on The Great
Deconstruct-O-Ma-Thing
And decoded a Dr. Seuss text
With her ring!
From nonsense, deep meaning
She soon started teasin'
She Grinchly averred
That each rhyme had a reason!
Existential womb envy!
And phallocentrism!
Hegemonic cabals!
Rainbowed out of her prism!
Promethe'an transgressions!
Original sin!
One wonder just which
Catnip patch she'd been in!
She thought she saw all
But it seems one small catch is
Like bad O'Keeffe scholars
. . . She only saw snatches!
Her decoder ring failed
But h'rumph-h'rumphers all noted
That HERS was the meaning
Old Seuss had encoded!
"Such insight!" they howled
For her over-wrought thesis
That was less exegesis
Than laid eggs and wheezes!
We've seen cat-hatted tricksters,
Chain-jerkers, rib-ticklers,
And wool-o'er-the-head-pulling
Tenured brain pick'lers!
Hornswoggl'ing mythologists,
With noggins embossed
With Edens and apples
And paradigms lost!
But no one has given us
Such a big goose
As the woman who tried
To decode Dr. Seuss!
Copyright © 1995 by Phil Frankenfeld, The Deacon of Deconstruction
