Thanks for the thoughtful and balanced interview! One thing worth considering is whether copyright extends too long. It’s one thing for an author to curate/revise their own work but I’d advocate returning to a shorter time before works become public domain. Doesn’t solve the issue of what individual libraries do, but I’m not sure why the Seuss estate/corporation should have any say at all.
What I really didn't understand was why they pulled the six books from publication, rather than simply editing them. Let's take my favorite of the six (and Prof. McWhorter's), On Beyond Zebra. No one has ever really said what exactly was "problematic" about this book, but I'm guessing that the page for Spazz: "Spazz is a letter I use to spell Spazzim / A beast who belongs to the Nazzim of Bazzim", where the Nazzim of Bazzim is a depicted in stereotypical Arabian dress.
Because of the structure of the book, they could have removed those two pages and rearranged the list of "letters" at the end, and it would not have affected the integrity of the work one bit.
I'm not as familiar with the other works, but it seems like in Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool, you could change one or two lines of poetry, hire someone to draw new art to replace the "problematic" art, and continue to publish the works.
It was wonderful to hear a discussion of a story that I had previously seen only superficially. Fleshing out the details was both informative and entertaining. I really enjoyed the interview.
Thanks for the thoughtful and balanced interview! One thing worth considering is whether copyright extends too long. It’s one thing for an author to curate/revise their own work but I’d advocate returning to a shorter time before works become public domain. Doesn’t solve the issue of what individual libraries do, but I’m not sure why the Seuss estate/corporation should have any say at all.
What I really didn't understand was why they pulled the six books from publication, rather than simply editing them. Let's take my favorite of the six (and Prof. McWhorter's), On Beyond Zebra. No one has ever really said what exactly was "problematic" about this book, but I'm guessing that the page for Spazz: "Spazz is a letter I use to spell Spazzim / A beast who belongs to the Nazzim of Bazzim", where the Nazzim of Bazzim is a depicted in stereotypical Arabian dress.
Because of the structure of the book, they could have removed those two pages and rearranged the list of "letters" at the end, and it would not have affected the integrity of the work one bit.
I'm not as familiar with the other works, but it seems like in Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool, you could change one or two lines of poetry, hire someone to draw new art to replace the "problematic" art, and continue to publish the works.
Public libraries in my region are pulling the books. And that's just the beginning.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/tbpl-diversity-audit-books-1.6006244
It was wonderful to hear a discussion of a story that I had previously seen only superficially. Fleshing out the details was both informative and entertaining. I really enjoyed the interview.