40 Years of Hungry Happiness!!!

With all of my research into children's literature and juvenile stories, I was absolutely delighted today when I turned my browser to Google's main page. In honor of the 40th anniversary of Eric Carle's children's classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Google transformed the usual appearance of its logo into a stylized reference of the story, complete with a caterpillar trailing its Os, which were transformed into an apple and an orange.

Truly, this shows the power children's books. Containing fewer pages than days in a month, this little board book has only enough room and time to offer a very brief story. But what it captures within those few pages has managed to fascinate children for many years. Now, some of these same children, once captivated by the journey of a single caterpillar, have been moved from this story of their childhood so much that they are paying homage to it with their multi-billion dollar entity on what must be the most frequently visited pages on the Internet.

Even the author has wondered at the book's success. But such timeless themes and metamorphosis, hope, youthful innocence, and even hunger are accessible to most of the book's readers; and the impact of the themes are reinforced by the book's visual and tactile appeal. This appeal transcends age and experience. I never read the book until I was an adult...and I am NOT 40...as I was browsing through the children's are of a bookstore after a cafe-style Bible study. It was so cute and warming, and I understood why there were so many Caterpillar paraphernalia within arm's reach of the attention-grabbing cover. I could connect with the story because I understand change and physical transformation.

The books we read to our kids, the stories we tell them, and the images we show them are all very powerful. It is with this in mind that I am going to write my own children's book. I love telling stories that excite me. I love it when the energy I feel is transferred to the reader. I am delighted when a student enjoys reading something I have written or designed. It's such a rewarding experience. I want to do it more often and add to the already long list of great children's books that help inspire kids along their own personal journeys.

The Old Days Machine

This semester has found me enrolled in a class called Special Themes in Literature. I honestly didn't know what the theme was...but somehow, I managed not to actualize this truth until I walked through the door. But I wasn't expecting what I got when I opened the door: a smiling young professor, a smiling bunch of students, and a course centered on...science fiction!!! I have no objection whatsoever to science fiction. But it's never been one of my things. Despite the geekery I've always associated with most intimately (and I do mean this in a kind and loving way), I had managed to remain free from the overpowering, life-altering chains of the stereotypical genre of intellectuals.



Anyway, we're to read H.G. Wells The Time Machine before class this coming Tuesday. I've finished it, and I have become more aware of just how grateful I am to live in this day. Not because of any feat that humankind will eventually dwindle down to an organism comparable to today's rodents. Rather, I am extremely overjoyed to be alive now because of a statement made in the book that took me by utter surprise and took me on my own time-travel adventure.

The Time Traveler who is telling of his time adventures to the story's unnamed narrator makes a comment about the gap that exists between the Negro and the White Man. In the context of the story, the gap to which he refers is that of intellectual ability. The author, through his characters, also implies that the ways of indigenous people are inferior to that of the West. But in fact, they are simply different. Much of the scaffolding of Western thought places most of its emphasis on monetary gain. In fact this is often how we measure success. But other cultures place more value on the treatment of elders than on finances. Some place more of a focus on communal unity than the market value of the houses on their street. Such thought leads to the degeneracy of humankind, ironically towards the same end implied by Wells. While the West does have some very great ideals, it should not be considered the best by any means.

I'd love for the Time Traveler to set his dials to January 20th, 2009. I'd love to see the look on his face as a gentleman too dark to have entertained the Time Traveler's company assumes what is perhaps the most powerful position in the world.

I know that this book was written before the 20th century. But that does not mean that I cannot be outraged by its suggestions, especially when its author is to have been such a intelligent man. But literary racism is no new thing and is just as prevalent today, albeit not always prominent.

I suppose that all of this reinforces what I've recently actualized: neither intellectual ability, nor fluid use of cognitive capacity is an accurate representation of true intelligence.

From my observations, I would assume that most of the people in the class are of significantly-above-average intelligence. And up until a few weeks ago, this would have really meant a lot to me. But the longer I live, the more humility I am being blessed with; and I realize that intellectual capacity, especially in the way I had previously seen it, it not nearly as important as I used to think. But that's another post entirely.