"Or you are abominably wicked;
You are a toad."
And after I had thought of it,
I said, "I will, then, be a toad."
- Stephen Crane -
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Thidwick the Big-hearted Moose
How many of you know Dr. Seuss’s story of Thidwick the Big-Harted Moose? It’s one of my favourites.
The story is about Thidwick, a moose, who is out with his herd lunching on moose moss, when a Bingle Bug asks him if he can hitch a ride on his antlers. Of course Thidwick, being big-hearted and all, says that he is happy his antler’s can of some use. And so Thidwick keeps on looking for moose moss to eat.
Along comes a spider, who hears from the Bingle Bug about the free housing on Thidwick’s antlers. Without asking Thidwick first, the spiders begins to spin a web for himself on one of the antlers.
Along comes a Zinn-a-zu bird, who hears from the spider about the free housing on Thidwick’s antlers, and he bird proceeds to build a nest by plucking Thidwick’s hair. Thidwick continues to be big-hearted and allows the bird to continue stay in his antlers, thinking that they would all go away tomorrow.
But tomorrow comes, and the Zinn-z-zu bird has brought his wife, and informs Thidwick that an uncle, a woodpecker, would be arriving shortly.
Then Thidwick is ostracized by his friends because he has too many “pests” hanging around, but Thidwick won’t because he views them as “guests”. To make matters worse, the uncle woodpecker tells the squirrels that Thidwick is running a public hotel, which encourages them to start hiding nuts in Thidwick’s antlers, without asking Thidwick.
Then before long, a Bobcat and a Turtle come to live in the antlers.
But winter soon comes around, and Thidwick needs to cross the lake to the south side in order to eat more moose moss and survive. As Thidwick crosses, the “guests” in his antlers decide to yell out in protest because they all don’t want to live on the other side of the lake. Thidwick tries to explain that there is no choice, and if he stays there, he will starve. But the “pests” want to put the matter to a democratic vote. Needless to say, the pests win the vote, and Thidwick can’t cross the lake. The pests, at that point, invite more creatures of the forest to live n Thidwick’s antlers, including a bear, a fox, mice and bees.
Thidwick is spotted by hunters who shoot at him. He runs but can’t jump in the lake to save himself because of those “guests”. But then he remembers that now is the time to shed his old horns to grow new ones. And so he does, and he crosses the lake to the other side.
And his “guests” are still on his horns, stuffed in an old man’s house.
And so one of the best economic and political lessons to learn in life is contained in a children’s book.
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How to read:
Read, read, read. Read more. Read in bed, on the couch, in the bathtub, in the kitchen, on the bus, in class. Read everywhere.
Read often. Read love stories, funny stories, prose, poetry, history books, academic articles, biographies, read that woman who sounds like she has something to say. Read everything.
Read billboards, read newspapers, read the back of the cigarette pack.
Read. Read often, read everywhere, read everything.
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Books.
There was an old man who owned a little bookstore down the street from where I used to live. He didn’t like anyone borrowing books from his store, you could only buy them. Back then, I didn’t have enough money to buy all the books I wanted (I was 7 at the time) so I made him a deal: 50 cents for every book I wanted to borrow, and I would bring it back good as new. The man got an extra 50 cents profit per book, and I got to read the book.
Back in those days, my allowance was about $1 a day, so I’d spend half of it on books, the other half on ice cream.
One time, I decided that I wanted to buy a book. I saved up my ice-cream money for a month, and I bought Ferenc Molnar’s The Boys of Paul Street. A worthy investment, indeed.
Now I have too many books, and nowhere to put them all. I’m thinking of lending them out to the neighbourhood kids for 50 cents apiece.
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Anyone read any good books lately?
I just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
Fiction or non-fiction… either category is fine.