Well now I know what I'm doing with my unruly 4th and 5th graders in library class this week during the excruciating, inexorable slide towards winter break. We will be debating the size of the Grinch and providing textual evidence to defend our theories. I will let you know where a bunch of kids from Philly land on this most pressing question of our time.
Update: I scrapped my 3rd grade genre lesson until after break, and I'm so glad I did, because: a child has pointed out that according to the text, Santa ("Santy Claus") is responsible for distributing presents to the Whos. So if in fact Who-ville exists on a speck of dust, either it's a DIFFERENT SANTA than our human Santa, OR our Santa not only CAN shrink himself, but DOES. We also wondered about the existence of other Who-cities and whether Santa visits them and also whether they have their own Grinch or is this Grinch is an anomaly and if so, how he came to be and and and.........
I’m with Emmy on this one. Maybe Horton’s world is massive, and the Who world is the same size as our world. Then it would make sense (sort of?) that they measure their mountains in feet. I think if they were on a different system of measurement, Seuss wouldn’t miss a chance to name it and explain it, because it would definitely be something more fun than feet. Also, if we’re considering it unlikely that Whos can be microscopic and our-world sized within the same species, we have to apply that consideration to Max as a dog, if we can agree that he’s a dog. If dogs exist in our-world size (they do), then it is unlikely that they would also exist microscopically. In conclusion, we’re not Horton. We’re the dust.
Also, the Grinch isn’t green?? That blew my mind. I can’t wait to share that one with the kiddos.
Questions as to the scale of Horton was my first thought. I feel like the Whos on a speck is an allegory for our own nature of being. Who are the Whos? We are the Whos.
When you realize the Whos down in Whoville are loud enough to be overheard by an extraplanetary elephant, then you understand why the Grinch feels compelled to do something about all the noise noise noise noise.
Not that we’re basing it on the movie, but the movie was mentioned. I do believe at the end, when the camera pans out, the town and everything that went down is shown to have happened on a single snowflake, so…. Do with that what you will.
I love the level of detail here! There’s a wonderful piece on Seuss from about 1957, when Helen says his drawings of the Whos look like bugs. He says that the Whos ARE bugs. Helen says: no, they’re not. They’re people. In acknowledgment of this truth, Seuss redraws the Whos so that they do look more like people.
So, I’d stay that the Whos are a flexible signifier, the size of which (whom!) varies depending upon the story Seuss is telling. In Horton Hears a Who!, size is a metaphor for difference (racial, national, religious): small size signifies their lesser degree of social power & underscores Horton’s moral obligation to protect them.
In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Whos represent humankind — specifically, any humans who celebrate Christmas (secular or religious). Size here matters only inasmuch as it emphasizes the Grinch’s power. It’s not as central to the story. Indeed, in an earlier appearance of the Grinch, the magazine story “The Hoo-Bub and the Grinch” (Redbook, 1955), the Grinch is actually smaller than the Hoo-Bub. In it, the Grinch cons the Hoo-Bub into buying a piece of green string. And he doesn’t yet resemble our well-known Grinch.
In Seuss, size is always relative. And Seuss is not completely consistent — even with his own characters.
Oh man, this was the 'giant anthropomorphic bunnies having a much smaller pet kitten in Goodnight, Moon' all over again. I should not have read this before bedtime.
Though I find the "supersized Horton" theory strangely comforting on the Suessian side of things, the scaling discussion reminds me (with a shudder!) that Seuss ALSO revels(!) in terrifying cat scaling--"powers of 10"-style, way down to that Z cat, in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (my favorite of the Cat in the Hat books; what can I say? weird attracts weird).
What is the inside of THAT hat like, the "cats of every scale, living hat-stacked in the hat OF an especially giant cat" hellscape mega-verse? Does each cat live a darker and bleaker existence, from A to Z, being more and more blocked from natural daylight?
And does the omnipotent, world-correcting life force (called Voom in that particular text) show itself in other Seuss works, perhaps by allowing a heart to grow three sizes, and for a simple grinch to gain the strength of ten grinches, plus two?
I have something Max related to add… Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems like Max is proportionate to the Grinch. Human:dog, Grinch:Max. Which would make him an especially large dog if he originally belonged to the Whos… so maybe he is a grinch??
I have zero sources to cite other than our La Jolla Kayaks guide who told us this story as we were kayaking by Theodor Geisel’s (Dr. Suess’) writing cottage on the waterfront: On Christmas eve, he was having a roaring holiday party in the cottage with a bunch of friends while his wife was sitting at home annoyed. She came storming down from their house on Mt. Soledad, broke up the party, and made him come home. She later drove with a “Grinch” license plate around town. So as legend goes, the original Grinch was as big as his wife.
I love this discussion of two of my favorite books! I never put the two together, and this is fascinating! I especially appreciated the information about the Grinch’s color.
I feel like there is a specific restraint occurring here that kept this conversation from veering into a "Who's on first" zone. Also, do you think that Dr. Seuss was sitting around thinking to himself "Okay, so I have these little people, what are they called? They are . . . who?"
Well now I know what I'm doing with my unruly 4th and 5th graders in library class this week during the excruciating, inexorable slide towards winter break. We will be debating the size of the Grinch and providing textual evidence to defend our theories. I will let you know where a bunch of kids from Philly land on this most pressing question of our time.
Update: I scrapped my 3rd grade genre lesson until after break, and I'm so glad I did, because: a child has pointed out that according to the text, Santa ("Santy Claus") is responsible for distributing presents to the Whos. So if in fact Who-ville exists on a speck of dust, either it's a DIFFERENT SANTA than our human Santa, OR our Santa not only CAN shrink himself, but DOES. We also wondered about the existence of other Who-cities and whether Santa visits them and also whether they have their own Grinch or is this Grinch is an anomaly and if so, how he came to be and and and.........
Have we considered Horton’s size? Perhaps … maybe, he’s like a REALLY big elephant.
I’m with Emmy on this one. Maybe Horton’s world is massive, and the Who world is the same size as our world. Then it would make sense (sort of?) that they measure their mountains in feet. I think if they were on a different system of measurement, Seuss wouldn’t miss a chance to name it and explain it, because it would definitely be something more fun than feet. Also, if we’re considering it unlikely that Whos can be microscopic and our-world sized within the same species, we have to apply that consideration to Max as a dog, if we can agree that he’s a dog. If dogs exist in our-world size (they do), then it is unlikely that they would also exist microscopically. In conclusion, we’re not Horton. We’re the dust.
Also, the Grinch isn’t green?? That blew my mind. I can’t wait to share that one with the kiddos.
Questions as to the scale of Horton was my first thought. I feel like the Whos on a speck is an allegory for our own nature of being. Who are the Whos? We are the Whos.
When you realize the Whos down in Whoville are loud enough to be overheard by an extraplanetary elephant, then you understand why the Grinch feels compelled to do something about all the noise noise noise noise.
Not that we’re basing it on the movie, but the movie was mentioned. I do believe at the end, when the camera pans out, the town and everything that went down is shown to have happened on a single snowflake, so…. Do with that what you will.
Oh boy... more evidence!
Can we talk about the dog party in the tree in Go Dog, Go!? There's no way that tree is big enough for a party like that.
I love the level of detail here! There’s a wonderful piece on Seuss from about 1957, when Helen says his drawings of the Whos look like bugs. He says that the Whos ARE bugs. Helen says: no, they’re not. They’re people. In acknowledgment of this truth, Seuss redraws the Whos so that they do look more like people.
So, I’d stay that the Whos are a flexible signifier, the size of which (whom!) varies depending upon the story Seuss is telling. In Horton Hears a Who!, size is a metaphor for difference (racial, national, religious): small size signifies their lesser degree of social power & underscores Horton’s moral obligation to protect them.
In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Whos represent humankind — specifically, any humans who celebrate Christmas (secular or religious). Size here matters only inasmuch as it emphasizes the Grinch’s power. It’s not as central to the story. Indeed, in an earlier appearance of the Grinch, the magazine story “The Hoo-Bub and the Grinch” (Redbook, 1955), the Grinch is actually smaller than the Hoo-Bub. In it, the Grinch cons the Hoo-Bub into buying a piece of green string. And he doesn’t yet resemble our well-known Grinch.
In Seuss, size is always relative. And Seuss is not completely consistent — even with his own characters.
Oh man, this was the 'giant anthropomorphic bunnies having a much smaller pet kitten in Goodnight, Moon' all over again. I should not have read this before bedtime.
Though I find the "supersized Horton" theory strangely comforting on the Suessian side of things, the scaling discussion reminds me (with a shudder!) that Seuss ALSO revels(!) in terrifying cat scaling--"powers of 10"-style, way down to that Z cat, in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (my favorite of the Cat in the Hat books; what can I say? weird attracts weird).
What is the inside of THAT hat like, the "cats of every scale, living hat-stacked in the hat OF an especially giant cat" hellscape mega-verse? Does each cat live a darker and bleaker existence, from A to Z, being more and more blocked from natural daylight?
And does the omnipotent, world-correcting life force (called Voom in that particular text) show itself in other Seuss works, perhaps by allowing a heart to grow three sizes, and for a simple grinch to gain the strength of ten grinches, plus two?
Sigh. <starts kettle, looks for sleepytime tea>
I have something Max related to add… Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems like Max is proportionate to the Grinch. Human:dog, Grinch:Max. Which would make him an especially large dog if he originally belonged to the Whos… so maybe he is a grinch??
I have zero sources to cite other than our La Jolla Kayaks guide who told us this story as we were kayaking by Theodor Geisel’s (Dr. Suess’) writing cottage on the waterfront: On Christmas eve, he was having a roaring holiday party in the cottage with a bunch of friends while his wife was sitting at home annoyed. She came storming down from their house on Mt. Soledad, broke up the party, and made him come home. She later drove with a “Grinch” license plate around town. So as legend goes, the original Grinch was as big as his wife.
I was today years old when I found out the Grinch was not originally green
I love this discussion of two of my favorite books! I never put the two together, and this is fascinating! I especially appreciated the information about the Grinch’s color.
Mt. Crumpit measured in Who-feet blew my mind.
My mind was blown several times.
I don't think it matters if the Grinch is germ sized or not... but I'm totally convinced he's a Yeti now. Thank you!
I feel like there is a specific restraint occurring here that kept this conversation from veering into a "Who's on first" zone. Also, do you think that Dr. Seuss was sitting around thinking to himself "Okay, so I have these little people, what are they called? They are . . . who?"
I'm sure you know I had to look up tardigrade.
I hope he gave you so much joy! Knowing about them is a lot of fun!