The Cat in the Coal Scuttle Helmet

So, Dr Seuss' publisher has decided to 'retire' some of his books and withdraw them from print because of the outdated and offensive racial stereotypes they perpetuate.  Yeah, well I always thought that The Jig Who Liked to Dig was a bit much, ('Dig, Jig, Dig!'), he and his friend, 'The Chink Who Liked to Blink', ('Blink, Chink,Blink!'), were just a step too far and could never understand how the book had lasted so long in publication.  Of course, in reality, none of the offensive stereotypes were quite that blatant.  I must admit that, not having read anything by Dr Seuss in decades (his works are a bit out of my age range), that I was mildly surprised to read this news, (my immediate reaction was that I couldn't remember The Cat in the Hat donning a coal scuttle helmet and disrupting the homes of Jewish kids by scrawling swastikas on the walls).  A lot of the controversy apparently centres around the depiction of Chinese people - at least one of the now retired titles featured a Chinese boy as being, quite literally, yellow and sporting a pigtail and coolie hat, (interestingly, later editions removed the yellow and pigtail, indicating that there had long been an understanding on the part of editors as to the potential for offense in the face of changing attitudes).  Inevitably, this news brought the right wing knee jerk reactionaries out in force, with their usual battle cries of 'cancel culture', 'wokeness gone mad' and 'free speech'.  All nonsense, as usual - nobody has actually banned, or suggested banning these works, the rights holder has simply decifded to let them go out of print.

The reality us that much literature, particularly children's literature, falls by the wayside as it becomes outdated and seems irrelevant to modern children.  Indeed, the endurance of some remains a mystery - the works of Roald Dahl are chock full of offensive anti-Semitic and racial stereotypes, (removing them is a major task for those adapting his books for film and TV has become a major task).  But Dahl still enjoys some sort of 'beloved British children's author' status and, for the time being, seems untouchable.  (personally, even as a child, I found something slightly 'creepy' about his fiction).  But it isn't just outdated racial stereotypes that can date children's literature.  I recall, decades ago, someone doing a class-based analysis of the Reverend Awdry's Thomas the Tank Engine stories, noting that the railway on the Isle of Sodor is run along class lines, with the locomotives at the top of hierarchy, lording it over the rolling stock, (for which they provide the 'motive power', ie 'finance'), which was divided into nice, compliant and well behaved middle class coaches and uncouth troublesome trucks and wagons which, like the real working classes, had to be treated roughly and 'kept in line'. 

Actually, I always thought that it was a lot more complex than this, with clearly defined class divisions amongst the locomotives.  The small tank engines, like Thomas and Percy, who spend their time shunting and working branchlines are clearly cheeky cheery working class types, whereas express passenger locos like Gordon and Henry see themselves as superior and lord it over them.  A mixed traffic engine, like James the Red Engine, is clearly middle class, looked down upon by the express engines, but maintaining an air of superiority with regard to the tank engines.  James, (who I never liked), is also something of a social climber, with aspirations to top link work and frequently tries to curry favour with the express engines.  I have to say, though, that when I read (and loved) those books as a child, none of this ever occurred to me - they were just stories about trains.