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Horton Hears the Who

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I have found enough positive things about this story to want to recommend it.

- Main character is benevolent, courageous, determined nonconformist who proclaims:

I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an elephant's faithful, one hundred percent.

- A tribe of rampaging blue monkeys is used to illustrate mob-think.

- The flaws of democracy (what majority believes and does is not always the truth/right) are exposed.

- Horton and the mayor aren't just hearing things. When the burden of proof falls to each of them, they produce hard evidence. And it's a nice touch that the first person to believe the mayor is a scientist.

- I liked the message: Even one little voice can tip the scale.

- A character, despite being the only son among 90+ sisters, chooses to pursue his own interest rather than to follow, as his father wishes and expects, in his father's career footsteps.

There were also few ideas which I did not like but I think this story is a great conversation starter with a child; a stepping stone in a process of encouraging the child to think philosophically about life.

Edited by ~Sophia~
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Anyhow, what ideas did you find unappealing Sophia?

Ideas I did not like:

- feeling duty to fellow men

- belief in universal human worth

- granting undeserved forgiveness (no: "I was wrong. I am sorry." was offered)

Edited by ~Sophia~
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Ideas I did not like:

- feeling duty to fellow men

- belief in universal human worth

- granting undeserved forgiveness (no: "I was wrong. I am sorry." was offered)

I probably won't be one to see it then. I miss the old days of pen and ink animated movies, and those seem to have gone into a brief endangerment. If Winsor McCay were here he'd whip everyone into shape.

That, and I just don't enjoy the movie experience much anymore. I don't plan on going to the theater again until 2009.

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I've always heard this story was basically a pro-life parable, with the hoos standing in for fetuses.

"Just because it is small doesn't mean it isn't alive" (or something like that).

The phrase is: A person's a person no matter how small.

Does that suggest rights for unborn (saying: unborn is a person) or equal rights for all of the kind - person?

(The book was published in 1954, the year of the landmark civil rights decision Brown vs. Board of Education. The phrase was widely interpreted as a paean to the rights of minorities.)

However, several of the pro-life groups have adopted the phrase in support of their views. This has brought sharp criticism from Dr. Seuss' widow and according to his biographer, Seuss himself threatened to sue a pro-life group for using the phrase.

Edited by ~Sophia~
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However, several of the pro-life groups have adopted the phrase in support of their views. This has brought sharp criticism from Dr. Seuss' widow and according to his biographer, Seuss himself threatened to sue a pro-life group for using the phrase.

Was Seuss pro-choice? It's not too rare that at the bottom of this website there's an advertisement for when "Dr. Seuss meets Ayn Rand."

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