The Thneed

[vaneramos]

From The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (1971), a favourite book from my childhood:

He was shortish. And oldish.
And brownish. And mossy.
And he spoke with a voice
that was sharpish and bossy.

Mister! he said with a sawdusty sneeze,
I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.
And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs—
he was very upset as he shouted and puffed—
What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?

Look, Lorax, I said. There's no cause for alarm.
I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm.
I'm being quite useful. This thing is a Thneed.
A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need.
It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat.
But it has other uses. Yes, far beyond that.
You can use it for carpets. For pillows! For sheets!
Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!
The Lorax said,
Sir! You are crazy with greed.
There is no one on earth
who would buy that fool Thneed.

But the very next minute I proved he was wrong.
For, just at that minute, a chap came along.
And he thought that the Thneed I had knitted was great.
He happily bought it for three ninety-eight.
I laughed at the Lorax, You poor stupid guy!
You never can tell what some people will buy.

I repeat, cried the Lorax,
I speak for the trees!

I'm busy, I told him.
Shut up, if you please.

The Once-ler's capitalist Thneed industry pushed Truffula trees to extinction, driving away the Brown Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans and Humming-Fish. Even the Lorax finally disappeared, leaving the Once-ler alone in his rundown factory.

The Lorax

Comments

[artricia.livejournal.com]

I know this isn't exactly the point of your post, but when I followed the link, I was overjoyed to see that reading comprehension is still being taught by someone, somewhere. Those questions posed were perfect, emphasizing basic reading comprehension skills that I often find my students don't exhibit.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I noticed that, too. It's especially interesting considering what a political book this was at the time of its publication, and how much it may have influenced a generation of children who knew how to read.

True story

[bigmacbear]

A long time ago I began working as a Software Engineer for the Kodak 1392 Printer. At the time it was billed as the World's Fastest PostScript Printer, at 92 pages per minute, so it ran through a lot of paper very quickly. The printer was built in two pieces, the Marking Engine and the Raster Image Processor (or RIP). Now the RIP was built by another firm out of California, and when you first started the machine, the RIP would send a test message to be displayed on the Marking Engine's console. I was amused to find, in an early revision of the system, that that startup message was: "I am the LORAX, I speak for the trees".

Re: True story

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

That's perfect!

[ubermunkey.livejournal.com]

ah yes the Lorax, made me cry the first time I read it, then after crying I had this fantasy about living in a community of folks who with love in thier minds as well as hearts, lived each day as softly on the earth as possible.

I still havent found that community, and truly, I begin to wonder does it exist?

be welll sir thneed maker.
thanks again for the pic

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I've had the same fantasy. I've read about existing intentional communities with that purpose. I might take that up as the subject for a future article.

Visit the link below!

[sulis-vt.livejournal.com]

Diana's Grove is an intentional community that is also home to a dog rescue and spiritual retreat center...they are magical marvelous people! (http://www.dianasgrove.com/philosophy/cornerstones.html)

It does indeed exist!