HORTON HATCHES THE EGG

By Theodore Geisel '25. Random House, 1940. p. 56.$1.50.

DESPITE SUPERFICIAL SIMILARITIES, the differerences between Henrik Ibsen and Theophrastus Seuss are systematic and basic. The fact that both are symbolists should not lead us into the easy supposition that there is any connection between their respective uses of symbolism as a literary armature. Nor should the fact that both are absurd on the surface insulate us against a realization that, whereas Dr. Seuss's absurdity stops short a few millimeters below the cortex, the absurdity of Ibsen goes right through to the core.

We who essay criticism should have the courage of our blind spots as well as the faith of our highlights; and I may as well admit that this comparison has been drawn between a fairly recent experience of The Wild Duck on the Hanover stage, and a quite recent reading of Horton Hatches the Egg. The two works, about equally funny, have drawn me into this disquisition on comparative symbolism because Ibsen's variety of symbol centers directly behind my critical, opaque eight ball, but Seuss's basks in the blissful, clear glare of the fluorescent lamp. Since early youth, I have been aggravated by an assumption on the part of my professorial betters that symbolism is something you can understand but cannot explain. They have said,

"Look! Wild Duck," and I have looked and asked, "So what?" and got nothing for my earnest curiosity but glances of profound pity. With Seuss it is wonderfully different. HortonHatches the Egg is a symbolic parable for our times, and the symbolism is as clear as day. The faithful elephant who sits on the egg of the faithless lazy bird has nothing whatever to do with Wendell Willkie. It is a staggering argument, rather, for holding firm to one's faith in first principles, in spite of the devil. It is, among other things, a parable against appeasement. Its crisis comes when Horton, faced by the rifles of the hunters (Munich for Horton) makes his great decision and goes right on sitting on that egg. And in the end, to confound pragmatic biology with transcendental morality, what hatches is not another little lazy bird at all. What hatches is—but read it for yourself, and remember that the way to attain the little winged pachyderm of happiness on earth is to stick to your principles, no matter who else is sticking to his guns.