well technically I am late to this party, but it’s 10:30pm and i’ve had a couple glasses of wine and watched a documentary and I just feel like it’s worth mentioning, even if it’s late. as a certain rumpus philosophizes, who cares about being timely? (it’s the opposite of the arrington approach.) today is maurice sendak’s birthday. (dude, who can’t wait for a sendak google doodle?)
maurice sendak is someone i feel like is highly idolized in annoying ways, ways like spike jonze movies with arcade fire soundtracks, like the way there is a blog for people who like kurt vonnegut that only posts snippets of quotes from him. basically, the way i hate the internet because it only proves the fact that i like things that other people also like. (the issue with saying things like that is that it brands you as a hipster and a douche, not to mention a fool, because of course you like things that other people like. but what i more mean is that i would rather that things i like are not overpopularized because they lose their singular appeal to me. i can’t explain why that is. but once you have heard others’ opinions on a thing too many times, you can’t feel the same about it… like reading a book after seeing the movie based on the book. and who wants to have things the love ruined for them all the time? no one. thus have i explained the self-conscious hipster, a class to which i do not belong, no matter what the dudes from my work say.)
but, to continue, despite idolization by the internet and indie people of all kinds, maurice sendak is pretty rad. i remember when i read “in the night kitchen” and was vaguely scandalized to see the kid’s penis in one (or more, i don’t even remember, but one was enough for me at whatever tender age i read it) scene. and i also remember “outside over there,” the book that introduced the concept of a changeling. (perhaps the reason this book was so vaguely terrifying to me was that it was about an older sister “misplacing” her younger counterpart, which really is just getting into my psyche more than i perhaps need to at this time.)
related: why is it that people don’t appreciate goblins anymore? it’s all zombies and pirates and ninjas and vampires. i am going to make it my mission to bring back the goblin. they are scary mf’ers, and they can be interpreted all kinds of ways. besides the hobbit/LOTR, which is the obvious example, does anyone remember the princess and the goblin? that book also stuck with me, mostly because even as a child i remember fiercely wanting the main two characters to hook it up. (i wonder where that impulse comes from. i had it very early, before watching mind-destroying romantic comedies that might normally take the blame for that kind of thing.)
