oobleck on us all

Kerfuffle at the New York Times and Le Monde led us to consider hubris, and hubris led to Bartholomew and the Oobleck, a Dr. Seuss classic.





In this book, the King's magicians are scary, & one cannot really say why -- they don't appear to carry weapons....


(Bartholomew:  "Your magicians, Your Majesty?  Oh, no, Your Majesty!  Don't call them!")


It's just that they're so mysterious and they seem to -- live underground.  You get the secret whistle.  From its secret hook.  And blow "a long, low blast down the King's


back


secret


stairway."


It's like the works of Alfred Hitchcock before 1963:  it isn't the thing, it's the suspense caused by the thought of the thing.


..."and a moment later he heard them coming!  Up from their musty hole beneath the dungeon, up the empty midnight tunnel..."


Beneath the dungeon?


Not the dungeon, but beneath the dungeon??! ... (running in opposite direction)





(We will not "copy-and-paste" a picture of the magicians into the BCL blog.  They are too spooky for this site.)


And the things the magicians say are basically in the form of a rap, though when this book was written rap had not really been invented yet.


But if you hunch your shoulders forward a little, take a dance-stance with your feet, and put your arms out ready to make expressive and swift hand gestures, and then take the magicians' words and call them out with rhythm -- you've got rap.


"Won't look like rain.  Won't look like snow.
Won't look like fog.  That's all we know.
We just can't tell you any more.
We've never made oobleck before."


(It's spooky-licious...)
Imagine a rap artist performing the magicians' magic spell which they use overnight in the cave:





"Oh, snow and rain are not enough!
Oh, we must make some brand-new stuff!
So feed the fire with wet mouse hair,
Burn an onion.  Burn a chair.
Burn a whisker from your chin
And burn a long sour lizard skin.
Burn yellow twigs and burn red rust
And burn a stocking full of dust.
Make magic smoke, green, thick and hot!
(It sure smells dreadful, does it not?)
That means the smoke it now just right
So, quick!  Before the day gets light,
Go, magic smoke!  Go high!  Go high!
Go rise into the kingdom's sky!
Go make the oobleck tumble down
On every street, in every town!
Go make the wondrous oobleck fall!
Oh, bring down oobleck on us all!"


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