Dr. Seuss (1) vs. Michael B. Jordan; Dylan advances

Jonathan gets the ball rolling:

I’m going to go with Eliot, simply because genteel antisemitism is so much more refreshing than the stuff we have today.

Adam points out a connection:

Bob Dylan sang about T. S. Eliot (in Desolation Row–which came out the same year Eliot died) but I don’t think T. S. Eliot ever sang about Bob Dylan.

Not sure which direction that points in, but surely it merits consideration.

Owen follows up:

I’d love to hear from Bob about what exactly it was that Eliot was fighting Pound for in the captains tower – I guess Eliot might even be able to tell us himself.

Or how about we just split the difference and get Ezra Pound to give the seminar instead: That might calm Andrew from “…Shouting, ‘Which side are you on?’”.

That’s raising the stakes from a fascist sympathizer to an actual fascist. Indeed, Pound would fit right into this competition, as an unseeded contestant in the Traitors category.

Along those lines, Manuel writes:

Please note that at some point in his career, 4th seed in “cool people” was also called like 1st seed in “traitors”, which I guess put him into the “namesakes” category.

Hey—I forgot about that story, the concert where Bob Dylan was called a traitor. That ices it for me. Being in 3 categories has to count for something, so Bob ftw.

Today’s matchup

It’s The Lorax versus The Wire. Top seed in the Children’s book authors category versus an unseeded namesake. It all comes down to whadda want: Acting or Rhyming?

Again, here are the announcement and the rules.

8 thoughts on “Dr. Seuss (1) vs. Michael B. Jordan; Dylan advances

  1. Dr. Seuss made political cartoons during WWII, one of my favorites is a war monument to “John F Hindsight: Master Strategist of Yesterday’s Battles”. However, he is inconsistent with his racism as there is a cartoon encouraging people to play the piano with both the white and black keys (e.g. desegregating the military) but another has a bunch of Japanese on the west coast “waiting for the signal from home” (e.g. favoring internment camps).

    I could brush off this inconsistency to listen to him give an entire talk in anapestic tetrameter, including the Q&A portion.

  2. I have to go with Michael B. Jordan for this one. Dr. Seuss is too much of a known quantity and I don’t think the seminar attendees want to hear a bunch of rhyme from him. The books are fund for kids going to bed and I read my share of them. Andrew mentions ‘The Wire’ but the best Jordan performance came in the vastly underrated ‘Friday Night Lights.’ He’s done a bunch of different shows including a ripped from the headlines, “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” (the best of the Wolf franchise IMO).

    Just gotta go with Apollo Creed’s kid!!!

  3. Sometime around junior high school, my entire class was bused down to Springfield, MA to hear a talk by Dr. Seuss, who spoke to a giant auditorium of adolescents, illustrating his words by very quickly sketching on a giant pad of paper propped on an easel. The whole room started out WAY to cool for silly kids’ stuff and ended up completely captivated. By the end you could hear a pin drop. Still one of the greatest lectures I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard some good ones.

    So, you can advance whoever you want but I’m going to wherever Seuss is talking.

  4. I am convinced that “Bartholomew and the 500 Hats” and “Bartholomew and the Oobleck” are responsible for my lifetime enthusiasm for reading, among other Dr. Seuss books, and a direct contribution to some academic success.

    I met some friends in college who were good, reasonable people who did not enjoy reading and suffered academically for it. I asked if their parents had ever read books to them as children and the answer was no. Personally, I cannot enjoy reading the Berenstein Bears or The Wheels on the Bus to children, although I will do it, but enjoy reading the Dr. Seuss sagas.

    A seminar on the genesis of the Bartholomew and McElligot Pool books by the master would make me very happy.

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