Everyone Poops
discussion
Moves the soul, fosters the bowels
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Nick
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Jan 16, 2008 05:38PM
The lessons learned from the cover of "Everybody poops" may be self evident. Horses poop. Ducks poop. Little anime cartoons poop. But did you know apples poop? I did not know this. But right straight flat on the cover there is an apple. It's not exactly pooping but neither are the horse, goose or korean kid. So, without even opening this book you can learn a major life lesson. Wash your apples kids.
reply
|
flag
Nick, new science is showing that apple feces is very nutritious. But that's beside the point, because I think you're missing the art of the cover.
There are two interpretations of the sequential art of the cover that bear examination.
First, the Western direction. Western comic books move from LEFT to RIGHT. Thus the child is inserting himself into the horse's rectum. The duck is running from the apple, a fruit that when ingested by fowl can produce ducky diarrhea.
However, the author of the book Taro Gomi would have created his sequential art from RIGHT to LEFT, as in Japanese manga. This is the interpretation that makes the most sense. The boy is being expelled from the horse's rear, clearly a play on both man-eating horses of the Japanese highlands as well as the clever cliche: Someone, in this case the BOY, is a horse's ass. As it's a boy, we also find a not-so-subtle feminist dig against boy children.
From RIGHT to LEFT, the duck and apple strip makes PERFECT sense. The duck is springing forth from the apple, as Athena sprang forth from the head from Zeus in Greek mythology. We are reminded of the magical qualities of feces--from whence does it come so hidden inside our cavities and insides?--and the normal cycle of food is broken, with the eaten birthing the eater. We are reminded of the POWER of nutrition and mastication and digestion in our everyday lives, and the duck becomes a symbol of all life, springing forth each day to live again thanks to the Mother Nature of Appledom.
EDIT: For this short summary of current thought on the meaning behind this much-debated cover, I have borrowed liberally from the work of the Sociology, Feminism, and Feminist Sociological Fecology professor, Dr. Andrea Sphincterton, of Cambridge Community College in Beerville, Indiana. Her academically rigorous and poetically written _Stink: A Postmodern Examination of James Joyce's Intestinal fortitude as Viewed Through the Lens of Japanese-American Internment Camp Culture_ has been a guiding force in my studies and work on the tentatively titled _My Head Up My Ass: Looking Inside for a View of the Outside: Life in Colonial America, 1500s to 1600s, in Woodland Ditch Fecal Samples_.
There are two interpretations of the sequential art of the cover that bear examination.
First, the Western direction. Western comic books move from LEFT to RIGHT. Thus the child is inserting himself into the horse's rectum. The duck is running from the apple, a fruit that when ingested by fowl can produce ducky diarrhea.
However, the author of the book Taro Gomi would have created his sequential art from RIGHT to LEFT, as in Japanese manga. This is the interpretation that makes the most sense. The boy is being expelled from the horse's rear, clearly a play on both man-eating horses of the Japanese highlands as well as the clever cliche: Someone, in this case the BOY, is a horse's ass. As it's a boy, we also find a not-so-subtle feminist dig against boy children.
From RIGHT to LEFT, the duck and apple strip makes PERFECT sense. The duck is springing forth from the apple, as Athena sprang forth from the head from Zeus in Greek mythology. We are reminded of the magical qualities of feces--from whence does it come so hidden inside our cavities and insides?--and the normal cycle of food is broken, with the eaten birthing the eater. We are reminded of the POWER of nutrition and mastication and digestion in our everyday lives, and the duck becomes a symbol of all life, springing forth each day to live again thanks to the Mother Nature of Appledom.
EDIT: For this short summary of current thought on the meaning behind this much-debated cover, I have borrowed liberally from the work of the Sociology, Feminism, and Feminist Sociological Fecology professor, Dr. Andrea Sphincterton, of Cambridge Community College in Beerville, Indiana. Her academically rigorous and poetically written _Stink: A Postmodern Examination of James Joyce's Intestinal fortitude as Viewed Through the Lens of Japanese-American Internment Camp Culture_ has been a guiding force in my studies and work on the tentatively titled _My Head Up My Ass: Looking Inside for a View of the Outside: Life in Colonial America, 1500s to 1600s, in Woodland Ditch Fecal Samples_.
That's easily a top 5 nominee in the category, "Best Goodreads Comment EVER."
I really hate when the title gives away the ending.
all discussions on this book
|
post a new topic
