Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Oddaptation: The Lorax

What's this, you say? An Oddaptation of Seuss? Well, it had to happen, as the good Dr. wrote soooooo many classics/best-sellers and, well, those are what a guy like me has to Oddapt.

For those new to my Oddaptations, you can find out more via the links on the right under the headline The Oddaptations. But basically we're talking about mixing picture books with Cliff's Notes (synopsis, analysis) and a "pointed point of view." Dealing with a master rhymer like Dr. Seuss presented new challenges, of course, but why only take on the easy targets?

As always, feel free to suggest other titles you think are deserving....


THE LORAX
by Dr. Seuss
Oddaptation by Gregory K.

The Lorax -- bossy, loud and rude --
Says to Onceler, “Listen, dude,
You’ve turned air all black and funky.
You’ve made ponds turn thick and gunky.
Trees are gone and now there’s weeds…
And no one needs your ugly thneeds.”
The Lorax doesn’t offer help.
All he does is moan and yelp.
Soon he’s overcome with stress,
And leaves behind one word: Unless.
Time goes on as time must do.
Onceler finally gets a clue.
When he’s learned he misbehaved,
He tosses you the seed he’s saved.
I say put it in your pocket
Then inside a safe and lock it.
Cuz if a forest blooms anew…
That Lorax will come back here, too.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sweet. Never one of my favorite Seuss books, but certainly one I read to my kids a lot. And I mean A LOT!

The Buried Editor said...

Lovely. I'm not acquainted with the Lorax, at least not conciously, and now I feel no need to ever become so. It's amazing how you shrink 32 pages to such succinct lines I laughed. I don't want to meet the Lorax in my garden either. He sounds like my Home Owner's Associaion.

I'm a big Green Eggs and Ham fan myself. When I was little I used to quote it to my parents everytime they tried to get me to eat something new. Apparently, there were a lot of foods I wouldn't eat on a boat or with a goat.

However, I would like to nominate The Cat in the Hat. I always found that book annoying.

Anonymous said...

seriously, i appreciate the alternative point of view, although i'm not sure the purpose of the original post was to slander the lorax. it's an important book, one of the best by seuss, and i hardly think that all 32 pages should be that large a burdon

Greg Pincus said...

Oh, anonymous. I love The Lorax (all way more than 32 pages of it). I can probably recite most of it from memory, in fact. Still, no reason not to poke fun, I always say!

Cynthia DiFilippo Elomaa said...

Maybe it's because I just finally saw the Lorax with my boys, but I loved it. Nicely done. - Cynthia