On Beyond Zebra!: Difference between revisions
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In order, the letters, followed by the creatures for which the letters are the first letter when spelling their names, are YUZZ (Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz), WUM (Wumbus), UM (Umbus), HUMPF (Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer), FUDDLE (Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle), GLIKK (Glikker), NUH (Nutches), SNEE (Sneedle), QUAN (Quandary), THNAD (Thnadners), SPAZZ (Spazzim), FLOOB (Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs), ZATZ (Zatz-it), JOGG (Jogg-oons), FLUNN (Flunnel), ITCH (Itch-a-pods), YEKK (Yekko), VROO (Vrooms), and HI! (High Gargel-orum). |
In order, the letters, followed by the creatures for which the letters are the first letter when spelling their names, are YUZZ (Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz), WUM (Wumbus), UM (Umbus), HUMPF (Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer), FUDDLE (Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle), GLIKK (Glikker), NUH (Nutches), SNEE (Sneedle), QUAN (Quandary), THNAD (Thnadners), SPAZZ (Spazzim), FLOOB (Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs), ZATZ (Zatz-it), JOGG (Jogg-oons), FLUNN (Flunnel), ITCH (Itch-a-pods), YEKK (Yekko), VROO (Vrooms), and HI! (High Gargel-orum). |
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The book ends with |
The book ends with a letter that is substantially more complicated than the others called ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. A list of all the additional letters is shown at the end. |
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==Analysis== |
==Analysis== |
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Revision as of 15:37, 19 March 2021
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| Author | Dr. Seuss |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1955 (renewed 1983) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and paperback) |
| OCLC | 7715159 |
| Preceded by | Horton Hears a Who! |
| Followed by | If I Ran the Circus |
On Beyond Zebra![1] is a 1955 illustrated children's book by Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. In this boundary-pushing take on the genre of alphabet book, Seuss presents, instead of the twenty-six letters of the conventional English alphabet, twenty additional letters that purportedly follow them.
Plot
The young narrator, not content with the confines of the ordinary alphabet, reports on additional letters beyond Z, with a fantastic creature corresponding to each new letter. For example, the letter "FLOOB" is the first letter in Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs, which have large buoyant heads and float serenely in the water.
In order, the letters, followed by the creatures for which the letters are the first letter when spelling their names, are YUZZ (Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz), WUM (Wumbus), UM (Umbus), HUMPF (Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer), FUDDLE (Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle), GLIKK (Glikker), NUH (Nutches), SNEE (Sneedle), QUAN (Quandary), THNAD (Thnadners), SPAZZ (Spazzim), FLOOB (Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs), ZATZ (Zatz-it), JOGG (Jogg-oons), FLUNN (Flunnel), ITCH (Itch-a-pods), YEKK (Yekko), VROO (Vrooms), and HI! (High Gargel-orum).
The book ends with a letter that is substantially more complicated than the others called ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. A list of all the additional letters is shown at the end.
Analysis
Judith and Neil Morgan, Geisel's biographers, note that most of the letters resemble elaborate monograms, "perhaps in Old Persian".[2] These letters are not officially encoded in Unicode, but the independent ConScript Unicode Registry provides an unofficial assignment of code points in the Unicode Private Use Area for them.[3]
In the real world when using the alphabet to number columns in a table, any columns beyond Z are rendered as "double-digit letters," with Z followed by AA, AB, AC, and so forth. The following table shows the double-digit column heading letters, insofar as they would correspond to the imaginary letters in On Beyond Zebra!
| Table column letter | Imaginary letter |
|---|---|
| AA | Yuzz |
| AB | Wum |
| AC | Um |
| AD | Humpf |
| AE | Fuddle |
| AF | Glikk |
| AG | Nuh |
| AH | Snee |
| AI | Quan |
| AJ | Thnad |
| AK | Spazz |
| AL | Floob |
| AM | Zatz |
| AN | Jogg |
| AO | Flunn |
| AP | Itch |
| AQ | Yekk |
| AR | Vroo |
| AS | Hi! |
| AT | The Unnamed Letter |
Legacy
Some of the animals from On Beyond Zebra! appear in the 1975 CBS TV Special The Hoober-Bloob Highway. In this segment, Hoober-Bloob babies don't have to be humans if they don't choose to be, so Mr. Hoober-Bloob shows them a variety of different animals; including ones from On Beyond Zebra! and If I Ran the Zoo (1950). Such animals include: a Jogg-oon, a Sneedle, a Zatz-it, a Wumbus, and a Yekko. The book was infrequently reprinted. Open Library lists American editions in 1955, 1983, and 1999.[4] A British edition was published in 2012.[5]
Withdraw
On March 2, 2021, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, owner of the rights to Seuss's works, withdrew On Beyond Zebra! and five other books from publication because of imagery they deemed as "hurtful and wrong".[6] The book depicts "“Nazzim of Bazzim”, a figure of unspecified nationality (but implied to be Arab) riding a camel-like creature called a “Spazzim”. The Vancouver Sun described the "problematic imagery" as "probably the least obvious" of the six books removed from publication.[7]
References
- ^ On Beyond Zebra!. New York: Random House. 1990. ISBN 0-394-80084-2.
- ^ Morgan & Morgan, p. 152
- ^ "Unofficial Unicode encoding for the Seussian Latin Extensions".
- ^ Open Library
- ^ World Cat
- ^ Watts, Amanda; Asmelash, Leah (2 March 2021). "6 Dr. Seuss books won't be published anymore because they portray people in 'hurtful and wrong' ways". CNN. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- ^ "Here are the 'wrong' illustrations that got six Dr. Seuss books cancelled". Vancouver Sun.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
Sources
- Fensch, Thomas (2001). The Man Who Was Dr. Seuss. Woodlands: New Century Books. ISBN 0-930751-11-6.
- MacDonald, Ruth (1988). Dr. Seuss. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7524-2.
- Morgan, Neil; Morgan, Judith Giles (1996). Dr. Seuss Mr. Geisel: a biography. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80736-7.
- Nel, Philip (2004). Dr. Seuss: American Icon. Continuum Publishing. ISBN 0-8264-1434-6.
- Pease, Donald E. (2010). Theodor Seuss Geisel. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532302-3.