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February 20-26, 2003 artpicks Louis MenandAmerican Studies , the latest collection from Louis Menand ( The Metaphysical Club ) examines such thinkers as William James, T.S. Eliot, Maya Lin, Pauline Kael and Richard Wright, so, of course, he¹s coming to town to talk about -- Dr. Seuss. If you¹ve been keeping up on your New Yorker s (rather than, say, letting them collect in a stack on your coffee table), this won¹t come as a total shock; Menand¹s Dec. 23 article appraises the good doctor¹s oeuvre as a creation of both Cold War politics and changing theories of linguistic development. The Cat in the Hat , it turns out, was fathered by phonics. Rather than force children to memorize Dick and Jane primers, the idea was to build children¹s stories from a list of recognizable and near-recognizable words, and teach children to bridge the gap between the two. "Cat! and "hat! were the first two rhyming words on the list Theodor Geisel was handed by his publisher. The result, Menand writes, "was a tour de force, and it killed Dick and Jane.! The impact of introducing "flewn! and "wocket! into the vocabulary of America¹s children is not discussed. Applying high theory to popular culture is a tricky business, and Menand sometimes comes down with a case of the smarts. Comparing The Cat in the Hat Comes Back to Derrida might be good for a couple of chuckles Œround the faculty lounge, but it¹s no more than a flourish. You have to wonder if Seuss, who dropped out of some of the finest schools in the world, didn¹t think of it all first. Don¹t floogle a floogler. Louis Menand, Wed., Feb. 26, 5–6:30 p.m., free (registration requested), 200 College Hall, University of Pennsylvania, 215-898-8220. 
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