Reviews and Reading Ventures: Our Take On Fox in Socks

Public Libraries Should Ban Fox in Socks (It's Way Too Subversive)

Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss


Read with Sarcasm Please!:

This book is a brilliant exploration of postmodern language.  There is double meaning to every word. I imagined a fox in socks and my mind went wild.  What does the Fox stand for?  Why is he wearing socks? What do the socks represent?  Notice the fox is nude and only wearing socks! Why is there a box?   and what is up with Knox?  Does Knox mean Fort Knox - Is this a critique of General Patton's strategies employed in World War II? And then there is chicks with bricks and blocks and clocks, and where are they coming from- a critique of Chinese Political policy with Nepal? Was Dr. Seuss commenting on how language often falls short of explaining anything?  And the crow, is this a critique of Native American Crow Tribe, is he saying that the Crow Tribe was too slow in reacting to a modern world?  Is he also saying that all of life is merely a game played by capitalists?   He also critiques the use of music to move the populace.   They march when the band comes in... and what are they licking?  His tongue is not made of rubber, a critique of deforestation and use of rubber trees and our over use of a natural resource.  The book also examines global conflict between two nations separated by water.  In this he shows the problem of  atomic proliferation!   All in all Dr. Seuss hid so much meaning in what looks like a benign book Fox In Socks.    This is either one of the best subversive writing of the twentieth century or... it could be just an annoying rhyming tongue puzzler for kids.


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Reading Ventures

 (Responses to Gravity's Rainbow) 

Page Numbers Enclosed and Remark based on my impression follows:

(125) Watch out the refrigerator is cursing me again... that buzz... please make it stop... white noise reduction.  (126) She the moon that affected his inner tide.
(127) This is not a pipe - his cock her axis, she spins from which keeps the moon in orbit.
(128) What is the sound of the melting snow?
(129)Black Falsettos/White Protestants, Static/Dynamic, Melting/Freezing (Every book has an opposite).
(131)Images of Xmas.
(134) Beach closed because of the war.  Sand Castles ran over by Marshall Tanks.
(136) Old men on cell phones looking hip, nursing broken hips from ski accidents.

Typed while Listening to "Teddybear"  - a band from Sweden.

Reading Ventures:

To Read Or Not to Read Again.

Good literature should be able to grow with us. "The Breakfast Club" (for want of a better example) is a movie that grew with me as I gained experience from the world. I remember watching the Breakfast Club when I was junior high school and thinking, "Wow I can't wait till I get old enough to be in high-school, and be cool like these kids.  I love that rebel dude, he won't take all of the teacher's shit, and he doesn't care." The second time I watched it was in High school. I thought, "Wow these guys are stupid, but fun definitely fun." The third time, I watched it was when I had graduated from College, at the time I was working on a teacher certificate, and thinking these kids would be a pain in my ass.   I felt bad for the assistant principal and understood what he was telling Judd Nelson in the cleaning closet.  Good writing, be it presented in movies or books should change and still be interesting as we age.

Reading Ventures

Alphabet for I Claudius:
Aa: Augustus supreme ruler
Bb: Books when they grow out of date only serve as wrapping for fish.
Cc: Carthage a menace to Rome.
Dd: Dwarfs, cripples deformities brought bad luck.
Ee:  Elephant stomped the crap out of the Rhinoceros.
Ff:  "When was the fall of Rome?" said professor Rampton to the class of freshman western civilization students.
Gg: Gaius.
Hh: His is an old man's game.  Half wits restore popular liberty.
Ii: Imperial Households are dysfunctional in their own ways.
Jj: Janus roman god of beginnings.
Kk: Keres female spirits of death.
Ll: Literary sauce is tiberius.
Mm: Mystery cults served only by the chaste so the goddesses anger appeased.
Nn: Nero not the Nero who fiddled while Rome burned.
Oo: Scope and opportunity persuade men to virtue or compel men to truth.
Pp: Pear Tree Charged with murder.
Qq: Everyone's queer but Caligula.
Rr: Reading more just makes me a greater fool.
Ss: Siring Strong Soldiers for Rome.
Tt: Tiberius name is innapropriate becasue the Tiber runs fast.
Uu:  Uxoriously
Vv: Vestal Virgins an honored position for women. They could free condemned prisoners and slaves by a mere touch.
Ww: What do ye need W's for.
XX: Xanthus, Achilles immortal horse.
Yy:  Yet again what did I say for W.
Zz: Zephyrus the God of the West Wind, the nicest and warmest wind...

Review-Fiction Readers Review Guide

Criteria	Descriptions	Points Awarded	Points Possible
Truth Clearly Stated.	Are real solutions proposed along with the problems identified?		5
Flow	The author keeps you going and motivates you to  put the pieces of the puzzle back together again.		5
	Clear introduction, mix up, and resolution to a piece.
Layout	Book is laid out well. Does the author lay out information in a fun new way.		5
Word Choice	Uses words that add to the beauty of the piece. Words are holy and should be used as such.  Are enough words used, too many words used, what gives?		5
Form	Artist uses the lieterate form to a beautiful means		5
Continuity	Artists creates clarity of form… either through literate means or through extras: Maps, Graphs, or Quoted Tables.		5
Identifies accurately the signs of the times	Shows the ills and health of the culture one is  investigating		5
Affirms Human Experience	It provides a look at an aboslute of human-ness. Sublime (that which is worked hard at) and the beautiful (the form)		5
Start Trek Quotiant	Dares to go where no one has gone before Comfortable art is dead art		5
Dialogue	See Notes on Dialogue Overall Rating from Criteria is….		5
		0	50
			0
Who would get the most out of this book:

These are the criteria in which I will review all fictional works.   If you having any insight into my criteria please let me know.   I have been attempting to create a fair analysis of books, so even if I am disgusted by the book, I can still appreciate the work done by the author.

Reading Ventures

ABC's of The Broom in the System by David Foster Walace

Aa: Anarchist at Amherst his thing is to be a Waste Product, resides their doing everyone’s dirty work, done dirt cheap, of course.

Bb  Break through as a scent, a fragrance, that psychologist’s noses are trained to pick up.
Hello Bob a drinking game played at Amherst concerning the Bob Newhart show. 

Cc:  Cleveland-The fringe city by the G.O.D. 

Dd:  Desert a place on the Edge, you can wander with a wander pass, the desolation becomes quit crowded.

Ee: Emotive Control?  What is a feeling? What is the difference between story and reality?

Ff: Fringe and at the center-the Midwest. 

Gg:  Great Ohio Desert – a great place to plant deserts.

Hh: Hygiene Psychological Research:

Ii: Industrial Desert Design creators of G.O.D.

Jj: Jars of Nuclear Baby Food; Journals of professionals;  Jibberish tapped in Morris Code.

Kk:  Know what I Know.

Ll:  Mrs. Y gave my bird (Vlad the Impaler) LSD; Love Poems expressed immaturely.

Mm: You want to have your membrane and eat it too, in short hygiene psychology. Moses Cleveland.
The Midwest an area that Is and Is Not!

Nn: Nerves are delicate and can’t be messed with.

Oo:  Great OHIO Desert

Pp: You are not your penis.

Qq: Quilod Day;  “They don’t make me sleepy they make me feel elsewhere!”

Rr Raining Gelatinously

Ss: Shutes and Ladders; Symptomatic Skirts; Sperm in a Gasmask; Scarsdale Arizona; Sculpture of Steve;

Tt: A life Told not lived: telling and tillable.  There was a tree-frog living in the pit of her neck.  Great Threat Set; Telling and Tellable; Everyone Has Got a THING;  TAB Cola (The Eighties Cola).

Uu:  Lang Aimed at the Urinal Disk; Sun Umbrellas in the G.O.D.

Vv Vacumed Spit;  Linda Sue is the Voice you hear at the grocery store, “Change due four dollars”  

Ww Ludwig Wiitgenstein: story based on his ideas and principals.  Words create meaning.

Xx X Rays and Quality Film

Yy Years ago begins a told tale.

Zz Zeus god of the G.O.D. (Great American Desert)

Reading Ventures

Tic Tac Toe or Black Out with Different Book Store Categories 

Game: Please fill out the tic tac toe form as shown.  You must fill in the books in the given grids so that they are three in a row.   (Eg Science Fiction, General Novels, and Romance).
Prizes: I will ship two books from my overcrowded library to the first two individuals to respond to this challenge. Please specify the types of books you like, that way the books may be of interest to you.  Contest ends on September 12, 2011.  Please specify your address, your age, in an email to gregorio.roth@gmail.com.  In the subject field write Reading Ventures Contest September 12.

Science Fiction and Fantasy:	Travel Writing or Travel Guides:	Westerns:
Christian Living or Positive Living:	General Novels:	Sports:
Graphic Novels:	Poetry:	Romance: