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On Authorship, a Grinch and Forward-Thinking E-mail
Just in time for the Seusscentennial, my e-mail brought a poem
titled, "The Grinch Revisited (with thanks to Dr. Seuss)." Maybe you're
seen it. It begins like this...
The Whos down in Whoville liked this country a lot, But the Grinch in the White House most certainly did not. He didn't arrive there by the will of the Whos, But stole the election that he really did lose. Vowed to "rule from the middle," then installed his regime. (Did this really happen or is it just a bad dream?) Like so much "have you seen this..." or "I heard a good one..." e-mail, the copy I received didn't say who wrote it. Always looking for new ways to eat up a few minutes online, I decided to find out... Besides, I thought I might be able to share the story with another friend who has been somewhat Seuss-focused this week. The result was this extended essay on e-mail forwarding culture, as well as authorship, Google, liberalism and (by implication) Attention Deficit Disorder, but it at least has a few good links. If you're more interested in simply reading the whole poem, here it is. (Read it! It has a happy ending!) As Kurt Vonnegut said about authorship on the Internet after his name got attached to someone else's work, cyberspace can be "spooky." At least this Grinch-pastiche author was only "sharing" the authorship of "The Grinch Revisited" with "anon." Anyhow, I got it into my head that I should track down the author. Google came through with flying colors: Searching for a line of the poem brought about 190 "hits," some of which included the name "Doug Goodkin" as author. Adding his last name to the search disclosed that more than a third of the online copies of the poem identified him as its author. So I found his own site in the list and, just to be sure, sent him an e-mail. (His response is at the end of this rather rambling essay.)
Personal aside: That e-mail copy of "The Grinch Revisited" came to me from an
old-friend-and-former-romance in another state. I was one of eight
people she sent it to. From the mail headers, she got it from another
old-friend-and-former-romance of hers. I don't know
if that says something about Grinches, politics, humor or Internet-sustained
21st Century
almost-relationships. From the "FW" prefixes, my friend was about fifth in the chain of letters passing around the Grinch, and someone a couple of notches back had added this to the top: "I have no idea where this came from, but it was Dr. Seuss' 100th birthday recently..." Other than a few politically-self-righteous chuckles, could some good come of all of this forward-thinking e-mail behavior?
I'm reminded of Phil Ochs's line, "I'll send all the money you ask for, but don't ask me to come on along..." ["Love me, I'm a Liberal"] There's enough liberal-guilt complex in that song to keep a million therapists in business, mine included. Conclusion: Sending e-mail is a notch less than sending money, but still better than nothing... and now and then the result is food for thought, a Grinch epiphany, or something almost as amusing as the story of Mary Schmich's "Vonnegut" Wear Sunscreen column. Have you heard of any "famous" folk being given credit for "The Grinch Revisited"? Tell Mary and Doug! Maybe "Wear sunscreen" and "Anywho but Bush" would make a good combination bumper sticker? May your house (and e-mail box) be safe from grinches... On Mar 8, 2004, at 7:32 AM, Doug Goodkin wrote: Hello Bob,
I am indeed the Grinch guy and the story in brief is that I began to write some of it on my annualChristmas card two years ago and then realized it was too much for that format and wrote a larger version that I e-mailed separately to some friends. Some of them forwarded it to others and before I knew it, it took on a life of its own and began appearing on various Websites. And yes, many had dropped my name. The strangest thing was an old friend calling me to ask for my e-mail address so that she could send this poem that she thought I'd like- and sure enough, it was my own poem! I considered making an updated version this Christmas, but never did. I feel fine about it continuing to circulate, but of course, would like my name attached. I do have it on my own Website (www.douggoodkin.com) Thanks for asking and let's hope it will be ancient history by this November! Best, Doug Goodkin
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