My daughter just finished watching Horton Hears a Who. I hear the original story concerned Geisel's response to the atom bomb. (Though waiting nine years to object must have been a bad case of writer's block.)
Horton first finds the Who because of his impressive sense of hearing. By the end of the story every Who is adding his or her Who sounds to get the attention of the Wickershams and save themselves from certain doom.
It doesn't work until a tiny little Who adds his voice to the cacophony. That final "Yooop" breaks through to the Wickershams and our heroes are saved.
How could I pass up comparing that story to my rant from this morning?
Obviously, I believe that a bunch of little voices is impossible to ignore and ultimately powerful. It's been true in the past and it'll be true on the Net. It won't be the stars who make the needed "yoops." It'll be the Internet proletariat.
After all, a blogger's a blogger, no matter the list.
Photo CC by Bahi P
Umm, it's a *story*. And if you really think about it, it doesn't make a lot of sense, from many angles.
1) It's really unlikely the volume needed was going to be *precisely* equal to their total population - either it'd be less, in which case a few small slackers wouldn't hurt, or more, in which case they could all Yoop their hearts out and it wouldn't matter.
2) There's no *cost*. There's no reason for *anyone* not be Yooping. They don't lose anything by doing it, and inversely, if they don't, they're all going to be DEAD! It's hard to imagine a more lopsided incentive.
3) The Wickershams are exceedingly fair. After calling out a whole posse to deal with a seeming rogue elephant (and that wasn't easy), they don't go into denial to save face, but gladly admit error without a moment's hesitation.
One might as well point to Superman beating galactic menaces. Some of those are good stories too. And the credo "There is a right and a wrong in the Universe and that distinction is not very difficult to make." sounds inspiring.
Sadly, none of this is much help in the real world .
# Posted by: Seth Finkelstein at December 24, 2006 3:03 PM
Yes, a story. But stories serve many purposes. To simplify arguments is one.
1) "Really unlikely" is true, but the truth of the matter is maybe the last little Who wasn't the one who put them over the top. Maybe all along it was his voice that was needed. Maybe his voice simply was the last....and neither order or numbers were important.
2) There are many reasons for many Who not to Yoop. Some Who want the world to end. Some are so self-centered the cost of saving the world is less than the cost of expending the energy to Yoop. Some are convinced that their small Yoops would do no good, and so stand mute.
3) The Wickershams made it their business to deal with an elephant that wasn't causing them, or anyone, harm. Of course, they had no leg to stand on after.
Yes, if my daughter had been watching a Superman movie I might have found a story of influence there. The purpose of fiction is to reflect our world, or some small facet, and focus our attention.
I could pull our numerous works of fiction that had greater popularity than anything an Internet blogger ever wrote. I'd bet anyone could find quite a few examples of fiction that have exerted greater influence than anything written by a blogger.
# Posted by: Domoni at December 24, 2006 4:59 PM
