[lbo-talk] Soviet Children's Picture Books, Etc.

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu Jan 29 08:28:24 PST 2004



> Chris Doss wrote:
>
> >It's a shame to use up my posting limit on this maybe, but I wanted
> >to add that there was something else at which the USSR simply
> >excelled: Children's cartoons. The Soviet version of Winnie the Pooh
> >is flat-out brilliant.

I would like to add that the Soviets saw art in general, especially children's art, as an educational tool, hence the proliferation of 'didactic' and pro-social messages. As far as I remember, those messages were to the tune of non-violence, cooperation, mutual-help, love of nature, etc. There was no violence of any kind on children's shows, period. Unlike in the US where violence receives the highest form of glorification on children's TV (as aptly lampooned on the Simpsons - the Itchy and Scratchy show).

That reminds me of a situation several years ago when I was visited by a Russian family, mom, pop and a 4 or so year old kid. To shatter their naïve fascination with everything US, I wanted to show them the "real" US and for that purpose I selected the Michael Moore's video "Roger and me." I over-did it. During the scene showing the woman killing a rabbit, the kid got really agitated screaming (in Russian) "why is she killing the rabbit." True, rabbits and hares are considered "children's friends" in Russia, but any kind of graphic violence on children's shows would be unthinkable in x-USSR.

That is one of the reasons why for many non-US-ers, US popular culture, especially television, looks like a bunch of steaming crap for psychopaths-in-training.

Wojtek



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