Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Early Brainwashing??



Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

First, a quick summary, for those of you who may not have had the immense joy of reading this book as a child, or maybe as an adult. It is about a town called (::chuckle::) Chewandswallow that has food in place of weather. It rains soup. It snows mashed potatoes. The "weather reports" tell you what you are having for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But, one day the weather takes a nasty turn. Ketchup tornadoes, giant hamburgers falling! It gets so bad that the people of Chewandswallow have to leave.

Now, fast-forward to today. I was pondering what would move someone to write such a book. (I have no idea why I started pondering such a thing.) Then, it hit me - early brainwashing of children on the effects of global warming. Yep, makes sense doesn't it? Children won't understand global warming, but tell them about a land where the "weather" works perfectly normal and then changes violently one day...well, they'll make the connection when they are older. I can hear the discussion now..."Of course the weather is normal now...but the hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. are increasing, and one day, we'll need to leave because the weather's so bad due to global warming, but where are we going to go? We can't just leave like the people of Chewandswallow!"

So, beware the angle. Not even children's stories are safe anymore.






**Author's Note: I do not really believe Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was written to brainwash children about global warming. It is truly a delightful book, and I will probably try to find it next time I go home so I can read it again. Nor do I believe in global warming. What a silly idea. Should we take care of the earth - yes. Should we worry about global warming - no. But, with all the hoopla about it, why not have a laugh at it.

1 comment:

Dani said...

I loved that book, when I was small!