Wild Things of 1963
In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I’m
experimenting with a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.
I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then
brainstorm on some potential essay topics. This time the wheel
spins, gradually slows, then clicks to a stop, pointing at: 1963.
So here’s my second 1963 series possibility: 21 essays
on Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things
Are.
Fully realized in both words and images, Maurice Sendak’s Max
is as real as any human in fiction. He’s
mean then sensitive, wild then controlling, one minute a king and the next a little
boy. When you’re a really great author,
you can cut to a character’s essence in a single sentence: “And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely
and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.”
Over the next three days, I’ll be proposing some more 1963
ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…) But I’m wide open to other suggestions. Any ideas for 1963 movies, books, short
stories, poems, songs, or other cultural artifacts that might inspire a good 21 Essays series? Please share!
Next blog series: 6 essays on
Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012
© 2012 Lee Price
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