Post by Admin on Aug 26, 2016 17:57:49 GMT
Cross-posting from my tumblr here.
“I would agree with George [Balanchine]: when people are finding meanings in things — beware!”
—Edward Gorey
I would like to challenge Gorey’s statement and posit that his work The Evil Garden (1965) is an exception in his oeuvre when it comes to encoding a specific meaning. In fact, TEG is one of the darkest stories that Gorey has ever written, and it has as much of a political message as many of Dr. Seuss’ works do. This is something I haven’t seen discussed anywhere else, so I thought I’d write it down.
Similarly to Dr. Seuss’ Yertle the Turtle (1958), The Evil Garden is about World War II; Specifically, about the horrors of the holocaust.
[Note: If you don’t have it on you, somebody has uploaded the short picture book here (pt.1) and here (pt.2). You can buy the work as part of a collection here.]
In the first panel we see the entrance to the eponymous evil garden, with a slogan saying “EINTRITT FREI” (“Free admission” in German). An innocent phrase by itself, but with the writing being part of the entrance to a sinister place, being in German, and ending in “Frei,” the allusion is unmistakable; it evokes the entrance of the Auschwitz concentration camp with its infamous slogan “ARBEIT MACHT FREI”. Indeed, if you compare Gorey’s illustration to photos of the camp gates both in Auschwitz and Dachau, there are some clear parallels in the gates’ design.
This remains the strongest indicator for Gorey’s intent behind this story, but as it throws a much grimmer light on what is to follow, you can see numerous other details in the short story corresponding with the Nazi death camps.
“There is a sound of falling tears / It comes from nowhere to the ears” conveys the mourning of the holocaust’s first victims’ families, back when Hitler could still keep the horrible reality of the death camps a secret to the outside world.
“A foot inside a stripéd sock / Protrudes from underneath a rock” - Death camp inmates were dressed in striped uniforms. The child notices the foot; something isn’t right. The parent, however, doesn’t notice at all and walks right by.
“Her sash is lying on the ground / But Isabelle cannot be found” - Inmates wore a sash displaying a number they were assigned to at the camp and a symbol telling why they were taken by the Nazis. Outside of the camps, Jews in the Reich were required to wear a white armband with a Star of David on it, to mark them as Jewish in public. If you wore it, you were at risk of being taken away to a concentration camp at any given moment.
“Alexa watches while her aunt / Is pulled feet first inside a plant” - Many children had to watch members of their family being taken away by Nazis, and in the camps, people had to watch their relatives sent to the gas chambers to their death.
“The nurse of whom they all were fond / Is sinking in the bubbling pond” - Even if you were lucky enough to survive, you had to watch friends and friends of your family not make it.
“The sky has grown completely back / It’s time to think of turning back” - Once the rest of Europe and the world was taking notice of what was going on, Hitler’s regime was already in full swing.
“Fall down, or scream, or rush about– / There is no way of getting out” - All the people that were lost had died helplessly and people couldn’t do a thing about it. This panel also mirrors how the last living moments of the people who were sent to the gas chambers must have looked like. A disturbing and grim end to the story, but an appropriate one; Gorey does not gloss over the true horror that was WWII.
___________________________________________________
Let me know what you think and leave a comment below.
“I would agree with George [Balanchine]: when people are finding meanings in things — beware!”
—Edward Gorey
I would like to challenge Gorey’s statement and posit that his work The Evil Garden (1965) is an exception in his oeuvre when it comes to encoding a specific meaning. In fact, TEG is one of the darkest stories that Gorey has ever written, and it has as much of a political message as many of Dr. Seuss’ works do. This is something I haven’t seen discussed anywhere else, so I thought I’d write it down.
Similarly to Dr. Seuss’ Yertle the Turtle (1958), The Evil Garden is about World War II; Specifically, about the horrors of the holocaust.
[Note: If you don’t have it on you, somebody has uploaded the short picture book here (pt.1) and here (pt.2). You can buy the work as part of a collection here.]
In the first panel we see the entrance to the eponymous evil garden, with a slogan saying “EINTRITT FREI” (“Free admission” in German). An innocent phrase by itself, but with the writing being part of the entrance to a sinister place, being in German, and ending in “Frei,” the allusion is unmistakable; it evokes the entrance of the Auschwitz concentration camp with its infamous slogan “ARBEIT MACHT FREI”. Indeed, if you compare Gorey’s illustration to photos of the camp gates both in Auschwitz and Dachau, there are some clear parallels in the gates’ design.
This remains the strongest indicator for Gorey’s intent behind this story, but as it throws a much grimmer light on what is to follow, you can see numerous other details in the short story corresponding with the Nazi death camps.
“There is a sound of falling tears / It comes from nowhere to the ears” conveys the mourning of the holocaust’s first victims’ families, back when Hitler could still keep the horrible reality of the death camps a secret to the outside world.
“A foot inside a stripéd sock / Protrudes from underneath a rock” - Death camp inmates were dressed in striped uniforms. The child notices the foot; something isn’t right. The parent, however, doesn’t notice at all and walks right by.
“Her sash is lying on the ground / But Isabelle cannot be found” - Inmates wore a sash displaying a number they were assigned to at the camp and a symbol telling why they were taken by the Nazis. Outside of the camps, Jews in the Reich were required to wear a white armband with a Star of David on it, to mark them as Jewish in public. If you wore it, you were at risk of being taken away to a concentration camp at any given moment.
“Alexa watches while her aunt / Is pulled feet first inside a plant” - Many children had to watch members of their family being taken away by Nazis, and in the camps, people had to watch their relatives sent to the gas chambers to their death.
“The nurse of whom they all were fond / Is sinking in the bubbling pond” - Even if you were lucky enough to survive, you had to watch friends and friends of your family not make it.
“The sky has grown completely back / It’s time to think of turning back” - Once the rest of Europe and the world was taking notice of what was going on, Hitler’s regime was already in full swing.
“Fall down, or scream, or rush about– / There is no way of getting out” - All the people that were lost had died helplessly and people couldn’t do a thing about it. This panel also mirrors how the last living moments of the people who were sent to the gas chambers must have looked like. A disturbing and grim end to the story, but an appropriate one; Gorey does not gloss over the true horror that was WWII.
___________________________________________________
Let me know what you think and leave a comment below.