jaszkin

I had a very love/hate relationship with The Muppets in my early youth. I really, really liked watching "The Muppet Show" and "Sesame Street". They were two of my favorite shows, and I still hold both in high regard. However, every now and then and completely out of nowhere, a Muppet would do something that genuinely terrified me. For example, I really hated that old "Sesame" sketch when a couple of mild-mannered puppets would calmly take turns whispering words that rhymed to a gently jazzy beat, and then this orange hairy guy would barrel up to the screen, and, without regard for rhythm or personal space, bellow an unwieldy sentence containing all the words the less-horrific Muppets had so charmingly whispered earlier. That SCARED me. Badly. I was scared of beards, yelling, and any pictures or toys depicting someone or something with a gaping mouth. Thus, I had serious issues with "Monster at the End of this Book". I was always very ill at ease with Grover, anyway. He caused terrible problems for everyone he encountered, and almost never showed remorse. Also, he couldn't seem to communicate without shouting and gesticulating wildly. I had real problems with the way he carried himself, so I knew going into the book that I probably wasn't going to like it much. What I didn't expect was to be profoundly affected, to the point of tears and sleepless nights, by a drawing of Grover, his furry mouth so wide with terror that his head resembled a blubbering halved blue grapefruit, positively out of control with horror and dread concerning the MONSTER that was about to destroy him, to destroy us all, because he'd spoken to me, personally, directly, about the effects the very book I held in my hands would have on the both of us in the immediate future. I never appreciated or even detected the pleasingly ironic denouement of this, the most devious Little Golden Book of them all, until 4th or 5th grade, when I finally dared to finish the thing. In my preschool days, as far as I was concerned, they may as well have entitled the book "Grover Undergoes a Harrowing Mental Breakdown, and Will Implore You to Help Him Throughout (You Cannot)". One star, one scar.

2023-07-19 19:17