From the Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2000 issue

Film

Letter from Moscow

A Communist View of "The Grinch"

by Charles Mudede

FOR MANY YEARS, I studied Russian literature and planned to pursue an advanced degree that would focus on Gogol and his cinematic and literary descendants (those who came from his overcoat, as Dostoyevsky famously put it). But, for a number of reasons (one of which was Russia's sudden fall from superpower status), I dropped out of the program, took a degree in English, and became a writer for The Stranger. Because I still have a passion for Russian studies, I'm an active member of a lively e-mail group (Russki-Domain) that discusses all aspects of Russian culture.

Last week, a member of this group, Professor Vivian Darkbloom (who wrote a remarkable book called Representations of Boys and Girls in Sologub's Petty Demon), posted the most curious letter. It was written by a Russian film commissioner from the Ministry of Culture and Recreation who had just watched Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas for Russian certification. Though the commissioner, whose name is Vassily Kissov, had watched and certified hundreds of Hollywood pictures without uttering a bitter word, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas proved to be the final straw. He snapped, and wrote this fervent letter, which in Russia has now achieved the fame and notoriety of Belinsky's letter to Gogol. I have translated the letter from the Russian (with assistance and comments from the wondrous Anna Petrovna), and hope you find it as illuminating and pertinent as I and millions of other Russians film fans do.

Dear Comrades,

I'm not here to judge Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas for its artistic worth; what I want to do is address the film's politics. Specifically, its evil politics. And what is evil about this film's politics? It makes fun of Marxism! Indeed the attack is so vicious that we should denounce it and declare nothing less than a fatwa on Ron Howard. The movie kidnaps our dreams, our treasured theories, our noble attempts to improve the lot of the proletariat. The Grinch steals these ideals and reduces their political import to a few sick jokes. This film laughs at us! And it's the worst kind of laughter: a derisive, arrogant, mocking laughter. The laughter of sheer evil, the laughter of a werewolf.

The trouble begins when the movie tells the story of why the Grinch is so mean. We learn that as a boy his schoolmates made fun of his ugliness, his skin color, his long hairs. The Grinch's otherness exposes him to the truth about his society: He realizes that not everyone can be a part of this world desensitized by relentless consumption and the fetishism of commodities, as Marx would have it. The people of Whoville do not feel or think; they just mindlessly run from store to store, purchasing any consumer product they can get their grubby little hands on. Disgusted by the truth, the Grinch leaves town and settles on a distant hill, where Whoville dumps its endless garbage. Up there and far away from the people he rightly loathes, the Grinch spends his days and nights plotting the demise of Whoville.

Now, this recount of the Grinch's formative years, which takes place near the middle of the movie, serves only one function: It posits the Grinch as the critic of a consumerist society. Indeed, we are meant to identify the Grinch as a Marxist, as a revolutionary who dreams of overthrowing the oppressive capitalist order.

But how is this Grinch, this symbol of the oppressed proletariat, portrayed? Comrades, he is a buffoon! This is what Ron Howard is saying: The poor are buffoons. The Marxists are buffoons. And he says it in our faces! For example, in one scene the Grinch sits down and starts to think of ways he can bring down the capitalists of Whoville. As he is deep in thought, he picks up a discarded beer bottle, bites into it, and chews the glass. Now, tell me, what true revolutionary would ever eat a used beer bottle? Damn him and his... [this part is untranslatable].

The poor want better pay, enhanced social benefits, and to bring to an end once and for all this economic system that lives off their labor like a werewolf feeds on the blood of the living. Yet in the film, all of these legitimate concerns are transmogrified into this inarticulate, smelly, garbage-eating, green buffoon!

I recommend that all Russians boycott Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I further advocate that all full-blooded Marxists make it their duty to form picket lines in front of theaters that are screening this filthy film. Comrades, now is the time! Yes, we have received heavy blows from sellouts like Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Yes, we have been smothered by a world that has surrendered everything to the New Order, the New Right, free trade agreements. But now more than ever we must put our foot down and say enough is enough. If we don't do anything, if we allow these scoundrels to think they can humiliate us whenever they want, then for sure the end of our dream world is nigh. Workers of the world, on November 30, unite against The Grinch!