Maurice Sendak Is My New Spirit Animal


maurice sendak Maurice Sendak Is My New Spirit Animal

Back around the media frenzy-time of the Where the Wild Things Are movie, I began to sense that Maurice Sendak was kind of crazy. But like, the kind of crazy he was entitled to be. The kind of crazy we should all hope to one day be entitled to be. He wrote all those books, dammit! He is fully allowed to be old and grouchy and awesome.

He has a new children’s book now, Bumble-Ardy, which sounds like his typical blend of imagination, darkness and happy endings with maybe a bit of an asterisk. (It’s about a pig who is orphaned on the very first page thanks to a slicing machine. YUP.)

But the best thing about a new Maurice Sendak book is that it brings us new Maurice Sendak interviews. And The Guardian bagged itself a doozy, basically just letting the 83-year-old Sendak talk about everything he hates. Which is a lot! And includes Gwyneth Paltrow! Because AWESOME:

Of Salman Rushdie, who once gave him a terrible review in the New York Times, he says: “That flaccid fuckhead. He was detestable. I called up the Ayatollah, nobody knows that.” Roald Dahl: “The cruelty in his books is off-putting. Scary guy. I know he’s very popular but what’s nice about this guy? He’s dead, that’s what’s nice about him.” Stephen King: “Bullshit.” Gwyneth Paltrow: “I can’t stand her.”

HA.

The whole interview is a must-read, honestly: In between all the kvetching and crazy is a very sweet, sad story about Sendak still mourning the 2007 death of his partner, Eugene, and how he credits his talent for children’s books to a very non-perfect childhood. ”I refuse to lie to children,” says Sendak. “I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence.”

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About Amy Corbett Storch

Amy blogs at amalah.com, and can be found on Twitter @amalah. She is Team Zombie, though sometimes she is known to side with the Plants.



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  • SweetMonkeyCreek

    The night Gwyneth wore her Gucci Wolf Suit
    and made mischief of one kind and another
    the Internet called her “WILD SELF-IMPORTANT THING”!
    and Gwyneth said “I’ll eat you up with herbs from my hydroponic and awesomely expensive garden!”
    So she was sent to bed without eating anything (which she secretly enjoyed).
    That very night, in Gwyneth’s room, her ego forest grew…and grew…AND GREW!
    Until her ceiling hung with uppity vines.
    And the walls became the world all around
    And an ocean tumbled by with a private luxury boat for Gwyneth.
    And she sailed off through night and day.
    And in and out of weeks
    And almost over a year, causing her to miss several cameos on Glee,
    to where the WILD SELF-IMPORTANT THINGS ARE!
    And when she came to the place where the Wild Self-Important Things are,
    They sneered their smarmy sneers!
    And gnashed their surgically altered teeth!
    And rolled their made over eyes!
    And showed their finely manicured claws!
    Till Gwyneth said, “Be still or whatever!”
    And tamed them with the magic trick of staring vapidly into all of their hollow eyes without blinking (or thinking) once.
    And they were frightened and called her the most wild self-important thing of all!
    And made her Queen of all Wild Self-Important Things!
    And “Now!”, cried Gwyneth, “Let the Wild Pompous start!”
    “Now stop!”, Gwyneth said, and sent the Wild Self-Important things off to bed without any more helpful tips on how to live their lives from her.
    And Gwyneth, the queen of all Wild Self-Important Things, was lonely and wanted to be where everyone followed all of her advice without question.
    Then all around, from far away across the world
    She smelled good things to eat, which meant she must have been the one that made them
    So she gave up being Queen of where the Wild Self-Important Things are
    But the Wild Self Important things cried, “Oh please don’t go! We’ll eat you up, we love you so!”
    And Gwyneth said…”No.”
    The Wild Self-Important Things gasped their incredulous gasps! 
    And gnashed their freshly bleached teeth.
    And rolled their expensive eyes.
    And showed their unspeakably pricey claws!
    But Gwyneth, stepped into her private boat and waved goodbye.
    And sailed back, over a year, and in and out of weeks, and through a day,
    And into the night of her very own room.
    Where she found her Twitter followers waiting for her.
    And they were still helpless without her.

    • http://www.sweetney.com Sweetney

      Can you fall in love with a comment? I think I just did.

    • Sonja European

      Best comment ever!

    • Anonymous

      Excellent!

      • Anonymous

        Sweetmonkeycreek, please come back. A lot.

        • SweetMonkeyCreek

          You’ve got yourself a deal.

    • Anonymous

      I just audibly gasped in awe of this comment.

    • http://www.jurgennation.com/ Anastacia Campbell

      Sweet Monkey Christ. I think I just peed a little.

      • SweetMonkeyCreek

        {Picks up Interweb Bucket List}

        {Checks box marked “Make Person Pee Via Comment”}

        {Walks away in slow motion as it explodes}

        • http://www.jurgennation.com/ Anastacia Campbell

          I was going to say a naughtier version, so why’ncha just go ahead and click that one too.

          • SweetMonkeyCreek

            {Trips over self in mad dash to get back to Interweb Bucket List whilst giggling}

    • Anonymous

      Oh God, I had the worst day and this just made it so much better. Thank you.

      • http://www.fictionaut.com/users/joe-lyons SweetMonkeyCreek

        I live to give. :)

  • http://www.sweetney.com Sweetney

    PS: “Flaccid Fuckhead” FTW!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/mollygmartin Molly Martin

    “He’s dead, that’s what’s nice about him.”  *ZING*

  • Vickie Dela pena

    Hey!  Leave Stephen King alone!

  • http://twitter.com/SaitoAbroad Jen

    Did any of you hear his interview on NPR’s Fresh Air?  It was heartbreaking. I was aware of this man but barely but this interview brought me to tears.