I've grown up being a Charlie Brown fan. I read the comic strips and faithfully watched "Charlie Brown Christmas" and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". Many of you have too, I imagine. As a grown up I greatly favor the Christmas special over the halloween one. This isn't because of any great conviction about halloween being satan's holiday or anything like that. I just think the storyline is more smooth and connected in the Christmas special than the halloween one (why are we watching Snoopy fly an airplane for 10 minutes???). But it occured to me this year why Charles Schultz is a genius (and possibly why I am as dull as dirt that I didn't understand this much earlier). I don't remember why I was thinking about the Great Pumpkin in the spring but just know that my thoughts are as random as the lottery numbers each week. Forgive me if I insult your intelligence with my bit of enlightenment. You might have figured this out long before but just rejoice that I finally caught on. :) Charles "freakin' genius" Schultz made a Santa Claus type character for Halloween. Then proceeded to prove its illegitimacy. AAAAND he did this without insulting any hardcore Santa people. Let me explain. The Great Pumpkin (GP) is a bit of lore that Linus clung to with admirable dedication. GP brought presents to little boys and girls who believed him and were "good". Linus stayed all night in the pumpkin patch, foregoing the pleasures of the season--trick-or-treating, costumes, candy--to please the GP. The non-existent GP obviously doesn't show. Mr. Schultz could never be as obvious about his views of Santa Claus and had a successful cartoon. People would hate him for it. People love using Santa Claus at Christmas. So, he was subtle. He was slick. He made it harmless yet he made it. We see Linus' misplaced devotion. We see his struggle with whether or not he was good enough to receive the approval of GP. Ahhhh. Hats off to you, Charles Schultz. Well played!
Indeed!
ReplyDelete"I said 'if'! I meant WHEN he comes!"