Translator: Eno
Author: Cameron Laux
Proofreading: LITCAVE Studio
Featured image: Online
Here is the translation bureau of Wenxue, and today I am sharing an article by Cameron Laux, author of the BBC Culture Channel, translated by Eno for everyone, for learning to share.
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Charles M Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, calls his comics nothing, but in fact, the latest exhibition shows the enormous impact Schultz's work has had on society.
Peanuts is an American newspaper comic strip by Charles M. Schulz.
I grew up in a deserted part of Western Canada, and at that time, my greatest interest was to see Charles F. Kennedy. M. Schultz's comic strip Peanuts. The frustrated tone of the characters in it, the contemplation of life, resonates with my understanding of life. These comic strips are full of the fragility of my childhood—the satisfaction they bring me is subtle and indescribable—like friendship.
Charlie Brown
During Schultz's fifty-year career from 1950 to 2000, he drew nearly 18,000 cartoons. But in these comics, adults almost never appear. Even if it appears, it appears in the abstract form of only one pair of legs. In the animation, however, they occasionally speak in a sound like a goose—a cry that is difficult to understand. maybe? This is the charm of adults.
Peanuts was translated into 21 languages at its peak of sale, was popular in 75 regions, and had a total of 355 million nominal readers.
Snoopy's Red House
There is an exhibition of Schultz's work at Sumoset Palace in London, and although Schultz died in 2000, it is clear that his work still makes him still alive in people's hearts, if only Schultz could know that so many people still pay attention to him.
As Claire Catterall, the exhibition's curator, puts it: "This comic, which the author calls 'nothing', is a comic of small events that is shocking to our society and culture."
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Traditionally, Schultz seems to have been a complete Protestant. He was quiet, upright, modest, he had little interest in vacation, and he was a complete workaholic. Schultz grew up in Minnesota, a wicked place of scorching heat and winter. Schultz served in the U.S. Army stationed in Europe during World War II (it was life in the military that made him feel all that had to do with loneliness).
Schultz loves hockey and skating, and after moving to California, he even built an ice skating hall in the town. A self-doubting prophet, he drew his caricatures directly on paper with astonishing speed and decisiveness, and the classic image of Snoopy comes from a dog named Spike that he had raised as a teenager.
Charles Schulz and his dog Spike in 1935 (schultz was 13 years old at the time)
Through the comic book "Peanuts", we get to know this ordinary but extraordinary person, "Peanuts" feels like an undercurrent of lakes. According to Schultz's widow, Jenny, "all characters have a part of Schultz's personality in them."
"Charlie Brown is my weak and insecure side, Lucy is the embodiment of my cleverness, Linus is my curiosity and thoughtfulness, and Snoopy, Snoopy is what I want to be—fearless, the pistachio of everyone, who will erase Lucy's bad temper with a toothless kiss."
Perhaps the best thing about the characters as a whole is that they perfectly dissect the nature of human beings. "I think comics carry simple truths, jenny says, it's a complex world — sometimes sweet, sometimes joyful, sometimes disappointed."
There's no big truth, just a few small, but important things—delicious food and the joy of friendship
Catterall argues: "Schultz would not consider his work to be 'great art', because he believed that true art stood the test of time and was truly recognized only if it continued to resonate after the artist's death." But I still think that Schultz's work is "great art", which is not irony, but I think that through his "little things", he shows some great philosophical ideas to children and adults.
Details in Peanuts 06.07.1968
existential problems
Although Schultz had a Christian religious background and was in some ways considered a Christian, he also seems to have existential and humanistic tendencies as proposed by Jean-Paul Sartre or Samuel Beckett.
Schultz never shy away from the thorny question, as existential philosophy says, "We live in an empty universe, and we have no choice but to try to understand it." — Try again, fail again, fail better again, Beckett said.
There's a classic story that captures typical Schultz's thoughts: Snoopy lies in a kennel, trying to understand the meaning of life, until Charlie appears with a plate full of food and Snoopy has an epiphany. There are no big empty answers, but rather small but pleasant things (delicious food and the joy of friendship).
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A Charlie Brown Christmas is probably the most outstanding story in Schultz's comics that has been adapted into television.
It embodies the religious and existential character of Schultz's work, the bittersweet tension between connection and alienation. Charlie struggles to understand the meaning of Christmas in the comics, trying to figure out if Christmas means selfishness and stupid commercialism.
In response, the film succeeds in getting Linus to read aloud the Bible during the reign of King James. But at the same time, in the story, the friendship of all the characters ends by turning a sparse fir into a splendid Christmas tree.
It is worth mentioning that the soundtrack of "Charlie Brown's Christmas" has a lot of jazz music sung by Vince Guaraldi Trio. Choosing jazz as the background music in the play was an unusual choice at the time. Because the characteristics of jazz improvisation fit perfectly with the uncertainty of the world Schultz created, and the children's jumping ideas.
War game
Schultz wrote Peanuts during America's most turbulent decades, during which time the United States participated in the Korean War in 1950, the decade-long Vietnam War in 1965, the Cold War, the erupting and conflicting civil rights movement, and the assassination of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
Against this turbulent backdrop, the cool Snoopy became the mascot of U.S. military worship during the Vietnam War — emblazoned with gear, patches and a sign that reads ," "A little comfort from Minnesota."
Peanuts 18.06.1954
Created in 1954, the cartoon depicts children's play of making and testing hydrogen bombs. In a series of comics, Snoopy returns to his birthplace, Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, to give a speech, but as he stands on the podium, someone throws a bowl at him.
In the next stanza, Snoopy is cast with tear gas, and in the final episode, the "military dogs" who participated in the protest are sent to Vietnam and never return home.
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Race relations
After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, Schultz received a letter from Harriet Glickman, a retired white California teacher who wanted Schultz to add black children to the story to promote understanding and harmony among the community. Schultz replied that he had no intention of doing so yet, because he didn't want to make his comics appear radical.
Peppermint Patty and Franklin
So Glickman turned to her African-American friends and asked everyone to write to Schultz.
One of the men, Kenneth Kelly, said heartbreakingly: "Even the presence of black people in 'superfluous' characters will make the world a difference."
So Schultz decided what to do about it – he created a little guy with dark skin. The head of the United Feature Syndicate tried to force him to withdraw the role because he thought its appearance would spark controversy among readers.
Details in Peanuts 20.09.1996
In response, Schultz was adamant that either he would draw the comics or he would stop doing it. Shortly thereafter, franklin, the first black peanut figure, appeared. It was also at this time that the "peanut mania" in the United States was close to its peak. All the children, like the three children that Grickman said, were fascinated by the character.
The inner spiritual world
Lucy's neurotic Booth became part of folklore: "As a 'doctor', she came up with some ironic but also plausible therapeutic suggestions and helped create the culture of self-reflection and self-awareness that we live in today."
Charlie Brown is a typical neurotic who claims to suffer from depression and has been battling his own demons, who keep him from talking to the little red-haired girl he adores and likes, for fear of messing everything up. There is also the intelligent but emotionally isolated Linus, who always runs around with a blanket. (The term "safety blanket" is said to have originated from Peanuts.) ）
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Because of his adept at expressing different types of minds, prominent psychologists and pediatricians who saw the value behind Schultz's seemingly simple theory of interpersonal relationships, pediatrician Benjamin Spock, psychologist Timothy Leary, and psychiatrist Donald Winnicott all corresponded with him to request that his creations be used in his work.
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Subvert gender roles
In a word: the importance of Lucy's existence is unprecedented in the comics.
In traditionally masculine territory, the role is a sign of determination, so whether right or wrong, Lucy will do exactly what she wants. In a sense, Lucy and Charlie Brown are completely opposite, different gender representations, and together they are equivalent to all of humanity.
From the beginning, Schultz made the female characters in his story as complex and plump as all male characters. For example, while Charlie Brown pursues the red-haired girl in a hesitant and shy manner, Lucy pursues the object of her affection relentlessly, lying generously on the piano, trying to get his attention.
Peanuts details 06.02.71
The stories that take place in Peanuts are much more than that, and Peppermint Patty never seems to be used to the girlish attitude. Her seriousness, masculinity, and her having a friend/suitor called her "Sir" Marcie all point to an unclear gender and identity.
Friendship is everything
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But in comics, the most enjoyable relationship is always the seemingly impossible but honest and warm friendship between Snoopy and Yellow Bird Woodstock. Although they come from different species, they can understand each other emotionally. There have been attempts to legitimize the intimacy between them by imagining Woodstock as a woman, but I think it's a false construct that makes sense for the complexity of Schultz's work.
Schultz makes it clear that they are all men, that they are partners who transcend all uncertainty, and that in Schultz's view, any form of companionship he sees in the comics is the deepest relationship that cannot be surpassed.
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