Biography Follow-Up
Nov. 23rd, 2007 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerI got a chance to watch a repeat showing of the PBS "American Masters" program on Charles M. Schulz... with a certain added awareness that the documentary had been influenced by the new biography by David Michaelis, which I've continued noticing a good deal of discussion and dissension about. Michaelis appeared in the program, and so did Schulz's son Monte, with a computer visible in the background. That reminded me of how Monte Schulz is busy commenting and giving interviews to maintain that his father was indeed a good parent. Something about the casual responses to that about how "children always idealise their parents" is starting to bother me...
It's true that I've heard it before that Charles M. Schulz could be a melancholy man, and I suppose that the correct interpretation can find autobiography in just about any work of art (and I was interested to see those elements identified in the later years of the strip, demonstrating complexity and contemplation in a time when I'm often convinced Schulz was happier)... and yet, I find myself wondering about how everyone can see parts of themselves in the Peanuts characters. Too, I can pick up the fourth volume of "The Complete Peanuts," with its introduction by Jonathan Franzen, which suggests Schulz's character was formed by a greater amount of parental love than some simple thought might think. In brief, it just perhaps offers a more interestingly new interpretation than any particular lengthy biography.
It's true that I've heard it before that Charles M. Schulz could be a melancholy man, and I suppose that the correct interpretation can find autobiography in just about any work of art (and I was interested to see those elements identified in the later years of the strip, demonstrating complexity and contemplation in a time when I'm often convinced Schulz was happier)... and yet, I find myself wondering about how everyone can see parts of themselves in the Peanuts characters. Too, I can pick up the fourth volume of "The Complete Peanuts," with its introduction by Jonathan Franzen, which suggests Schulz's character was formed by a greater amount of parental love than some simple thought might think. In brief, it just perhaps offers a more interestingly new interpretation than any particular lengthy biography.
"Schulz and Peanuts" interview with biographer
Date: 2007-11-24 02:23 am (UTC)