May 24, 2003
Muppet Book Club
"Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree"
Book : Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3
Commentary : Part 4 -- Part 5 -- Part 6
Once Upon a Time
Ryan
Roe:
This was a favorite of mine in my younger days. I don't think it ever occurred to me then to question where the forest was in relation to Sesame Street, but it's one of the first things I thought of this time. Maybe the tree is actually in Central Park.
Alaina Breeden:
I had totally forgotten about this book. It was one of my favorites as a child. I dug through my closet and found my copy -- all the cookies are colored purple, but other than that, a great book.
Tom Holste:
Ooooh, this is one of my favorites. I still have this one. I once read it to my little cousins, doing all the voices and everything. She told me to stop; she didn't like it. She wanted to have it read to her one word at a time, in a very slow monotone. Sometimes I don't understand my cousins at all.
Quinn Rollins:
This hasn't EVER been one of my favorites, although we owned it growing up. There are a few things that distanced the book from me that I evidently haven't completely overcome:
There are two things in it that linked the book in my mind to the scarier parts of The Wizard of Oz, a movie that alternately delighted me and terrified me when I was a pup. First would be the witch of course, and although she's ultimately kind enough to share the bounty of the tree with Cookie Monster, she's definitely a Muppet we don't know, she's an outsider, and she's threatening. That concerned me when I was four. The second "Oz" link would of course be the living, talking tree with food on its branches, which was as terrifying as the flying monkeys to me, and I was worried that Cookie Monster would get beaten by the tree if he tried to get the cookies.
So those two things bugged me then.
One last thing that was a bit off-putting before I talk about the things I liked: Did anyone else notice that both the narrator and the characters referred to Cookie Monster as "THE Cookie Monster"? I know they did that sometimes when he was first introduced, but by 1977, I'm pretty sure Cookie Monster was his NAME. It just seemed to distance Cookie from the other characters -- "Everyone knows you're the Cookie Monster..." I don't know where I'm going with this, just thought I'd mention that it stuck out to me.
I will say that I love Joe Mathieu's illustrations -- especially his texturing of the furry characters (obviously important in this book) and, for some reason today, his version of Betty Lou. Very sweet drawing style that's true to the puppets, instead of drawing cartoons based on the puppets. If that makes sense at all.
I liked this book more today than I did when I was young -- though now it may be more nostalgia for 1977 Sesame Street, which would have been when I was four years old. I'm sure my parents thought I would have grown out of Sesame Street by now.
Jessica Evans:
To me, the witch was reminiscient of HR Pufnstuff, and as a kid, I wasn't too keen on seeing those two worlds collide. I didn't like this book as a kid, and I am not wild about it now. The witch scared me. And cookies don't grow on trees.
Scott Hanson:
Have you ever seen a cookie not grow on a tree? Huh? Huh? I don't think so.
Towards a Theory of Cookie Trees
Nate
Downs:
This book is proof that Sesame Street was the product of the Red Scare -- see Big Bird's Red Book -- and preaches against Socialism.
The Tree, with its wealth of cookies, represents America in all its wealth. Forever blooming and bountiful.
Cookie Monster, of course, stands for the oppressed part of society, deprived of the luxuries the upper class (witch) takes for granted. While Cookie Monster struggles to attain equality with the witch, he discovers the drive of socialism. You want to create a society where everyone is equal and shares in their wealth, but those who are higher up the social ladder than you don't want to see you climb.
The witch is a representation of that upper class society, trying to keep those "lesser" than herself where they are.
Of course, in all good American propaganda tales, Cookie Monster finally achieves the equality he desires with others, but then realizes his hunger to achieve more, and he leaves the very person who pulled him up the ladder of success behind him, broken and devoid of wealth. Leaving her with her new altruism, and a pauper until her next cash crop comes in.
Julia Noomen:
This book has given me valuable insight into the origin of Cookie Monster's cookie addiction. It's like a vicious circle. He tries to share -- for personal gain, but it's sharing nevertheless -- but everyone laughs at him. He has no friends that are willing to believe Cookie has changed his ways.
So if no one is willing to give him a chance, why would he change anyway? They just push him further into his selfish addiction. That's why he doesn't really share with the witch; if even his friends won't believe him, why would he share with an evil witch?
I think Cookie Monster is a product of the eighties before they even existed, and maybe a comparison with American Psycho would be interesting and insightful.
Jogchem Jalink:
The witch looks like one of the witches from the cooperation sketch, where three witches cooperate to make chicken soup. I'm surprised that no one brought that up yet.
The tree looks like the "This Is Your Life" tree, but a lot scarier and more unpleasant... Maybe because he's not friendly at the beginning of the book.
Cookie Monster looks like that guy from that kiddies' show who eats all the cookies. And that's the great thing. The art is fantastic.
Why does Big Bird touch Cookie's eyeballs? Aren't you supposed to feel someone's forehead to check if he or she has a fever?
If a cookie tree loses all its cookies, would it get a depression from not being an extraordinary tree anymore? I kinda felt sorry for him at the end of the book.
John Hamilton:
I think what I love about this book -- not to mention all the Sesame Street sketches that I appreciate more now than before -- are the little, inappropriate details that take it from harmless kids' show to unsettling disaster film. There's that mash-up of slapstick action with realistic reaction that always freaked me out, and I can't get enough of it.
In this book, that specific moment comes when Cookie is devouring the entirety of the cookie tree's foliage. His over-the-top eating binge is clownish and ridiculous, but the expression on the tree's face is that of abject horror and violation. "Hey! Slow down! Take it easy!" The tree is obviously in pain, but not reacting in a typical cartoon tree way. He's trying to reason with the monster, when he could just as easily fling him out of his branches.
If the scene were re-enacted on the show, we would expect to hear those familiar, grittily realistic crashing effects, the sound of breaking twigs, and the voracious ripping of leaves alongside the tree's pathetic crying.
Vintage Sesame Street lived on great sound effects seemingly lifted from far more adult series, and I believe that contributed to the so-called "edge" of the show. When I read the books, I hear the sound effects. However, unlike the books, the most chaotic sketches on TV Sesame had "open endings," leaving the viewer to ponder exactly how the dust was gonna settle.
Book : Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3
Commentary : Part 4 -- Part 5 -- Part 6