Poststructuralism for kids
Today: Please join us in a blazing welcome for our newest Hydra, Ilana Masad, author of the novels Beings and All My Mother’s Lovers, and co-editor of the anthology Here for All the Reasons: Why We Watch The Bachelor.
Issue No. 524
Fish Face
Ilana Masad
Fish Face
by Ilana Masad
In a few days, the movie version of the 2008 children’s book The Pout-Pout Fish, written by Deborah Diesen and illustrated by Dan Hanna, will be released in theaters. I know this because my partner told me (he keeps up on what’s playing in theaters) and he noticed it because our nearly-two-year-old toddler is into the book. I was baffled by the news; I can’t really fathom how—or, frankly, why—Pout-Pout’s brief narrative has been expanded into a ninety-minute adaptation for the big screen. I’ve never wanted to see the film adaptations of The Lorax or Where the Wild Things Are, either. These stories are wonderfully self-contained; adding anything to them feels superfluous to me, Nick Offerman or no Nick Offerman.
Pout-Pout is a fish with a downturned mouth—potentially based on a species like the ocean pout—and so believes he’s destined to “spread the dreary-wearies all over the place,” as the recurring refrain goes. The book follows him poutily swimming around while various other sea creatures inform him that he’s a bummer and should smile more. Mr. Fish (everyone is very formal in this book) tells his so-called friends that he wishes he were different but, after all, he’s a “pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face,” and so he can’t help it. But then, a new fish—a purplish femme who doesn’t get a name—swoops down and kisses Mr. Fish, changing his outlook forever. Now, at last, he realizes that his thick downturned lips aren’t for gloominess but rather for smooching: he’s a “kiss-kiss fish with a kiss-kiss face.”
Keep us breathing fire!
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