The Cat in the App

            After reading Lois Menand’s, article  “Cat People” I started thinking about the culture in which Dr. Suess wrote his books. I had had some knowledge about him as an author but not very much. I knew that he was a critic of war and that his books were or are considered controversial as far as using them in educational settings. I also found it interesting in the article how the education system was being funded at the time and how this may have contributed to the success of the book and the author in general. The new funding for the subjects that support the sciences which lead to technology lead to the success of not only Dr. Suess but in children’s education. This is interesting because those subjects were funded due to the cold war and the belief that America was falling behind in the arms race.

            Now bear with me and let me jump ahead to 2012. I forgot my copy of The Cat in the Hat somewhere so I had to download it onto my phone. The app version is the same in some ways yet very different in the way it can be read. The app version can be read just like any other e-book can but there are new features that make it a more interactive experience. The app will read the book to you if you want. There is music playing in the background. After you are done listening to the reader you can touch the various objects in the illustration and the device tells you what you are touching. This was such a new experience for me and I don’t even think I have explored all of the features of the app yet. Now how are these two things connected? Well part of Dr. Suess’s success was the timing of his publishing of his book. If it were not for the funding of the sciences at the time who knows if we would even have the technology to have the device in which I read The Cat in the Hat on. The technology behind cell phones stems from technology developed for the military. Dr. Suess was not a fan of the military. I found this all to be rather ironic.