[lit-ideas] Re: The Simpsons as philosophy
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 19:56:59 -0700
Carol Kirschenbaum wrote:
Robert, you've shaken my world. Are you certain that Homer isn't named for
Homer Simpson, the catastrphically likable character in West's _Day of the
Locust_? And are you positive that Springfield isn't harkening to those
bizarro twin towns in Oregon, Springfield and Eugene, its liberal neighbor?
There's some Springfield in Springfield, all right.
'Springfield, Ore. Helped inspire the name of the Simpsons' hometown.
Growing up in Portland, Groening thought Springfield, the Anderson
family's hometown on TV's "Father Knows Best," was the Springfield in
Oregon. Also chosen because of the name's ubiquity.'
This is from http://www.portlandtribune.com/simpsons/
an excellent site that deals with Groening's childhood in and continuing
relationship with Portland. Springfield, Oregon, is a mill town (or was,
before the big trees ran out), and Eugene, of course, is a university
town. I worked for several years in the big Weyerhaeuser integrated mill
east of Springfield. The basic lumber mill part of the operation shut
down in 1989, because it had been built for logs with a cross-section of
four feet and larger.
It isn't clear why the young Matt Groening would have known much about
the Oregon Springfield (a bit over 100 miles south of Portland). It
isn't on the way to anywhere, really, unless one is going east from
Eugene, up into the mountains. I can't find anything about the
Groenings' going camping though. Perhaps they just went sightseeing over
one of the passes.
That Nathanael West's Homer Simpson is Groening's Homer Simpson's
fictional godfather seems pretty clear. Even though Groening's father
was named Homer, this would seem to be a further associative lagniappe.
Robert Paul
trying to avoid the Intentional Fallacy
south of Reed College
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