Movement 105

'i::ffi
Tim Woodcock pays tribute to Schutz, the creator of Peanufs who died in February.
Fifty years of security btankets, kite-eating trees and The Great Pumpkin.
And a tittte bit of philosophy too.
Nuts and Schulz
lrl 3J,i'#,= :: : l:i,::xil,'. "
I r I'sundavs'unarres M. scnurz dred.
E Four montns earter rn r\ovemDer
he announced that, because of worsening
colon cancer, Peanuts would be comingto
an end and he said: "l have been fortunate
to draw Charlie Brown and his friends for
almost 50 years. lt has been a fulfilment of
my childhood ambition. Charlie Brown,
Snoopy, Linus, Lucy - how can I ever forget
them?"
Peanuts was originally called Li'l Folks
and it is a universe where adults are
invisible, and kids tend to learn the hard
way. Charlie Brown's large bland face is
said to represent Schulz's feeling of being
indistinguishable from the crowd at school
- Charlie Brown is an 'everyman'.
And a no-one. Charlie Brown is famous
for being a loser, although the comic strip
he appears in has been syndicated to
2600 newspapers, and translated inlo 2I
languages and been the subject of an
exhibition at the Louvre. There's something
very charming about Schulz's visual style -
the giant heads, Snoopy's dances,
Woodstock's speech, the way people do
involuntary somersaults when shouted at.
But more than that it has a warmth. There
are funnier, cleverer and
more challenging
\
lssUe 105
Spring 2000
Movement is the termly
magazine of the Student
Christian Movement,
distributed free of charge
to members and
dedicated to an openminded
exploration of
Christianity.
Peanuts, but none inspire the same degree
of affection.
When Schulz died I found myself
trawling through cartoons that I'd
treasured as a kld and re-reading a slim
book called fhe Gospe/ Accordingto
Peanuts (Fontana, 1966). You could argue
that any cartoon strip with such a long lifespan
could be dissected and some kind of
philosophy extracted - but Robert L. Short
claims that there is a distinctly Christian
message behind Peanuts. ln the words of
Short, fhe Gospe/... provides 'a reading out
of' rather than 'a reading into' Peanuts. ln
all the obituaries I read, none mentioned
that Schulz was a lay-preacher and his first
job was with a Catholic publisher filling in
someone else's
speech bubbles!
Ihe Gospe/
According to
Peanuts stills
holds up very
well: it is not
contrived to say that
Peanuts conveys the
major themes of
Christian faith.
Short's book
quotes
Editorial address
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movement 1
Editor: Tim Woodcock
Editorial board: Claire Horsnell,
Diccon Lowe, Sara Mellen, Elinor
Mensingh, Carolyn Styles
SCM staff
Coordinator - Carolyn Styles
Project Worker: Groups - Elinor Mensingh
Project Worker: Membership - Mark Depew
Website: www.movement.org.uk
Disdaimen The viarrls expressed in
Mo\€ment are th6e of the particular
author and should not be taken to be the
policy of the Student Christian Movement
Kierkegaard and Barth and Bonhoeffer and
mockingly calls itself 'theological literary
criticism (illustrated)'. On one level it
merely makes facile observations about
human nature: the stubbornness of Lucy,
the insecurities of Linus, the constant
failures of Charlie Brown illustrate we are
less than perfect, or, if you like that kind of
language, 'fallen'. lt is written in that lively
colloquial way that only Americans can get
away with. One chapter argues that "The
Wages of Sin is 'Aaaughh!"' and another
unpacks the phrase "Good grief!"
By far the most interesting and daring
claim is that Snoopy is a "hound of
heaven" and Jesus is a 'Dog God'. Robert
Short toys with, and rejects, the idea of
Snoopy as a Christ figure - but he does
assert that Snoopy is "a good symbol for
faith". Not Snoopy being heroic (as Joe
Cool or the Red Baron) orjudgmental (the
ice hockey umpire), rather Snoopy the
companionable dog, who gets the
leftovers. His main purpose in life is to
'exalt the humble and humble the exalted'.
Now Short's works seem to me twee
and preachy, but it is exciting and edgy
theology, which engages with popular
c u ltu re.
Which got me thinking: what is the
descendant of Peanuts? Calvin and
Hobbes - exactly captures how children
think. The Sirnpsons is the same kind of
world - on the cusp of surreal and real,
with a certain tenderness at core. But the
best comparison, one that Schulz would be
appalled at I'm sure, is South Park. lt too
looks at the world from knee height: but it
is a world where innocence is obliterated
and replaced with experience.
r+?
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