Gorey’s “The Gashlycrumb Tinies” is a satirical alphabet depicting children dying in various ways. while the subjects in the book are extremely dark, I do have to say that the rhyming in it makes it extremely catchy. Which is a little messed up. Today in class we discussed how Gorey is not necessarily fully portraying what happens with each letter. The majority of the images seem to occur right before the children would die. But it is the viewer who imagines what would happen next. Edward Gorey places the guilt with the viewer, and instead turns the bad thoughts on them rather than himself. It is an interesting concept because it requires the viewer’s participation. But both Gorey and the viewer contribute thoughts to the twisted images of children dying.
While the subject matter of “The Gashlycrumb Tinies” contains children, it is not meant for children at all. Most stories or images meant for children have some sort of playful or uplifting element in them. Gorey plays with this, setting expectations for the viewer. However, the dark images of death provide quite the opposite effect. This failure in meeting expectations along with the viewer’s participation in fully completing the events depicted in each image lends a hand in shattering the idea of a playful child story. This is surely the effect after seeing “The Gashlycrumb Tinies.”
The Gashlycrumb Tinies is an extremely dark take on a children’s alphabet book. I found it very compelling because of the juxtaposition of the childlike and innocent layout with the dark and gruesome imagery. I find the book very comedic when considering what the reaction would be if a child were to read the book, and how they would see it from their perspective. I can’t imagine as a child reading something so dark, both in the content of the words and the black and white images. The images definitely contain a certain morbidity that makes them visually interesting and haunting.