Ferdinand the Bull

I secretly dislike this story.

Here's the gist.

Ferdinand the Bull is not like other bulls. He does not butt and tussle and play. He sits quietly among the flowers, and that's all.

One day, a bee stings him. This happens just as some local matadors are doing their search for the friskiest bull. Agitated by the bee-sting, Ferdinand behaves uncharacteristically. He is all "amped up." And so the matadors believe that they just have to have him. They stick him in "the ring."

Of course, by the time he is in the ring, his sting has died down, and he is calm again. And the matadors get angry and irritated. And that's all. That's the entirety of the story.

People love this tale--and Lena Dunham, for example, has Ferdinand tattooed on her back. But I find Ferdinand supremely boring. I want him to *do* something. It doesn't have to be something I like; certainly, Jane Austen's Lady Susan isn't admirable, but, in her craftiness, she is fun to read about.

I find the black-and-white illustrations to be as dull and weirdly punishing as the tale of Ferdinand's life. And I especially dislike the use of the adverb "just." Over and over, the writer says, "Ferdinand likes to sit just quietly." Who speaks like that? Wouldn't "sit quietly" suffice? Or "just sit quietly"?

It's time to reconsider one book's place in the canon. I'm all for pacifism--but being cute and politically acceptable is different from being a good story. And someone needed to say all this. The End.

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