Tracking the B(.)EAST
-Donna Haraway
For the inaugural issue of The B.EAST! A Magazine of Intellect and Imagination, the editors have chosen to put on the cover an image from Where the Wild Things Are, the iconic children’s book by Maurice Sendak. Almost everyone will recall the outlines of this tale of Max, a young boy who dons his wolf suit and causes mischief throughout his house. For his misbehaviors, his mother dubs him a “wild thing” and sends him to his room without dinner. In response, Max imagines himself embarking
on a long journey to a
wilderness populated
by other Wild Things
who “roared their terrible
roars and gnashed their
terrible teeth and rolled
their terrible eyes and
showed their terrible
claws.” Thrust into this
bestial world, Max subdues
his counterparts, becomes
king, and declares a period of unrestrained lawlessnes (“Let the wild rumpus start!”). Eventually, however, the joys of life “in the wilderness” diminish: he experiences loneliness and longs to return to his family, “to be where someone loved him best of all.” His return trip ends with him back in his room, where he finds his still-warm supper waiting for him on the table.