NEWS: Goodnight Moon, Get Rid of that Fucking Cigarette

CULTURE: Goodnight Moon, Get Rid of that Fucking Cigarette

Since its publication, the children's book "Goodnight Moon" (spoiler alert: the kid says good night to the moon) has included a photograph of the illustrator of the book, Clement Hurd, holding a cigarette. However, fearing that, somehow, a photograph of a guy taken more than 60 years ago will make your 2 year old want to fire up a Lucky, the photograph has been altered to remove the cigarette.

Or it might be that even young kids know there are some people who smoke, and just seeing someone else smoke might not say to them "Hey, kid, fire it up."

Or, alternatively, it might be no one who has the book noticed the dude on the back cover is smoking until someone pointed it out.

Personally, I'm more worried about the pagan moon worship.

I can see how in our increasingly anti-smoking society parents would complain to the publisher or not purchase a book as a result of a picture of the author smoking on the back. That being said, I don't see how this picture would incite 2-6 year-olds to light up.

As a smoker, I would like to bring up the point that I am actually providing a valuable source of city, state and federal income. All the taxes that I pay to smoke are not going to subsidize the health care of smokers seeking medical care as a result of years of smoking. These taxes are providing a fair amount of money to a variety of government programs. Am I supporting an industry that makes people sick? Yes, but then again how many other industries are making people ill through their products?

the censored version looks creepy . put the cig back . dont tell me we are now gonna censor famous artists , writers , politicians , musicians etc . over a cig.

I think people should differentiate between a cartoon character designed to make kids want to smoke and the mere existance of a guy smoking.

I've had the book ever since I can remember, and I've never even noticed the cigarette.

The only time I ever felt bad about smoking was when I was sitting outside of a coffee shop smoking and this kid was watching me. Then he went over to his parents and said "i'm going to smoke when I grow up"
I've never been given a stinkier eye than what his parents gave me.

This is fucking dumb though.

[Edited on Nov 20, 2005 by MrStitches]

I actually have nothing against smoking. Everybody should have the right if they want to.

I am against the companies that put addictive ingredients into little cheap rolls of crap that are far from a fine cuban cigar or grandpa's home grown cherry tobacco.
I never quite understood why 'punks' so intent on striking back at the machine, smoked...

I shouldn't have to sit there soaking up the scent of said cheapo crap sticks while I'm waiting for my bus. Nobody should. So like drinking. Do it it private.

Lastly I am against censorship of history. Shit happened.. People did things that were bad for them.
Did you ever idolize the lousy black and white pictures of creepy old people in the backs of your children's books?

funniest message headline in months

Not to mention harper collin's clear lack of american pride, publishing the book in what...sixty languages?

Completely ridiculous.

Ditto. And I read this book to my 16 month old every freaking night and I've never noticed it either.

The altered version looks like he is about to clutch his chest in response to an oncoming heart attack.

Wow....a kid seeing their parents or some family member smoke is okay. Seeing some random guy smoking on the inside back cover of your favorite children's book will make that 4 year old light up faster than a raging bull in a TNT factory.

I am honestly a torn about this. I am a smoker and I hate that I am a smoker and I generally support any effort to get kids not to smoke. Though at the same time, I went through a great deal of anti-smoking education and I knew what the consequences were and I still decided to start smoking when I was an otherwise very concientious and rule-abiding teenager. I don't think a children's book is the best place to feature a picture of a guy with a cigarette - at the same time, this is an old, classic book and it was illustrated by a man who clearly enjoyed smoking, in a time when smoking was much more ubiquitous. I don't think that altering the picture was borne so much out of a thought that seeing it would promote smoking, but more out of a move to take smoking out of daily life, a move that I generally support. But my historical respect and condemnation of any sort of revision of the past makes me want to oppose a move like this. I suppose that I sympathize with the move, but in the end...I would leave the picture as is.

When you get down to it though, It doesn't really accomplish anything. If a kid is going to start smoking because of one guy in one picture they were probably going to smoke anyhow.
I guess there is no real reason for it to bother me, but it does. A lot really.

But see, I don't see it as a catalyst for a kid to start smoking - I don't actually believe that a kid is going to look at the Goodnight Moon picture and decide to light up. I think the important thing is removing smoking and cigarettes from as many places as possible so as to reduce their presence overall and thus reduce their impact. But I don't mean necessarily "removing" cigarettes via photoshop or altered film, which is why I come down against this particular move. Overall, though, I think the less kids are exposed to smoking in general, the better.

Dammit, Jake. If you're going to say "spoiler alert", give us time to stop reading.



Nice touch. Hilarious.

[Edited on Nov 20, 2005 by BillHaverchuck]

The Soviets used to do this stuff. Enough with the tyranny of health..

That said, I don't have any photoshop skillz, but I'm hoping this thread turns into a demonstration of funny things you can do with that picture.

I don't know about you but I need to go light up a cigarette. I'm totally serious too.

Idle hands are the devil's plaything.
Best insert a Bible in that empty hand.

It's sorta silly, but it's really hard to get upset about.

Finally HarperCollins got my letter.

The sad part is, he's not smoking in the picture. he's holding something really tiny and hard to identify in his hand. I *guess* it's a cigarette, but no kid that age is going to be able to tell.

Spoken like a true addict