Books: Suffer the Little Children

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But as you turn the pages, you can feel Schulz finding his rhythm. There's a restless intelligence there, pacing behind the panels, learning from his mistakes. Three months in, Charlie Brown gets his stripy shirt, and he gets called a blockhead for the first time in 1951. There's less chatter; some of the best strips are almost silent. After some early glimmers of sentience, Snoopy gets his first thought balloon in 1952 ("Why do I have to suffer such indignities!?"). Part of Schulz's getting better is Charlie Brown's feeling worse. It's almost a relief when he drops the Li'l Rascal act in favor of melancholy refrains like "I always say the wrong thing!", "I can't stand it!!!" and "Boy, am I ever depressed."

It all comes together in 1952, when for the first time (but not the last) Schulz crams the whole weight of the world into a single panel: Charlie Brown says, to no one in particular, "Nobody loves me ..." as waving cypresses in the background show us that the wind is blowing in his face. If Freud discovered infant sexuality, Schulz is the pioneer of the sadness of little children. It turns out to be not so different from the sadness of adults.