A Grinchy point of view

In the very first verse of The Grinch, we learn that the Grinch hated Christmas, and then Dr. Seuss writes “Now please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason”. My young self always wondered about that. Why couldn't I ask? Was I supposed to not ask questions so I wouldn't feel guilty about parcelling him up in my mind as the bad guy? That advice always seemed very sinister to me. I'm instinctively deeply skeptical when someone tells me not to question something.

The story goes on to explain that it's the “noise, noise, noise, noise!” that the Grinch hates. As a child this washed over me as something all grownups must either tolerate or complain about to varying degrees, but I learned somewhere along the line about something that changed my perspective. I learned about misophonia. Misophonia isn't a dubious Japanese soup made of doom-scrolling devices, but a condition where certain sounds or repetitive noises trigger an unusually strong emotional response in people, responses ranging from annoyance to panic to anger. A workmate of mine suffers from this condition.

For the purposes of a jolly Christmas tale of someone learning the value of Christmas, I suppose it helps the story to just have a bad guy and leave it at that. However, looking at the tale again and imagining the Grinch as a rounded person with a particular condition that makes him respond intensely with panic or anger to banging buzzing or beeping toys, it makes me wonder if the Whos down in Whoville might have grown their own hearts several sizes by stepping up and trying to actually ask him why he hated Christmas so much.

Alternatively, perhaps it's best to acknowledge that Christmas (not to mention other traditions) can put a lot of pressure on some people, and it can be cathartic to be a Christmas hater sometimes. If I were the Grinch bothered by Christmas noise even from inside my own home, wouldn't it be nice to be offered a safe space where I could relax in peace and quiet without being accused of being a hater and being made to feel I'm not doing my duty by participating? There I fixed it. Now let's all raise our be-baubled glasses and remember that most tradition is totally pointless peer pressure from dead people. Cheers!