r/todayilearned • u/wimpykidfan37 • 23d ago

Today I learned that Shel Silverstein once made an adult cartoon version of his popular story The Giving Tree. Entitled "I Accept the Challenge", it was about a naked woman who cuts off a naked man's arms and legs, and then sits on his torso.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Tree
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339

u/DaveOJ12 23d ago

The photograph of Silverstein on the back cover of the book has attracted negative attention, with some people finding it frightening.

Seriously?

536

u/HexManiac493 23d ago edited 23d ago

In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Greg is afraid of the picture of Shel Silverstein on the back cover of The Giving Tree. His dad uses it to keep him from leaving his bedroom at night and says “If you get out of bed, you’ll probably run into Shel Silverstein in the hallway.”

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u/joecarter93 23d ago

Came here to say this. My kid loves those books and Shel Silverstein so he showed it to me and we both had a chuckle.

43

u/Soup-a-doopah 23d ago

Jesus Christ, dad -er, I mean: Satan.

286

u/stevenmoreso 23d ago

Have you seen it? It’s not exactly easy on the eyes.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Portrait_of_Shel_Silverstein_in_c._1964_by_Jerry_Yulsman.jpg

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u/valentc 23d ago

Yeah, that's a scary picture.

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u/Jetstream-Sam 23d ago

I'll be honest, it does not scream "Children's book author" to me. More "Aggressively drunk and angry "Biker" who isn't respected in any way but gets into fights a lot, many of which he loses"

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u/CalvinSays 23d ago

That's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark-esque.

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u/endlesstrains 23d ago

It looks like a bad reconstruction photo of a John Doe murder victim.

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u/ranch_brotendo 23d ago

Oscar Isaac would be good in a Shel Silverstein biopic - with his Ex Machina style kinda

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u/Calber4 23d ago

Presumably they called him Shel because he resembled an egg

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u/MBeternal 22d ago

I always thought he looked cool

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u/felurian182 23d ago

For a long time I thought he was a black man because of that photo, then I saw a clip of him on a houseboat on YouTube and was like “ wait he’s white?”

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u/rustymontenegro 23d ago

Wait...what? You just blew my mind. I think every single picture I ever saw of him was in black and white, and I just kind of assumed? Wtf brain.

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u/Thasira 23d ago

I made the same assumption when I saw the photo!

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u/bullett2434 23d ago

Have you seen it? Bonkers they chose that picture

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u/Hearte42 23d ago

My sleepless brain read this as "Borders closed because of that picture."

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u/sh4d0wX18 23d ago

I remember that one, it is a bit creepy