he's that sort of Bear
Winnie-the-Pooh had been one of my favourite children's books. I've read and re-read most of the 20+ stories in the original A.A.Milne creations (let's not even get started on why the classic-Pooh is so much better than the Disney's simplified version). Recently, I stumbled upon a book called "the Tao of Pooh", then I proceeded to do a search on all Pooh related publications and found the sequel called "the Te of Piglet". How interesting! Did you know that there's a name for people who study Winnie-the-Pooh? -- Poohologist and Poohians!
The non-fiction I am reading right now is Frederick Crew's "The Pooh Perplex", in which it is discovered that the True Meaning of the Pooh Stories is Not as Simple as is Usually Believed. Apparently, there was a Freshmen English class taught at UCBerkeley that used Pooh stories and its various criticisms as a case study. I want to post some of the interesting snippets here to share with you all:
"Winnie-the-Pooh is, as practically everyone knows, one of the greatest books ever written, but it is also one of the most controversial. Nobody can quite agree as to what it really means!"
"What is the purpose, the inner necessity, of Winnie-the-Pooh? Is it merely to recount little episodes that will engage the attention of small children? Obviously not, for the stories as stories are, ... Notably lacking in elements of the violent, the fabulous, the quickly thrilling. A precise of any chapter might cause us to wonder whether the book has any appeal whatsoever: a toy bear and a toy pig follow their own tracks around a tree until they are told by a small boy that this is pointless, and all retire for lunch. It is clear, I think, that Pooh must address us on an essentially subliminal level - that it must achieve its effects through sly manipulations and secret implications, not through what it directly narrates."
"About himself -- "Because he's that sort of Bear." Now, "that sort of Bear" is of course a bear who wants to be flattered, and it is plain that the Christophoric ear is using Pooh to make its own devious request that it (the ear's projection, "Christopher Robin") be made the center of attention. The Milnean voice, however, in its didactic-paternal role, is unprepared simply to feed the self-love of the Christophoric ear; it (the voice) must also see that it (the ear) is properly edified in a moral sense. The stories, therefore, will express a vector of the two forces, pleasing and teaching the Christophoric ear. He conceals his own desire to publish a book by making himself appear simply as the reluctantly obliging father (the Milnean voice) who must humor his son with stories, and whose stories, indeed, lie open to the direction of that son, nay, of that son's teddy bear. False modesty and literary ingenuity have rarely found so happy a union as this."
"One must handle all preconceived patterns of meaning very gently to do justice to a work as subtle, as darkly double, as Pooh."
=== now onto the power struggle:
This is the principle of the Hierarchy of Heroism, a chain of authority not unlike Lovejoy's Chain of Being, only more strictly operative, more functional, and more real. A.A.Milne rules the Hierarchy; he has absolute control over what will happen in Pooh. A certain amount of power, however, is delegated tot he Milnean voice, which in turn grants ocnsiderable privilege to the Christophoric ear. No one of these figures can accomplish anything without the consent of the next superior in the chain. The chain continues downward to Christopher Robin (the character) and thence to Pooh, Christopher's favorite animal. Piglet, as Pooh's best friend, comes next; weak and timid though he is, he automatically merits a place of honor by virtue of Pooh's handing-on of the Milnean mana to him. It is this mana, more than any personal virtue or effort, that accounts for his high degree of success in the adventures and enterprises he shares with Pooh. Other characters, such as Owl and Rabbit, try vainly to dominate the action, but are foredoomed to failure by their low rating. At the bottom of the order of main characters is Eeyore, the archetypical outsider; and below Eeyore extends a vast string of virtually vegetal nonentities, concluding with Rabbit's least imposing friends-and-relations.
Milnean voice gives the animals traits of humility, spontaneity, enthusiasm, and obedience which it (the voice) hopes that it (the ear) will cultivate in its own life. Thus, when Pooh turns out to be more successful in one episode than Rabbit is, the Milnean voice is saying in effect, "Look, Christophoric ear: the meek shall inherit the earth"; while the Christophoric ear, for its part, is content to see Christopher Robin enter the episode at the end to set all wrongs right again. A little didacticism, a little egoism: that is the rationale of Winnie-the-Pooh's plot.
... "The sentence introducing the Expotition chapter is full of portentous meaning: "One fine day Pooh had stumped up to the top of the Forest to see if his friend Christopher Robin was interested in Bears at all." It takes no child psychologist to see that Pooh feels neglected and is asking himself whether his priority in Christopher Robin's Hierarchy has slipped. This, Milne implicitly informs us, is to be a tale which will really have to do nothing with finding or not finding a piece of wood, but with a more or less savage emotional free-for-all over Hierarchical rank.
=== there are several more essays all discussing different perspectives on the Pooh phenomenon, which I won't have time to copy here, please read the "Pooh Perplex" and "Post Modern-Pooh" books if you are interested.
The non-fiction I am reading right now is Frederick Crew's "The Pooh Perplex", in which it is discovered that the True Meaning of the Pooh Stories is Not as Simple as is Usually Believed. Apparently, there was a Freshmen English class taught at UCBerkeley that used Pooh stories and its various criticisms as a case study. I want to post some of the interesting snippets here to share with you all:
"Winnie-the-Pooh is, as practically everyone knows, one of the greatest books ever written, but it is also one of the most controversial. Nobody can quite agree as to what it really means!"
"What is the purpose, the inner necessity, of Winnie-the-Pooh? Is it merely to recount little episodes that will engage the attention of small children? Obviously not, for the stories as stories are, ... Notably lacking in elements of the violent, the fabulous, the quickly thrilling. A precise of any chapter might cause us to wonder whether the book has any appeal whatsoever: a toy bear and a toy pig follow their own tracks around a tree until they are told by a small boy that this is pointless, and all retire for lunch. It is clear, I think, that Pooh must address us on an essentially subliminal level - that it must achieve its effects through sly manipulations and secret implications, not through what it directly narrates."
"About himself -- "Because he's that sort of Bear." Now, "that sort of Bear" is of course a bear who wants to be flattered, and it is plain that the Christophoric ear is using Pooh to make its own devious request that it (the ear's projection, "Christopher Robin") be made the center of attention. The Milnean voice, however, in its didactic-paternal role, is unprepared simply to feed the self-love of the Christophoric ear; it (the voice) must also see that it (the ear) is properly edified in a moral sense. The stories, therefore, will express a vector of the two forces, pleasing and teaching the Christophoric ear. He conceals his own desire to publish a book by making himself appear simply as the reluctantly obliging father (the Milnean voice) who must humor his son with stories, and whose stories, indeed, lie open to the direction of that son, nay, of that son's teddy bear. False modesty and literary ingenuity have rarely found so happy a union as this."
"One must handle all preconceived patterns of meaning very gently to do justice to a work as subtle, as darkly double, as Pooh."
=== now onto the power struggle:
This is the principle of the Hierarchy of Heroism, a chain of authority not unlike Lovejoy's Chain of Being, only more strictly operative, more functional, and more real. A.A.Milne rules the Hierarchy; he has absolute control over what will happen in Pooh. A certain amount of power, however, is delegated tot he Milnean voice, which in turn grants ocnsiderable privilege to the Christophoric ear. No one of these figures can accomplish anything without the consent of the next superior in the chain. The chain continues downward to Christopher Robin (the character) and thence to Pooh, Christopher's favorite animal. Piglet, as Pooh's best friend, comes next; weak and timid though he is, he automatically merits a place of honor by virtue of Pooh's handing-on of the Milnean mana to him. It is this mana, more than any personal virtue or effort, that accounts for his high degree of success in the adventures and enterprises he shares with Pooh. Other characters, such as Owl and Rabbit, try vainly to dominate the action, but are foredoomed to failure by their low rating. At the bottom of the order of main characters is Eeyore, the archetypical outsider; and below Eeyore extends a vast string of virtually vegetal nonentities, concluding with Rabbit's least imposing friends-and-relations.
Milnean voice gives the animals traits of humility, spontaneity, enthusiasm, and obedience which it (the voice) hopes that it (the ear) will cultivate in its own life. Thus, when Pooh turns out to be more successful in one episode than Rabbit is, the Milnean voice is saying in effect, "Look, Christophoric ear: the meek shall inherit the earth"; while the Christophoric ear, for its part, is content to see Christopher Robin enter the episode at the end to set all wrongs right again. A little didacticism, a little egoism: that is the rationale of Winnie-the-Pooh's plot.
... "The sentence introducing the Expotition chapter is full of portentous meaning: "One fine day Pooh had stumped up to the top of the Forest to see if his friend Christopher Robin was interested in Bears at all." It takes no child psychologist to see that Pooh feels neglected and is asking himself whether his priority in Christopher Robin's Hierarchy has slipped. This, Milne implicitly informs us, is to be a tale which will really have to do nothing with finding or not finding a piece of wood, but with a more or less savage emotional free-for-all over Hierarchical rank.
=== there are several more essays all discussing different perspectives on the Pooh phenomenon, which I won't have time to copy here, please read the "Pooh Perplex" and "Post Modern-Pooh" books if you are interested.
-- posted by Pooh Bear @
2/02/2006 02:22:00 PM
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