A,A. Milne, WInnie-the-Pooh, 1926
Yes, Winnie-the-Pooh is in public domain meaning anyone can use or abuse the Bear of Very Little Brain. I went in expecting a twee tale even though I'm not entirely sure of what "twee" means. What I got was a number of sweet short stories just shy of sickly sweet. Milne, however, was a capable writer and knew what he was doing. Children would be delighted at having this book read to them and the adult reading it would be delighted to read it.
My introduction to W-t-P was the pictured record (an LP in the parlance of the time). Three of the stories from the book read by Maurice Evans. Evans was a classically-trained Shakespearean actor, right up there with Lawrence Oliver. Naturally, he is best known as Dr. Zaius the villain in the original Planet of the Apes movie. My fellow Boomers probably remember him as Samantha Stevens's father in Bewitched. He was probably cast because he could chew the scenery as well as Agnes Moorhead. He's not remembered for his towering performance as Macbeth, but as a warlock in a corny sitcom or an orangutan in a preachy SF movie. Really makes you think.
When we got the record of the Disney movie I abandoned Maurice Evans for the flash and the glitter of that version, at least on record. Bloody symbolic. But I don't think I ever saw the movie or read the book. This was the first time I read the book, at the ripe old age of 64. Ha The story begins with a discussion of the ambiguity of gender. Having named the bear "Winnie-the-Pooh," Christopher Robin and his father have the following conversation:
When I first heard his name, I said, just as you are going to say,
"But I thought he was a boy?"
"So did I," said Christopher Robin.
"Then you can't call him Winnie?"
"I don't."
"But you said——"
"He's Winnie-ther-Pooh. Don't you know what 'ther' means?"
"Ah, yes, now I do," I said quickly; and I hope you do too, because it is all the explanation you are going to get.
It is all very mysterious, despite extensive research from learned scholars. Pooh, predating the rise of Churchill as a world-famous figure, is named "Winnie" a girl's name, but transformed into a male's name with "ther." Clearly we are playing with social conventions regarding gender here, thought it is never mentioned again and, as narrator indicated, that is "all the explanation you are going to get."
Another shocking revelation is that W-t-P does not live in the famed Hundred-Acre Wood. Except for Owl, none of the characters do! Tigger does not appear in the original book either, he's introduced in a later book of stories. Still reeling from these appalling deviations Disney took from the original text, I valiantly worked my way through the book.
I was pleased by how many of the stories I recognized from my youth. For example, W-t-P wants honey from a beehive high in a tree. He hits upon the idea of floating up while tied to a balloon. He disguises himself by rolling in mud and trying to appear as a little black rain cloud. As he floats into the air, we read the following conversation:
"Hooray!" you shouted.
"Isn't that fine?" shouted Winnie-the-Pooh down to you. "What do I look like?"
"You look like a Bear holding on to a balloon," you said.
"Not," said Pooh anxiously, "—not like a small black cloud in a blue sky?
"Not very much."
To no one, save Pooh perhaps, the scheme fails and CR must bring Pooh down by shooting the balloon. I think CR is about 6 years old and no one should worry he's walking around with a firearm, right?
When I was a child, what annoyed me about this entire story was the idea that Pooh's balloon would have enough lift to bring Pooh into the sky. It is clear that CR blows up the balloon himself:
As a child, I well knew that a balloon you blew up yourself did not float and certainly wouldn't have been able to lift a chubby bear. Such balloons slowly sank to the floor. The idea that such a device could lift Pooh to the beehive high in the tree destroyed the verisimilitude of the story that, until that point, was marked by its realism.
In another balloon story, Piglet is going to give Eeyore, the wonderfully woeful donkey, a big red balloon as a present. But, as Piglet is running along with the balloon, he falls and the balloon pops, transforming it into a "small piece of damp rag." He tells Eeyore that he was bringing a balloon as a birthday present and they have this exchange:
"Balloon?" said Eeyore. "You did say balloon? One of those big coloured things you blow up? Gaiety, song-and-dance, here we are and there we are?"
"Yes, but I'm afraid—I'm very sorry, Eeyore—but when I was running along to bring it you, I fell down."
"Dear, dear, how unlucky! You ran too fast, I expect. You didn't hurt yourself, Little Piglet?"
"No, but I—I—oh, Eeyore, I burst the balloon!"
There was a very long silence.
"My balloon?" said Eeyore at last.
Piglet nodded.
"My birthday balloon?"
"Yes, Eeyore," said Piglet sniffing a little. "Here it is. With—with many happy returns of the day." And he gave Eeyore the small piece of damp rag.
"Is this it?" said Eeyore, a little surprised.
Piglet nodded.
"My present?"
Piglet nodded again.
"The balloon?"
"Yes."
"Thank you, Piglet," said Eeyore. "You don't mind my asking," he went on, "but what colour was this balloon when it—when it was a balloon?"
"Red."
"I just wondered.... Red," he murmured to himself. "My favourite colour.... How big was it?"
"About as big as me."
"I just wondered.... About as big as Piglet," he said to himself sadly. "My favourite size. Well, well."
As luck would have it, things turn out great for Eeyore as Pooh arrives with an empty pot. Pooh had planned to give Eeyore a pot of honey but ended up eating all the honey on the way to Eeyore's house. Pooh rationalizes away any problem with the thought that he now give Eeyore a "Useful Pot to Keep Things In" (Milne has a habit of Capitalizing Cute Phrases which can sometimes be Awfully Intrusive).
Pooh's obvious dodge actually works as Eeyore is delighted with both gifts and spends a great deal of time putting the popped balloon in the pot and then taking it out and doing it all over again. Pooh and Piglet skip merrily away convinced they are Good Friends to Eeyore with their Sad Little Gifts,
A more cynical reader than I would wonder about the honey, which is the central preoccupation of Pooh's life. It seems to be all he eats which, along with the the balloons, is something that robs the stories of a gritty realistic feel.
To put the matter bluntly, Pooh is clearly an addict. When his house is flooded, he simply abandons all his possessions except nine pots of honey which he takes up to the top of the tree to wait the whole thing out. When he visits his friend Rabbit, he eats so much of it he actually gets stuck in the front door and has to be starved for a week to lose enough weight to be able to leave. But, alas, no one follows up with him after this spontaneous rehab incident and he soon falls back into his old ways.
Rabbit, incidentally, is not as Disney portrayed him, a worrywart and scold. Rabbit takes the whole affair with a remarkable equanimity considering this so-called friend ate so much of Rabbit honey he ended up blocking the front door for a fucking week.
In conclusion: give it a read! It really is well-written fun and not nearly as precious as Disney and those awful books of fake quotations would have you believe.
Free Gutenberg e-book: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67098
Maurice Evans reads stories frrom Winnie the Pooh: https://archive.org/details/lp_winnie-the-pooh_maurice-evans-alan-alexander-milne
Reading Gutenberg by John Jackson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
