Silly Old Bear

Frederick Crews, The Pooh Perplex, was a Christmas gift, and it is as worthy of note as anything else ever contained in these musing to relate that upon finishing this tome, I have completed reading all the books I was given last Yuletide.

The next thing worthy of note (with the caveat mentioned above) is that the title of the book was abbreviated in the last paragraph.  The Full Title is:
The Pooh Perplex: A Freshman Casebook.

But, that is not the title as it appears on the Cover.  On the cover we read:
The Pooh Perplex In Which It is Discovered that the True Meaning of the Pooh Stories is Not as Simple as is Usually Believed But for Proper Elucidation Requires the Combined Efforts of Several Academicians of Varying Critical Persuasions.

Pondering the differences between the assorted things which this book could be named is fully in the Spirit of the Book itself.

At a quick glance, the book appears to be the sort of book assigned in first-year English classes in which a dozen authors offer critical perspectives on a work.  Think about the Norton Critical Anthologies, for example.  (Or, if you prefer, you can think about the Ignatius Critical editions, instead.)  (Actually, you are probably now thinking about both of them.)  (Then again, you may not have heard of the Ignatius series; it's relatively new and aimed at more traditionally minded teachers, which is code for Roman Catholic Homeschooling parents.)  (But, non-Roman Catholic homeschooling parents will also enjoy the series, as will Roman Catholic non-homeschoolers and even some non-Roman Catholic, non-homeschoolers.)  (The set of asides is also fully in keeping with the spirit of this book.)

As mentioned, it looks like a Freshman Casebook.  There are the essays, brief biographies of the authors and "Questions and Study Topics" following each essay.

The book, however is a parody.  The whole thing was written by Crews.  It is quite funny if one likes to laugh at the silliness of that which passes for literary criticism.  As the immortal Homer Simpson once said, "It's funny cuz it's true."  Crews does a great job imitating not just the substance but also the style of the different types of critics.  The biographies of the authors are pitch-perfect, and the study questions at the end of each chapter are hysterical--they are exactly the sort of vacuous nonsense you see in poorly taught literature courses.

So, now I know all about the Marxist and Freudian and Religious undertones in Pooh; I learned how it isn't as good as anything DH Lawrence wrote. I learned that it was full of hidden meanings.  I learned about the exhaustively fascinating importance of the differences between the text and the pictures.  I learned that Milne's autobiography is really important to understanding the books.  I learned about the books which helped shaped Pooh.  I learned how the book fits into an Aristotelian framework.

One thing I didn't learn, though, was that it is very easy to take a children's book like Pooh and torture the text in all sorts of marvelous ways which does nothing to help anyone actually appreciate or enjoy the book.