#591 in our old book database. Not rated. 11/25/1990.

Thirty-three years on -- to the day, by chance -- I have finished a second reading of The Pooh Perplex, this time sharing it aloud to my 23-year-old daughter, so we could both appreciate the satirical take-down of academia and the biased and flawed individuals who inhabit it.

And just because it is all meant for mockery doesn't mean there aren't some interesting angles and insights into the Pooh books on offer. I'll never think of the Heffalump trap or honey pots as anything other than the vaginal cavities they truly are ever again.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:
• Preface
• Paradoxical Persona: The Hierarchy of Heroism in Winnie-the-Pooh by Harvey C. Window
• A Bourgeois Writer’s Proletarian Fables by Martin Tempralis
• The Theory and Practice of Bardic Verse: Notations of the Hums of Pooh by P.R. Honeycomb
• Poisoned Paradise: The Underside of Pooh by Myron Masterson
• O Felix Culpa! The Sacramental Meaning of Winnie-the-Pooh by C. J. L. Culpepper, D. Litt., Oxon.
• Winnie and the Cultural Stream by Murphy A. Sweat
• A la recherche du Pooh perdu by Woodbine Meadowlark
• A Complete Analysis of Winnie-the-Pooh by Duns C. Penwiper
• Another Book to Cross Off Your List by Simon Lacerous
• The Style of Pooh: Sources, Analogues, and Influences by Benjamin Thumb
• A.A. Milne’s Honey-Balloon-Pit-Gun-Tail-Bathtubcomplex by Karl Anschauung, M.D.
• Prolegomena to Any Future Study of Winnie-the-Pooh by Smedley Force ( )

The simple prose of A.A. Milne did create a book beloved of English speaking people, and thus, an academic descends upon the canon looking for reasons to read the books...as an antidote to the academic justification for reading "children's books", we have this set of fictitious essays. The underlying need, for adults to reread the Pooh canon , is that the books, and the Shepherd illustrations are a wonder filled retreat to the state of childhood. As an artifact, an interesting satire upon for those looking for rationalization of their affection....rather like "The Gospel according to Peanuts", but since deliberately a satire, the humour lies closer to the surface. ( )

The Pooh Perplex is an immensely clever and effective satire against literary criticism, as manifested by the 1960s. Each chapter consists of an essay, purportedly written by literary critic, of childhood favorite Winnie the Pooh. The blurb on the front cover tells the book's purpose (in appropriate Pooh-like language): "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 Combined Efforts of Several Academicians of Varying Critical Persuasions."

Each chapter consists of an essay, purportedly written by a different literary critic, interpreting Winnie from a different standpoint. The 12 essays are written with different authorial voices, each with amusing footnotes, and for the earnest first-year college student, each with ridiculous "questions and study projects," as well as hilariously pompous biographical notes.

Among the schools of literary criticism included are Freudian, Marxist, and New Critical perspectives. For example, in the essay “Poisoned Paradise: The Underside of Pooh”, “Marvin Masterson” informs us (from a Freudian perspective) that The animals in “Winnie the Pooh” are lacking in genitalia, they seem to have no other activity in life beyond calling on one another and eating snacks, but the experienced critic need not be fooled. The real subject of the book is Christopher Robin’s loss of his mother, which is alternately symbolized, accepted, protested against, denied, and homoerotically compensated for in the various “nursey stories of the plot” (p. 45).

Likewise, in his essay “A Bourgeois Writer’s Proletarian Fables,” “Martin Tempralis” takes a Marxist perspective to inform us that Rabbit is the capitalist manager par excellence, the ‘captain of industry’ who... having deceitfully proffered Pooh admittance to his overstocked larder, artfully traps his victim in the doorway and exploits him as a towel rack for an entire week.... The united efforts of a Marxist- Leninist band of workers succeed in extricating Pooh from his servitude”.

The audience for this work lies chiefly among the targets of the parody, as well as those engaged in literary studies as students, professors, or book reviewers. Others may find some of the essays rather over-the-top, if they understand them. One overarching benefit of the book, from a serious standpoint, is that it shows how easy it is to impose one’s ideology on a neutral work – mining it to find justification for one’s own view. There is a lesson there for anyone who reads literature, or for that matter, current events. And for readers interested in an updated perspective, Crews has followed this work up with the sequel Postmodern Pooh, which revisits Pooh criticism from the standpoint of the excesses of literary criticism in the 1990s. ( )

A spoof on the varied forms of literary criticisms and critics themselves. This book would be a better read for someone who has a literary/literature background. Never having taken classes like those, I only bring to it the experience I have from trying to read a few critics, I don't read them much because they tick me off. So, with that sort of background, I'm afraid much of the humor in this volume was lost on me. Still, there were enough chapters which were hilarious to make it worth the read, and worth the skimming just to understand the different styles. ( )

A dozen "critical essays" about the Pooh stories by as many literary "critics". I think this is one of the best, and definitely the funniest Pooh spin-off book (it was one of the first, too). The analysis of literature is to me a fascinating topic, and here we have an academic caricature of its various branches. I liked it. In addition to making me laugh, I think I learned some literary criticism from it.

The last essays are the funniest, my favourite ones being the Freudian analysis and the call for a rigorous foundation for criticism. The essay by "Woodbine Meadowlark" was almost touching with its end-of-childhood theme.

This book has not been translated into Finnish, and at times the language was hard to follow, especially when Crews simulated the writing of the most over-the-top critics. Perhaps the funniness suffered somewhat from my frequent browsing of a dictionary. ( )