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The Meanings of Winnie The Pooh
The enduring popularity of the bear of the little brain is due to his shape-shifting capacity for re-interpretation
Pooh is protean. The stories are full of character archetypes we all recognise, and they have the deceptive simplicity of biblical fables, which means we can all project our meanings onto them…
Political Pooh
On Winnie The Pooh Day (January 18) in 2022, a meme crossed my Twitter timeline in the middle of #partygate (a scandal in which the UK prime minister of the time, Boris Johnson, was accused of turning a blind eye to drinks parties among civil servants while the rest of the country was in lockdown).
In the cartoon, Pooh and Piglet are sitting chatting on a log.
‘I believe him. He thought the people drinking in his garden were having a work meeting,’ said Piglet.
‘You couldn’t be a thicker ***t even if you replied,’ replied Pooh.
I think the cartoon might have been stronger if the speakers had been reversed, what with Pooh being ‘a bear of very little brain’ and all, but the point holds and it did make me snort a little.
My sister Sarah says Pooh and similar classic children’s stories have lasted because they…
