 Winnie the Pooh has always time to eat. |
The Philosophy of the Bear of Very Little Brain Fascinates
- In Winnie-the-Pooh's life the best parts of childhood and adulthood join together from the child's point of view, Mirva Saukkola, a researcher of children's literature, defines the reason for the popularity of the bear with very little brain.
Winnie-the-Pooh is a happy-going bachelor who does not have a family to burden or to delight him. Pooh also has time for lots of things he likes to do, without any obligations.
- That's an ideal situation which fascinates all people irrespective of age.
Pooh is generous and sweet, but also inconsiderate and quite greedy; especially when he gets his paws into honey.
 Mystic combination. |
Philosophy of the Bear
According to Saukkola, Pooh is, above all,a kind-hearted, big child. The second coming of Winnie-the-Pooh, in most surprising applications, started with Benjamin Hoff's Winnie-the-Pooh and Tao from 1983. In Hoff's book, Pooh's attitude towards life was seen as a manifestation of the original, holy simplicity. Later on, the history of Western philosophy has been seen as a footnote to Pooh's way of thinking, too. Keys to ancient mysteries and to occult sciences, and even to the secrets of business management, have also been found in the thoughts of the bear softie.Some of those with larger brains have been wondering if "Poohism" indicates that our culture is becoming intolerably naive, or if it is a manifestation of liberating playfulness or of something else.
Poohism Was Born in the Sixties
Mirva Saukkola says that it is possible to trace the historical reasons for the new applications of Pooh all the way to the sixties. Around that time in the United States, Winnie-the-Pooh started to become a cult figure on the campuses. While the Vietnam War rumbled on the living-room TV-sets, the young twenty-somethings found the children's book that offered one route to alternative worlds for the generation that had lost its optimism.Partly, the spreading of Poohism amongst the adult population can be explained with the desire for freedom, which has an element of escapism. However, Saukkola thinks that irony plays even more important role. Complicated things can be very much simplified.
- Business culture, Eastern philosophy and Western philosophy are all the kind of things that people take dead earnestly. If these are interpreted through Winnie-the-Pooh, and if we elevate Pooh to the greatest thinkers of the past century, it's very liberating irony, Saukkola remarks.
Language is Funny
The play with words also appeals to readers of all ages.- Reading Winnie-the-Pooh is extreme fun for children because they themselves learn to play with the language through it. Sometimes the humour and the word games are so sophisticated that they give insights for adults, too, Saukkola states.
Even literary styles sometimes get into an amusing light when considered through Winnie-the-Pooh.
- For example, in the episode in which Christopher Robin leads an Expotition to the North Pole, the exiting thing is that the characters don't know what they are looking for, but they still keep looking. It's a very light alternative to those serious and gloomy stories from the turn of the 19th century in which the North Pole is frantically searched for.
It's Always Time to Eat
According to Saukkola, taking things to pieces in the spirit of nonsense is an integral part of Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Nothing is necessary what it looks like, but the language and the way we experience things can be analysed. Winnie-the-Pooh stories hide in them a language game that calls into question the world order, and poses a question on its function and its rules.- Systems can be put under a scrutiny, so in this respect Winnie-the-Pooh is little of a rebel and not so complient at all.
For example, Pooh refuses to follow our notion of time. Instead, he wants to make it fit his own intentions. He wants to have a little something more often than what is allowed, and therefore he has set his clock to always show the same time. Then it is always the right time for a little something!
According to Mirva Saukkonen, Winnie-the-Pooh is an icon of happy childhood, imagination and alternative world in the western culture. This familiarity is also utilized in other poohist applications.
Text: Sami Vainio
Translation: Leena Hyttinen
Winnies the Pooh 1 on Saturday at 10.30am and Winnies the Pooh 2 on Sunday at 10.30am in Tullikamari Pakkahuone.
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