However, to read the books and only see treacle is to miss the point. Photograph: EH Shepard/Hardie Grant Egmont One of the original illustrations by EH Shepard from the book Winnie-the-Pooh. Some of the quotes made famous by the books are also perilously close to inspiration-speak and the impression that Pooh is simply a cutesy tug at the heartstrings was no doubt reinforced by the deeply disappointing Disney version, which has all the subtle nuance of a sugared sledgehammer. The stories are almost parodically genteel and upper middle class come the revolution it’s doubtful that Pooh will be first against the wall but he won’t be manning the barricades either. All that honey and condensed milk can be sickly after a while and readers’ tolerance for poetry involving the phrase “tiddely pom” will vary. Writing under her Constant Reader pseudonym in 1928, Dorothy Parker famously observed of The House at Pooh Corner that the word “hummy” marked “the first place … at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up”. The estrangement of father and son and difficulties in the Milne marriage make for a rather sad ending, and it will be interesting to see whether these uncomfortable details make it into the biopic that is set to come out next year.įurthermore, not everyone is a fan of the Bear of Little Brain and the keenest critiques of the books have focused on their sentimentality.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |