Pooh Bear & Friends in the Afterlife

Pet Blog Post #4: Afterlife

The book might be in such good condition because there is little evidence that it had been frequently read or interacted with by its readers, unless done so with extreme care. The book’s intended audience is children, which further says something about the book’s condition – speaking for myself, as my childhood books had dog eared pages and were drawn in, folded, and not always put back carefully. Nevertheless, in thinking about children as readers, Winnie-The-Pooh may have been read by a child independently, or by an adult, reading aloud the book to the child. A graduate student is likely not the intended reader of the book. While my read of it today would be different from a child’s – a child in 2023 or in 1926 – in that the book is not among the first pieces of literature I’ve interacted with, it is not helping me learn to read, or challenging me in the visualization of new imaginary worlds, I do suspect that I would find a similar degree of enchantment by the stories if read in full, told through both text and illustration. A child may find the book an adventure, whereas I may find it more light-hearted, though both of us might feel a similar escape in the fiction and pleasure in the images.

Not the case for every book in Special Collections, the afterlife of this book is one which is highly visible today, as Pooh and friends became internationally beloved characters. Winnie-the-Pooh essentially became a franchise, remediated time and time again across literature, film, and merchandise, from the illustrated addition of a red shirt in 1932 to the Disney live-action film, Christopher Robin, in 2018 to the horror film, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey in 2023. Here is an article I found that walks through the evolution of Winnie-the-Pooh:

https://www.thewrap.com/winnie-the-pooh-evolution-christopher-robin-photos/: Pooh Bear & Friends in the Afterlife

The success and adoration of Pooh in the book’s afterlife has tremendously enhanced the financial and sentimental value of Winnie-The-Pooh, with first edition copies selling for thousands of dollars. As a warm fan of Pooh myself, it has been incredibly exciting to work with this book over the course of the semester, and I do not think I am alone in being drawn to this first edition for its originality and sense of authenticity, as it contains the original narrated and illustrated character that inspired the recurrent remediation across time and media. I think the book will hold its value for quite some time, for as long as Pooh remains a prominent figure in popular culture. And as the personification of animals is still popular in children’s literature, I am inclined to think that Winnie-The-Pooh the book and Winnie-the-Pooh the character might continue to be multi-generationally appealing so long as we continue to find enjoyment in what animals may have to say. It certainly does pose interesting conversation in that the book has become more of a collector’s item now than one to be read, perhaps for the fear of damaging its value (value from a perspective of artistic and literary appreciation and value from a capitalistic sense). I think it is slightly sad to think of a book being permanently tucked away in safe storage, not to be engaged with, yet in this case, it is joyful to witness how positively impactful the book has been. How interesting that one does not need to read Winnie-The-Pooh to know Winnie-the-Pooh?

In a more existential, theoretical discussion, the personification of animals perhaps stems from an anthropocentric line of thought. I recall from an undergraduate Critical Theory course that Jacques Derrida, I believe, had called out humans’ assumed authority for labeling all other non-plant living creatures as animals, thereby separating humanity from an animal world. Is the cutesy entertainment of personified animals directly related to the fact that we think humans and human traits are superior? If a posthuman world consists of artificial intelligence, machines, and cyborgs of beings, a book like Winnie-The-Pooh may no longer serve the same form of entertainment or hold the same value. One might even wonder whether a cyborg or machine-human would instead find entertainment from reading a book – or entering a virtual reality, more likely – about non-machine-humans, following a similar superiority complex. Or if beings from another planet approach the book, a planet let’s say where there is no division or constructed value between types of living creatures who inhabit it, then they may find the book rather confusing in that the creatures do not behave in ways ordinary to their species. In this conversation, it becomes clear the norms imposed on the reader by Winnie-The-Pooh, however subliminal. It is doubtful that A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard set out to create a work that furthers the human/animal divide and notions of human dominance, especially since Winnie-The-Pooh is appreciated for the kindness and warmth that its characters exude; however, the root of why the book makes sense to human readers and is found enjoyable is likely because of this constructed dominance that is not explicitly told to us as children or even adults, but is evident through our language, lifestyles, and literatures.

Winnie-The-Pooh might not be known today for its playfully harmonious collaboration between word and image, its neat and justified text blocks, or its wove paper and gilded edges, but the book has undoubtedly left a legacy, inviting the contributions of more writers, artists, and creators to build upon the original works of A.A. Milne and E. H. Shepard. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to “go back in time” and closely examine Winnie-The-Pooh. May we continue to enjoy its afterlife!

Now exiting 100 Aker Wood. Hope the next reader enjoys their time there!