Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/08/why-a-a-milne-and-his-son-christopher-robin-ended-up-hating-winnie-the-pooh-and-stopped-speaking-with-each-other.html
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…Pooh is the poster cub for sociopathic greed. His gluttony and relentless obsession with honey cause distress and turmoil within the Hundred Acre Wood community…This not only strains the food supply but also places his friends in challenging positions as they strive to cater to his never-ending demands. …this monomaniacal little creep’s bad energy would spill off the page into the real world?
Holy crap! This is just a whimsical children’s story. Sure, Milne and family have had their struggles with this ‘property’ but lets not ruin everything! That was pretty brutal. It’s Friday. Have a cup of coffee and enjoy the afternoon. 
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adding this to the file of things Millennials are ruining.
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Yeah, Pooh is not much different from most dogs: lovable doofuses, but the desire for treats is monomaniacal. I’ve also known cats like that. He’s less of a friend and more like a pet, and requires the same sort of care.
The stories do have a moral, though, in that “isn’t it good that the little boy is there to take care of the Bear of Little Brain?” If you want to bait us, claim it’s a riff on the White Man’s Burden trope.
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I suspect that this will become a very, very, well-trodden path with all the parent-influencers busily shoving their hapless children onto social media.
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Pooh’s legacy seems to be pain for many. Will Friedle has a story about writing a script for a Christopher Robin movie that he was uncredited for when Christopher Robin came out, and there seem to be others who were additionally not credited by Disney over the years related to that project.
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Sad that CR was bullied. Imagine what they would think if he knew of the characters being the basis for a (stupid) horror movie. People suck.
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Right?!
Show on the bear where you were hurt, @frauenfelder – because this is some dark stuff
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Sorry, but whenever I see anything about that bear I go and listen to one of my very favorite songs, it’s even on my list for songs to be played at my funeral.
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Yeah I think this says more about the Milnes than it does the books or the people who love them. It’s interesting how some people come to resent the thing that made them famous, while others just embrace it and lean into it. I saw or read an interview with, I want to say Bill Murray, years and years ago, and the interviewer asked him about what it was like being rich and famous, and whoever it was replied that being rich was awesome, but being famous really sucked. And I can see that.
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Pooh later became a cult leader. It didn’t end well.
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…Pooh’s insatiable appetite leads him to consume honey without restraint or regard for the well-being of his companions, often depleting the resources meant to be shared among his friends…
Barely. Nobody else is that interested in honey, least of all Tigger. Pooh does eat Tigger and Roo’s sandwiches once, but they don’t seem too upset at the time. Only Eeyore loses out, particularly, and he ends up perfectly happy with his Useful Pot in the end, anyway.
If you want to talk about societal problems in and around the Forest, Owl actually takes someone’s tail, Piglet and Pooh physically move a house, Christopher Robin is always armed, Owl attempts to take over Piglet’s place, and Rabbit masterminds a kidnapping.
Pooh liking a little something at about eleven o’clock in the morning is not the Forest’s biggest problem.
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This wasn’t at all touched on in the Freudian analysis of Pooh.
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…And don’t get me started on the sinister, distant influence of Trespassers William.
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On a similar note, if anyone wants to continue enjoying the Mary Poppins books I suggest not looking up the toxic relationship that P. L. Travers had with her adopted son. What kind of monster separates twins at birth for no good reason and then lies about it? That’s what made me hate The Parent Trap so much.
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Ok, I was unfamiliar with that story. I never read Mary Poppins, I think I saw the movie once, and I never saw Saving Mr. Banks. I found an article written by the older brother of those twins in 2013, and while he is certainly critical of Travers in the piece, he lays most of the blame on his parents. I don’t think he paints Travers as a particularly good person, but he also doesn’t make her out to be a monster.
There is another argument in Pamela’s favour and of her adoption of Camillus, however: he was far better off with her than he would have been with our real, feckless and inebriated parents in London, or with our mother’s impoverished family in Ireland. With her patience, love and money, she gave Camillus many practical and happy things that he would never otherwise have had — things that he made little use of in his later, wild and self-destructive life. Many people get over being lied to about their family, and Camillus should have done this. He destroyed himself much more than Pamela might have done.
He does say she should have taken both boys, or neither, but I don’t think this was entirely unheard of at the time, nor was keeping adoptees true origins secret from them. The author of this piece was also sent to live with another family. Almost all 7 siblings were split up. It was a tragedy and a mistake, but I don’t think you can lay all the blame at Travers’ feet.
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This showed up in my news feed, probably not of this topic and me reading about Milne.
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