It is possible to get carried away discovering adult material in children's books, and I made a major error of that sort in the 1970's, thinking that The Pooh Perplex was a set of serious essays, some of which needed refutation, until a girlfriend gently pointed out that perhaps it was satire. There is also a humorous DSM-IV breakdown of Milne's characters not meant to be serious. So it is with some trepidation that I offer the following.
There is now considerable literature claiming that AA Milne's stories were an attempt to explain to his son some very uncomfortable material. Milne had been at the Somme himself and later had PTSD and what we would now call an anxiety disorder. The buzzing of bees were a trigger for him as was the popping of balloons. Either could send him into a tailspin for the rest of the day. That makes one particular story quite interesting. As we have discussed under other PTSD posts, physically walking away after a trauma seems to mitigate the effect, and WWI was a trench warfare in one place that made this impossible for many. (Note; Imitations of this such as EMDR, playing Tetris, and walking away in controlled remembrance situations later also seem to help. Brain hack "We are walking away.")
Milne had friends who sad for extended periods like Eeyore, or anxious like Piglet. It is not necessary to believe that Milne was intentionally crafting stories for his son to nonetheless think that he was illustrating that sometimes people have difficult lives and act in frustrating ways - which was true in England in the 20s, certainly.
I just wrote about Pedantry, so I would caution against trying to tie Rabbit (rigidity) or Tigger (Attention disorder) too tightly to specific diagnoses. They are characters, and like actual humans, don't quite fit neat categories. They are evocative.
Chesterton wrote “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons
exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell
children the dragons can be killed.” (Chesterton and Milne played on the same amateur cricket team, BTW, though perhaps not at the same time.) Tolkien and Lewis strongly believed this and both discussed and demonstrated it. So why not Milne?
I find your reference to Tetris an intriguing one, as I personally found it helpful. Regarding fairy tales, they too are useful, because, while almost never true in a historical sense, they certainly contain truths for those facing trying times. As a last note, in the 1920’s and 1930’s, significant population of hobos and wanderers, many of them veterans, were found in the UK and the US. Certainly many were secondary to economic hardship, but some may well have been self-treating, if you will. Always wondered about the song, Waltzing Matilda, absolutely comes off as a heartfelt, desperate need that can’t be fulfilled. Personally, love the Pogues version best.
ReplyDeleteThe thought is that it mimics the looking from side-to-side of walking (away). But that is not really known, just a possible explanation.
ReplyDeleteNow that's the kind of thing that keeps bringing me back to read here.
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