Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2: Book Club book Club, book Club book Club. Hello and
Speaker 2: welcome to the Cool Zone Media book Club, the only
Speaker 2: book club where you don't have to do the reading
Speaker 2: because I do it or you.
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Margaret Kildoy, and usually I bring you
Speaker 3: stories that I can point to some political reasoning behind.
Speaker 3: But this week I wanted to do something fun and
Speaker 3: my idea of fun which still means weird, old timey shit,
Speaker 3: but fun nonetheless. And one of my friends said to me, well,
Speaker 3: Winnie the Pooh's in public domain, you could do Winnie
Speaker 3: the Pooh. And I thought, ha ha ha, that is
Speaker 3: a funny joke. And so I looked up some Winnie
Speaker 3: the Pooh and I started reading it to two of
Speaker 3: my friends this morning, and I was like, wait, no,
Speaker 3: this is really fun to read. It's just fun. It's
Speaker 3: very well written in a kind of interesting way. It's
Speaker 3: just literally, like the words roll off the tongue in
Speaker 3: a fun way. So that's what I'm going to read
Speaker 3: to you today. I'm going to read you some chapters
Speaker 3: from the book Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh was
Speaker 3: written by a guy named AA Milm and it was
Speaker 3: written for his son Christopher Robin, who's the sort of
Speaker 3: main character, well, Winnie the Pooh's the main character, but
Speaker 3: the main human character. And it's basically a bunch of
Speaker 3: children's stories that an incredibly talented author wrote for his
Speaker 3: kid about his kids stuffed animals, and it did it
Speaker 3: in a really interesting way. And so then I had
Speaker 3: to do this thing where I was like, ah, I
Speaker 3: need to look up Miln's like to figure out if
Speaker 3: he's just like an absolute bastard. And I don't know
Speaker 3: everything about him yet. This is like not something I'm
Speaker 3: incredibly well versed in, but I spent several hours reading
Speaker 3: about Milm this morning, and I can tell you that,
Speaker 3: if nothing else, he was a pacifist. Although he was
Speaker 3: a pacifist who fought in both World Wars, and he
Speaker 3: fought the First World War because he felt like he
Speaker 3: got tricked into thinking it was the war to end
Speaker 3: all wars. And then he wrote this book, this anti
Speaker 3: war book called Peace with Honor in nineteen thirty four
Speaker 3: that was basically like, hey, we shouldn't go to war,
Speaker 3: like propacifism argument. But then as the Nazis came to power,
Speaker 3: he was like, you know what, well, and the Nazi's
Speaker 3: already come to power in nineteen thirty four, but as
Speaker 3: things got real obvious, he actually changed his mind and
Speaker 3: he was like, in nineteen forty he wrote a book
Speaker 3: called War with Honor, and I don't think that book
Speaker 3: is a particularly important radical text or anything. It's all
Speaker 3: about how the atomic bomb is good because it'll end
Speaker 3: the war. But either way, he came around on anti fascism. Well,
Speaker 3: I think he was always anti fascists as best as
Speaker 3: I can tell. But basically he was like, you know what, like,
Speaker 3: I'm anti war, but Hitler is essentially the devil and
Speaker 3: needs to be stopped. And personally, I don't think he's
Speaker 3: wrong about that. I don't feel pacifist about World War
Speaker 3: two at all. So he's really interesting quotes, right, like
Speaker 3: when the Austrian Archduke Fernadad or whatever the fuck gets
Speaker 3: off and it starts World War one, his quote about
Speaker 3: it was that this has quote resulted in the death
Speaker 3: of nearly ten million men who were not archdukes. And
Speaker 3: he also wrote wars are fought for economic reasons, but
Speaker 3: they are fought by volunteers for sentimental reasons. And he
Speaker 3: talks about how propaganda machines like work to create cultural
Speaker 3: consensus that we should all go off and sacrifice ourselves
Speaker 3: into the war machine. None of that has anything to
Speaker 3: do with Winnie the Pooh, and I don't know what
Speaker 3: he feels about colonialism or any of that stuff, but
Speaker 3: I do know that after he survived World War One,
Speaker 3: he was like, I am so lucky that I survived
Speaker 3: World War One, so I'm going to work very very
Speaker 3: hard to try and create art. And he did. He
Speaker 3: was just an incredibly hard working author. And then the
Speaker 3: Winnie the Pooh books just kind of like took off
Speaker 3: rather than like ride them into the sunset. He did
Speaker 3: them for a while, and then he was like, you
Speaker 3: know what, I don't really want to do this anymore.
Speaker 3: And I have so much respect for that. So I
Speaker 3: don't know enough about him to really say anything one
Speaker 3: way or the other, but the stuff I've read about
Speaker 3: him is interesting. Aa Milne, Winnie the Pooh, everyone, thanks
Speaker 3: for doing something fun with me. Chapter one, in which
Speaker 3: we are introduced to Winnie the Pooh and some bees
Speaker 3: and the stories begin. Here is Edward Bhaer coming downstairs.
Speaker 3: Now bump bump bump on the back of his head
Speaker 3: behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows,
Speaker 3: the only way of coming downstairs. But sometimes he feels
Speaker 3: that there really is another way, if only he could
Speaker 3: stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And
Speaker 3: then he feels that perhaps there isn't anyhow. Here he
Speaker 3: is at the bottom and ready to be introduced to you,
Speaker 3: Winnie the Pooh. When I first heard his name, I said,
Speaker 3: just as you were going to say. But I thought
Speaker 3: he was a boy, so did I said Christopher Robin.
Speaker 3: Then you can't call him Winnie. I don't. But you
Speaker 3: said he's Winnie their Pooh.
Speaker 1: Don't you know what there means?
Speaker 2: Ah?
Speaker 3: Yes, now I do, I said quickly, And I hope
Speaker 3: you do too, because it is all the explanation you
Speaker 3: are going to get. Sometimes Winnie the Pooh likes a
Speaker 3: game of some sort when he comes downstairs, and sometimes
Speaker 3: he likes to sit quietly in front of the fire
Speaker 3: and listen to a story this evening. What about a story,
Speaker 3: said Christopher Robin. What about a story? I said, could
Speaker 3: you very sweetly tell Winnie the Pooh one? I suppose
Speaker 3: I could? I said, what sort of stories does he
Speaker 3: like about himself? Because he's that sort of bear. Oh,
Speaker 3: I see, so, could you very sweetly? I'll try, I said, so.
Speaker 1: I tried.
Speaker 3: Once upon a time, a very long time ago, now
Speaker 3: about last Friday, Winnie the Pooh lived in a forest
Speaker 3: all by himself, under the name of Sanders. What does
Speaker 3: under the name mean, asked Christopher Robin. It means he
Speaker 3: had a name over the door in gold letters and
Speaker 3: lived under it. Winnie the Pooh wasn't quite sure, said
Speaker 3: Christopher Robin. Now I am, said a growly voice. Then
Speaker 3: I will go on, said I. One day, when he
Speaker 3: was out walking, he came to an open place in
Speaker 3: the middle of the forest. And in the middle of
Speaker 3: this place was a large oak tree, And from the
Speaker 3: top of the tree there came a loud, buzzing noise.
Speaker 3: Winnie the Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree,
Speaker 3: put his head between his paws, and began to think.
Speaker 3: First of all, he said to himself that buzzing noise
Speaker 3: means something. You don't get a buzzy noise like that,
Speaker 3: just buzzing and buzzing without its meaning something. If there's
Speaker 3: a buzzing noise, somebody's.
Speaker 1: Making a buzzy noise.
Speaker 3: And the only reason for making a buzzy noise that
Speaker 3: I know of is because you're a bee. Then he
Speaker 3: thought another long time and said, and the only reason
Speaker 3: for being a bee that I know of is making honey.
Speaker 3: And then he got up, and he said, and the
Speaker 3: only reason for making honey is so that I can
Speaker 3: eat it. So he began to climb the tree. He
Speaker 3: climbed and he climbed, and he climbed and he climbed,
Speaker 3: and he sang a little song to himself. It went like, this,
Speaker 3: isn't it funny how a bear likes honey? Buzz buzz buzz.
Speaker 3: I wonder why he does. Then he climbed a little further,
Speaker 3: and a little further, and then just a little further.
Speaker 3: By that time he had thought of another song. It's
Speaker 3: a very funny thought that if bears were bees, they
Speaker 3: build their nests at the bottom of trees, And that
Speaker 3: being so, if bees were bears, we shouldn't have to
Speaker 3: climb up all these stairs. He was getting rather tired
Speaker 3: by this time, so that is why he sang a
Speaker 3: complaining song. He was nearly there now, and if he
Speaker 3: just stood on that branch, crack oh, help, said pooh,
Speaker 3: As he dropped ten feet on the branch below him.
Speaker 3: If only I hadn't, he said, as he bounced twenty
Speaker 3: feet on to the next branch. You see what I
Speaker 3: meant to do, he explained, as he turned head over
Speaker 3: heels and crashed onto another branch thirty feet below. What
Speaker 3: I meant to do? Of course it was rather, he admitted,
Speaker 3: as he slithered very quickly through the next six branches.
Speaker 3: It all comes, I suppose, he decided, as he said
Speaker 3: goodbye to the last branch, spun round three times, and
Speaker 3: flew gracefully into a gorse bush. It all comes of
Speaker 3: liking honey so much. Oh help. He crawled out of
Speaker 3: the gorse bush, brushed the prickles from his nose, and
Speaker 3: began to think again. And the first person he thought
Speaker 3: of was Christopher Robin.
Speaker 1: Was that me?
Speaker 3: Said Christopher Robin in an awed voice, hardly daring to
Speaker 3: believe it.
Speaker 1: That was you.
Speaker 3: Christopher Robin said nothing, but his eyes got larger and
Speaker 3: larger in his face got pinker and pinker. So Winnie
Speaker 3: the Pooh went round to his friend Christopher Robin, who
Speaker 3: lived behind a green door in another part of the forest.
Speaker 3: And do you know what was plastered on that door?
Speaker 3: Dear listener, nothing but ads. It just the ads are
Speaker 3: just always there. They just interject themselves into all of
Speaker 3: your childhood favorites.
Speaker 1: Here they are, Andrew back.
Speaker 3: Good morning, Christopher Robin, he said, good morning. Winnie the
Speaker 3: Pooh said you, I wonder if you've got such a
Speaker 3: thing as a balloon about you.
Speaker 1: A balloon.
Speaker 3: Yes, I just said to myself, coming along, I wonder
Speaker 3: if Christopher Robin has such a thing as a balloon
Speaker 3: about him. I just said it to myself, thinking of
Speaker 3: balloons and wondering, what do you want a balloon for?
Speaker 1: You?
Speaker 3: Said Winnie the Pooh, looked round to see that nobody
Speaker 3: was listening, put his paw to his mouth, and said,
Speaker 3: in a deep whisper, honey. But you don't get honey
Speaker 3: with balloons, I do, said Pooh. Well, it just happened
Speaker 3: that you had been to a party the day before
Speaker 3: house of your friend Piglet, and you had balloons.
Speaker 1: At the party.
Speaker 3: You had a big green balloon, and one of Rabbit's
Speaker 3: relations had had a very big blue one and had
Speaker 3: left it behind, being really too young to go to
Speaker 3: a party at all, And so you had brought the
Speaker 3: green one and the blue one home with you. Which
Speaker 3: one would you like, you asked Pooh. He put his
Speaker 3: head between his paws and thought very carefully. It's like this,
Speaker 3: he said, when you go after honey with a balloon,
Speaker 3: the great thing is to not let the bees knows
Speaker 3: you're coming. Now, if you have a green balloon, they
Speaker 3: might think you were only part of the tree and
Speaker 3: not notice you. And if you had a blue balloon,
Speaker 3: well they might think you were only part of the
Speaker 3: sky and not notice you. The question is which is
Speaker 3: most likely. Wouldn't they notice you beneath the balloon, you asked?
Speaker 3: They might or they might not, said Winnie the Pooh.
Speaker 3: You never can't tell with bees. He thought for a
Speaker 3: moment and said, I shall try to look like a
Speaker 3: small black cloud.
Speaker 1: That will deceive them.
Speaker 3: Then you had better have a blue balloon, you said,
Speaker 3: And so it was decided. Well, you both went out
Speaker 3: with the blue balloon, and you took your gun with you,
Speaker 3: just in case, as you always did. And Winnie the
Speaker 3: Pooh went to a very muddy place that he knew of,
Speaker 3: and rolled and rolled until he was black all over.
Speaker 3: And then when the balloon was blown up as big
Speaker 3: as big, and you and Pooh were both holding on
Speaker 3: to the string. You let go suddenly, and Pooh Bear
Speaker 3: floated gracefully up into the sky and stayed there, level
Speaker 3: with the top of the tree, about twenty feet away
Speaker 3: from it. Hooray, you shouted. Isn't that fine? Shouted Winnie
Speaker 3: the Pooh down to you. What do I look like?
Speaker 3: You look like a bear holding on to a balloon,
Speaker 3: you said, not, said Pooh anxiously. Not like a small
Speaker 3: black cloud in a blue sky. Not very much. Ah well,
Speaker 3: perhaps from up here it looks different. And as I say,
Speaker 3: you never can tell with bees. There was no wind
Speaker 3: to blow him nearer to the tree, and so there
Speaker 3: he stayed. He could see the honey, he could smell
Speaker 3: the honey, but he couldn't quite reach the honey. After
Speaker 3: a little while, he called down to you, Christopher Robin,
Speaker 3: He said, in a loud whisper, Hello, I think the
Speaker 3: bees suspects something. What sort of thing, I don't know,
Speaker 3: but something tells me that they're suspicious. Perhaps they think
Speaker 3: you're after their honey, and maybe that you never can
Speaker 3: tell with bees. There was another little silence, then he
Speaker 3: called down to you again, Christopher Robin. Yes, have you
Speaker 3: an umbrella in your house? I think so I wish
Speaker 3: you would bring it out here and walk up and
Speaker 3: down with it and look up at me every now
Speaker 3: and then and say tut tut. It looks like Rain.
Speaker 3: I think if you did that, it would help the
Speaker 3: deception which we are practicing on these bees. Well, you
Speaker 3: laughed to yourself, silly old bear, or you didn't say
Speaker 3: it aloud because you were so fond of him, and
Speaker 3: he went home.
Speaker 1: For your umbrella.
Speaker 3: Oh there you are, called down, Winnie the Pooh. As
Speaker 3: soon as you got back to the tree, I was
Speaker 3: beginning to get anxious. I have discovered that the bees
Speaker 3: are now definitely suspicious. Shall I put my umbrella? You
Speaker 3: said yes, But wait a moment. We must be practical.
Speaker 3: The important bee to deceive is the queen bee. Can
Speaker 3: you see which is the queen bee? From down?
Speaker 1: There?
Speaker 3: No a pity. Well, now, if you walk up and
Speaker 3: down with your umbrella saying tut tut, it looks like Rain.
Speaker 3: I shall do what I can by singing a little
Speaker 3: cloud song, such as a cloud might sing.
Speaker 1: Go.
Speaker 3: And so while you walked up and down and wondered
Speaker 3: if it would rain, Winnie the Pooh sang this song,
Speaker 3: How sweet to be a cloud? Floating in the blue.
Speaker 3: Every little cloud always sings aloud, How sweet to be
Speaker 3: a cloud floating in the blue. It makes them very
Speaker 3: proud to be a little cloud. The bees were still
Speaker 3: buzzing as suspiciously as ever. Some of them indeed left
Speaker 3: their nests and flew all around the cloud as it
Speaker 3: began the second verse of the song, and one bee
Speaker 3: sat down on the nose of the cloud for a moment,
Speaker 3: and then got up again. Christopher ow Robin called out
Speaker 3: the cloud. Yes, I have just been thinking, and I
Speaker 3: have come to a very important decision. These are the
Speaker 3: wrong sorts of bees? Are they quite the wrong sort?
Speaker 3: So I should think they would make the wrong sort
Speaker 3: of honey, shouldn't you? Would they?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 3: So I think I shall come down, how asked you?
Speaker 3: Winnie the Pooh hadn't thought about this. If you let
Speaker 3: go of the string, he would fall bump and he
Speaker 3: didn't like the idea that, so he thought for a
Speaker 3: long time, and then he said, Christopher Robin, you must
Speaker 3: shoot the balloon with your gun, if you got your gun.
Speaker 3: Of course I have, you said, But if I do that,
Speaker 3: it will spoil the balloon, you said. But if you don't,
Speaker 3: said Pooh, I shall have to let go, and that
Speaker 3: would spoil me. When he put it like this, you
Speaker 3: saw how it was, and you aimed very carefully at
Speaker 3: the balloon and fired ow, said Pooh, did I miss?
Speaker 1: You asked.
Speaker 3: You didn't exactly miss, said Pooh, But you missed the balloon.
Speaker 3: I'm so sorry, you said, And you fired again, and
Speaker 3: this time you hit the balloon, and the air came
Speaker 3: slowly out, and Winnie the Pooh floated down to the ground.
Speaker 3: But his arms were so stiff from holding onto the
Speaker 3: string of the balloon all that time that they stayed
Speaker 3: up straight in the air for more than a week.
Speaker 3: And whenever a fly came and settled on his nose,
Speaker 3: he had to blow it off. And I think, but
Speaker 3: I am not sure, that that is why he was
Speaker 3: always called Pooh. Is that the end of the story,
Speaker 3: asked Christopher Robin. That's the end of one. There are
Speaker 3: others about Pooh and me and Piglet and Rabbit and
Speaker 3: all of you. Don't you remember? I do remember, It's
Speaker 3: just that when I try to remember, I forget that
Speaker 3: day when Pooh and Piglet tried to catch the heffalump Oh.
Speaker 3: They didn't catch it, did they No, Pooh couldn't because
Speaker 3: he hasn't any brain. Did I catch it? Well, that
Speaker 3: comes into the story, Christopher Robin nodded, I do remember,
Speaker 3: he said, Only Pooh doesn't very well. So that's why
Speaker 3: he likes having it told to him again, because then
Speaker 3: it's a real story and not just a remembering. That's
Speaker 3: just how I feel, I said. Christopher Robin gave a
Speaker 3: deep sigh, picked up his bear by the leg, and
Speaker 3: walked off to the door, trailing Poo behind him. At
Speaker 3: the door, he turned around and said, coming to see
Speaker 3: me have my bath? I might, I said, it didn't
Speaker 3: hurt him when I shot him? Did it? Not a bit?
Speaker 3: He nodded and went out, And in a moment I
Speaker 3: heard Winnie the Pooh bump bump bump going up the
Speaker 3: stairs behind him, and what he also heard was the
Speaker 3: sweet serenade of advertisers singing an evening song, unless you
Speaker 3: have cooler zon media, in which case you just hear
Speaker 3: the interjections and we're back, all right. I'm a skip
Speaker 3: chapter two because it's just literally about Winnie the Pooh
Speaker 3: getting stuck in a door and being too fat, and
Speaker 3: so they starve him because that sucks. I mean whatever,
Speaker 3: I'm not trying to canceled Winnie the Pooh, but I'm
Speaker 3: not going to read it. I'm going to read chapter three,
Speaker 3: which is in which Pooh and Piglet go hunting and
Speaker 3: nearly catch a woozle. And I'm totally reading this one
Speaker 3: because of the name that comes up in the first paragraph,
Speaker 3: because it's so sick. The Piglet lived in a very
Speaker 3: grand house in the middle of a beach tree, and
Speaker 3: the beach tree was in the middle of the forest,
Speaker 3: and Piglet lived in the middle of the house. Next
Speaker 3: to his house was a piece of broken board which
Speaker 3: had Trespasser's W on it. When Christopher Robbin asked the
Speaker 3: Piglet what it meant, he said it was his grandfather's
Speaker 3: name and had been in the family for a long time.
Speaker 3: Christopher Robin said, you couldn't be called Trespasser's w and
Speaker 3: Piglet said, yes, you could, because his grandfather was and
Speaker 3: it was short for Trespasser's will, which was short for trespassers. William,
Speaker 3: and his grandfather had had two names in just in
Speaker 3: case he lost one, Trespassers after an uncle and William
Speaker 3: after Trespassers. I've got two names, said Christopher Robin carelessly.
Speaker 1: Well there you are. That proves it, said Piglet.
Speaker 3: One fine winter's day, when Piglet was brushing away the
Speaker 3: snow from the front of his house, he happened to
Speaker 3: look up and there was Winnie the Pooh. Pooh was
Speaker 3: walking round round in a circle, thinking of something else,
Speaker 3: and when Piglet called to him, he just went on walking. Hello,
Speaker 3: said Piglet. What are you doing? Hunting, said Pooh. Hunting?
Speaker 3: What tracking something? Said Winnie the Pooh, very mysteriously, tracking what,
Speaker 3: said Piglet. Coming closer. That's just what I ask myself.
Speaker 3: I ask myself, what what do you think you'll answer?
Speaker 3: I shall have to wait until I catch up with it,
Speaker 3: said Winnie the Pooh. Now look there, he pointed to
Speaker 3: the ground in front of him. What do you see there, track,
Speaker 3: said Piglet. Pall marks. He gave a little squeak of excitement. Oh, Pooh,
Speaker 3: do you think it's a a woozle? It may be,
Speaker 3: said Pooh. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. You
Speaker 3: can never tell with pall marks, But these few words.
Speaker 3: He went on tracking in Piglet after watching him for
Speaker 3: a minute or two ran after him. Winnie the Pooh
Speaker 3: had come to a sudden stop and was bending over
Speaker 3: the tracks in a puzzled sort of way. What's the matter,
Speaker 3: asked Piglet. It's a very funny thing, said Bear. But
Speaker 3: there seems to be two animals now, This whatever it was,
Speaker 3: has been joined by another, whatever it is, and the
Speaker 3: two of them are now proceeding in company. Would you
Speaker 3: mind coming with me, Piglet, in case they turn out
Speaker 3: to be hostile animals? Piglet scratched his ear in a
Speaker 3: nice sort of way and said that he had nothing
Speaker 3: to do until Friday, and he would be delighted to
Speaker 3: come in case it really was a woozle. You mean,
Speaker 3: in case it really is two woozles, said Winnie the Pooh,
Speaker 3: and Piglet said that anyhow, he had nothing to do
Speaker 3: until Friday, so off they went together. There was a
Speaker 3: small spinney of larch trees just there, and it seemed
Speaker 3: as if the two woozle so if that's what they were,
Speaker 3: had been going round this spinney. So round the spinny
Speaker 3: went Pooh and Piglet after them, Piglet passing the time
Speaker 3: by telling Pooh what his grandfather Trespasser's w had done
Speaker 3: to remove stiffness after tracking, and how his grandfather Trespasser's
Speaker 3: W had suffered in his later years from shortness of
Speaker 3: breath and other matters of interest, and Pooh wondering what
Speaker 3: a grandfather was like, and if perhaps this was two
Speaker 3: grandfathers they were after now, and if so, whether he
Speaker 3: would be allowed to take one home and keep it,
Speaker 3: and what Christopher Robin would say, And still the tracks
Speaker 3: went on in front of them. Suddenly Winnie the Pooh
Speaker 3: stopped and pointed excitedly in front of him. Look what,
Speaker 3: said Piglet, with a jump, And then to show that
Speaker 3: he hadn't been frightened, he jumped up and down once
Speaker 3: or twice more in an exercising sort of way. The tracks,
Speaker 3: said Pooh. A third animal has joined the other two.
Speaker 3: Pooh cried Piglet. Do you think it's another woozl No,
Speaker 3: said Pooh, because it makes different marks. It is either
Speaker 3: too woozles and one as it might be whizzle, or
Speaker 3: two as it might be whizzles and one. If it
Speaker 3: is so woozle, let us continue to follow them. And
Speaker 3: so they went on, feeling just a little bit anxious.
Speaker 3: Now in case the three animals in front of them
Speaker 3: were of hostile intent, and Piglet wished very much that
Speaker 3: his grandfather tw were there instead of elsewhere. And Pooh
Speaker 3: thought how nice it would be if they met Christopher
Speaker 3: Robbin suddenly, but quite accidentally, and only because he liked
Speaker 3: Christopher Robin so much. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: Winnie the Pooh stopped again and licked the tip of
Speaker 3: his nose in a cooling manner, for he was feeling
Speaker 3: more hot and anxious than ever before in his life.
Speaker 3: There were four animals in front of them, do you see, Piglet,
Speaker 3: look at their tracks, Three as it were woozles, and
Speaker 3: one as it was whizzle. Another woozle has joined them,
Speaker 3: And so it seemed to be. There were the tracks
Speaker 3: crossing over each other here, getting muddied up with each
Speaker 3: other there, but quite plainly every now and then.
Speaker 1: The tracks of four sets.
Speaker 3: Of paws, I think, said Piglet, when he had licked
Speaker 3: the tip of his nose too and found it brought
Speaker 3: very little comfort. I think that I have just remembered something.
Speaker 3: I have just remembered something that I forgot to do yesterday.
Speaker 3: And I shan't be able to do tomorrow, So I
Speaker 3: suppose I really ought to go back and do it now.
Speaker 3: We'll do it this afternoon, and I'll come with you,
Speaker 3: said Pooh. It isn't the sort of thing you can
Speaker 3: do in the afternoon, said Piglet quickly. It's a very
Speaker 3: particular morning thing, and it has to be done in
Speaker 3: the morning, and if possible, between the hours of what
Speaker 3: would you say?
Speaker 1: The time was about.
Speaker 3: Twelve, said Winnie the Pooh, looking at the sun between
Speaker 3: as I was saying, the hours of twelve and twelve five.
Speaker 3: So really, dear old Pooh, if you excuse me, what's that?
Speaker 3: Pooh looked up at the sky, and then he heard
Speaker 3: the whistle again. He looked up at the branches of
Speaker 3: a big oak tree, and he saw a friend of his.
Speaker 3: It's Christopher Robbin. He said, Ah, then you'll be all right,
Speaker 3: said Piglet. You'll be quite safe with him. Goodbye, and
Speaker 3: he trotted off home as quickly as he could, very
Speaker 3: glad to be out of all danger again. Christopher Robin
Speaker 3: came slowly down this tree, silly old bear, He said,
Speaker 3: what were you doing? First? You went round the spinny
Speaker 3: twice by yourself, and then Piglet ran after you, and
Speaker 3: you went round again together, and then you were just
Speaker 3: going round.
Speaker 1: A fourth time.
Speaker 3: Wait a moment, said Winnie the Pooh, holding up his paw.
Speaker 3: He sat down in thought, in.
Speaker 1: The most thoughtful way he could think.
Speaker 3: Then he fitted his paw into one of the tracks,
Speaker 3: and he scratched his nose twice and stood up. Yes,
Speaker 3: said Winnie the Pooh. I see now, said Winnie the Pooh.
Speaker 3: I have been foolish and deluded, said he, And I
Speaker 3: am a bear of no brain at all. You're the
Speaker 3: best bear in all the world, said Christopher Robbin soothingly.
Speaker 3: Am I said Pooh hopefully, and then he brightened up suddenly. Anyhow,
Speaker 3: he said, it is nearly luncheon time, so he went
Speaker 3: home for it.
Speaker 1: The end.
Speaker 3: I did read Winnie the Poo as a kid.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: The stories are sort of like familiar and unfamiliar to me.
Speaker 3: I had no idea how often you all have read it.
Speaker 3: I just have really enjoyed when I read it to
Speaker 3: my friends, singing weird little songs, and so I thought
Speaker 3: you all would too. And the other thing that I
Speaker 3: think about, because I know what you're thinking. You're thinking,
Speaker 3: Margaret but how are you going to tie Winnie the
Speaker 3: Pooh into Lord of the Rings. And I have an
Speaker 3: answer for you, and that answer is very British because
Speaker 3: it involves three British men. It involves Milne who wrote
Speaker 3: Winnie the Pooh, it involves Tolkien, who wrote Lord of
Speaker 3: the Rings, and involves a man named Michael Moorecock, who's
Speaker 3: a pulp anarchist fantasy author writing more in the sixties
Speaker 3: and seventies, and who's still alive today, most famous these
Speaker 3: days as the person who created the chaos start. He
Speaker 3: wrote an essay called The Epic Pooh in which he
Speaker 3: just trashes on Lord of the Rings. He's it's like
Speaker 3: a well written, just absolutely eviscerating critique of Lord of
Speaker 3: the Rings, which I obviously therefore completely disagree with, because
Speaker 3: Lord of the Rings is perfect in every way and
Speaker 3: specifically a critique the idea. So Winnie the Pooh is
Speaker 3: being used to represent like the ultimate British cozy fantasy,
Speaker 3: where like, you're not worried about shit, and I think
Speaker 3: that's fair. That's what Winnie the Pooh represents. But it's
Speaker 3: about fucking stuffed animals and it's for a kid. So
Speaker 3: I don't think you can get mad at Winnie the Pooh,
Speaker 3: but to claim basically the argument that Morecock makes. It's
Speaker 3: been a little while since I read this essay. The
Speaker 3: argument he makes is that the Hobbits represent the rural
Speaker 3: British and basically the like, you know, stick your heads
Speaker 3: in the sand attitude of the world, where you're like, well,
Speaker 3: my life is fine, So everyone's life is fine despite
Speaker 3: all of this like horror and bloodshed happening just outside
Speaker 3: the Shire or just outside you know, England or whatever.
Speaker 3: And so basically Morecock critiques Lord of the Rings as
Speaker 3: being like too cozy, too neat, to like, ah, we're
Speaker 3: off to the war and we come back again. And
Speaker 3: I think that there's parts of this that are fair
Speaker 3: and parts of that aren't. I think that Lord of
Speaker 3: the Rings is actually specifically like at least Tolkien and
Speaker 3: Milne fought in World War One, right, and Milne actually
Speaker 3: fought in World War Two also in the same way
Speaker 3: that Orwell did, which was as part of the Home Guard,
Speaker 3: which was the people who were running around in case
Speaker 3: and were like training to fight in case the Nazis
Speaker 3: invaded England, which was a very real possibility that did
Speaker 3: not happen. And so even though he was in his
Speaker 3: I want to say, fifties or sixties, Milne was Captain Milne,
Speaker 3: although he made all of the people under him, and
Speaker 3: just call him mister Milne because he's like that. And
Speaker 3: so to accuse Tolkien now, I'm just standing up for
Speaker 3: Tolkien's honor. It's sorry, more cock. If you're listening, you
Speaker 3: might have been more right than me. I don't know
Speaker 3: whatever to accuse Tolkien of. Like sanitizing war is a
Speaker 3: very interesting thing, because trench combat in World War One
Speaker 3: is like kind of the worst thing I seen imagine
Speaker 3: having happen in your life, and it's usually the end
Speaker 3: of your life. It's often the end of your life,
Speaker 3: you know. And actually one of the core ideas I
Speaker 3: think on some level, I think Tolien is aware that
Speaker 3: the Hobbits are representing this, you know, sort of British
Speaker 3: attitude or whatever. Right, but they come home again changed.
Speaker 3: That's like one of the core parts of it, right.
Speaker 3: Some of them come home like braver and stronger, but
Speaker 3: some of them just come home like fuck them broken,
Speaker 3: you know. Anyway, That's how I can tie Winnie the
Speaker 3: Pooh into Lord of the rings, you're welcome, have a
Speaker 3: good week. And also there's exciting stuff coming around the
Speaker 3: bend for cools on Media Book Club that we're gonna
Speaker 3: be able to change up the content pretty soon. I've
Speaker 3: been enjoying this sort of content, but we've got like
Speaker 3: a bunch of ideas and it's going.
Speaker 1: To be good.
Speaker 3: And also, if you like anthropomorphic animals and you like
Speaker 3: my storytelling, you might like a book that came out
Speaker 3: this very last week, unless you're listening to this in
Speaker 3: the future in which it came out a while ago.
Speaker 3: Came out in July and twenty twenty five. It's a
Speaker 3: book called The Defender's Almanac, and it's a tabletop role
Speaker 3: playing game set in the world of the board game
Speaker 3: Defenders of the Wild. And if you're thinking, but I
Speaker 3: don't know that board game, or even I don't play
Speaker 3: tabletop roleplaying games, you actually still might like this book.
Speaker 3: It's from Outlandish Games, and it is a standalone thing.
Speaker 3: You don't need the board game to play it. But
Speaker 3: it's also an almanac. That's why it's called The Defender's Almanac.
Speaker 3: And it's basically I wrote. I didn't write the game
Speaker 3: mechanics or anything like that other people who are better
Speaker 3: at that did it. I wrote a lot of stories
Speaker 3: of anthropomorphic animals coming together, finding bravery and fighting machines
Speaker 3: because I like doing that sort of thing, and you
Speaker 3: can get it now. It's out, it's available. That's what
Speaker 3: I got. I'll see you all next week for another
Speaker 3: episode of pool Zone Media Book Club. It could Happen
Speaker 3: here as a production of cool Zone Media. For more
Speaker 3: podcasts from.
Speaker 2: Cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zonemedia dot com,
Speaker 2: or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources
Speaker 2: for a happen here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.
Speaker 3: Dot com slash sources.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.