Winnie The Pooh Sparknotes

Austin Coles

Heather Graff

English 10 Honors

31 January 2023

Book Review

Intro

Every weekend night, Benjamin Hoff would dedicate his time to writing the 1982 bestselling book, The Tao of Pooh. His goal was to introduce Westerners to unheard-of Eastern philosophies. In particular, he wanted to spread the philosophy of Taoism (or Daoism). Hoff incorporates the cuddly fictional characters of Winne-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne and creates references to their distinct personalities, using them as embodiments of principles that do not align with Taoism and ones that do. For example, characters such as Rabbit often are problematic and overthink; these traits contradict the behaviors of a Taoist. Winnie-the-Pooh’s elementary view of the world and his easygoing

For example, Hoff compares Winnie-the-Pooh to the concept of wu-wei, standing for effortless action and living in harmony due to his simple and unproblematic nature. Hoff continues to symbolize more characters and their behaviors throughout the book. In the second part, Hoff dives further into the principles of Taoism and how they affect our everyday lives. He explains how finding balance and tranquility is significant to let go of the desire to be controlling. In short, the idea of Taoism is to live in a state of contentment and harmony with the universe and the energy it

I spent some time reading criticism and reviews on websites such as Goodreads, and it helped me understand the multiple perspectives held on this book. Half of the comments were positive, explaining how the story was an adorable way to explain Taoism and its content. The other half were negative, explaining how Hoff used the book as a gateway to complain about how business people, scientists, and any subject that requires intellectual thought or deep questioning will deem someone a bisy jackson (busy or bisy is appropriate). A bisy backson is someone who believes that constantly chasing something or engaging in an activity will bring them happiness, always remaining busy. Taoists believe this does not result in satisfaction, and only peace does. However, I strongly agree with the statements from the upset commenters. After re-reading the book a few times, I realized Hoff became more hateful and complained more than educated, commenting, “We don’t need to imitate Nearsighted Science, which peers at the world through an electron microscope, looking for answers it will never find and coming up with more questions instead” (50). The second part becomes monotonous due to this arrogant course that Hoff pursues. He implies that all of Pooh's friends are failures except Pooh and that he is a perfect individual, as he does not overcomplicate things. I believe that complexity and simplicity are both necessary in the world for balance, which reminds