comments in others' LJs

[scarfman]

billroper answered the A.A. Milne writer's block question last month ("Which Winnie-the-Pooh character are you?") saying that people tell him he's Rabbit. The thesis of the following has been knocking around in my head ever since, so finally I went to look whether anyone else has ever commented with the same point, and no one had. But daisy_knotwise had noted that Rabbit is a planner, so I replied to her comment:

Remember that there's a big difference between Milne Rabbit and Disney Rabbit. Disney Rabbit is a flibbertigibbet. Milne's Rabbit is Clever, nowithstanding that the bear with only fluff and an instinctive grasp of the Tao is better at solving their problems.

(When I was a kid I only realized that Rabbit and Owl were the two with Brain. It wasn't till I rediscovered Pooh as an adolescent that I realized the difference between them: Rabbit's clever and Owl knows things. One critic I read noted that they were the only characters Milne invented, as opposed to adapting from Christopher's toys; then quoted passages from Milne's autobiography to suggest that Milne's mother had a neverending string of relatives and Milne's father sounded like he knew everything but didn't really.)

In theatrical releases Disney Rabbit is a babbling worrier, and only comes off as at all a thinker in bits adapted from Milne in which Rabbit was a thinker. I'm not familiar with the current body of tv that Disney Rabbit appears in, so I don't know which way that trends, but when someone calls Bill Rabbit they're probably thinking of Milne Rabbit.

Comments

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

If Rabbit and Owl are the two with Brain, which are the one(s) with Pinky?

[daisy-knotwise.livejournal.com]

Mostly, we made Roper Rabbit, because he is smart but bossy.
GHR

[scarfman]

I kinda got that.

[fey-spirit.livejournal.com]

Me? I'm a Rabbit.
I don't see Disney Rabbit as a flibbertigibbet, so much as the reluctant designated grown up. Everyone around him is constantly in a tizzy and behaving in a childish manner. Someone has to be the voice of reason - someone has to say no Pooh you shouldn't stick your paw into the middle of that bee hive no matter how good that honey looks.

He may not be the brightest of the bunch, frankly I figure that for Kanga or owl, but outside of Kanga he is pretty much the only practical one of the bunch.

[scarfman]

the reluctant designated grown up

A healthy argument, but that still distinguishes him from Milne Rabbit who hasn't any reluctance about it.

[fey-spirit.livejournal.com]

I know, but see seeing as how I self-identify as Rabbit (everyone else tells me I'm more a weird cross between piglet and Kanga)... I had to defend his honor.