I was very excited to read The Tao of Pooh. From the lectures in class, I found myself interested in and excited about Taoism, and the style of the book seemed kind of silly and whimsical, which is generally my preference. However after the first few parts of the book, I found myself not liking it at all and being ready to hurry up and finish it. The narrative style didn't suit me, and I didn't like that he wrote in Pooh as his own character, in his own style which to me was distinctly different than the “real” Pooh. His examples were also lacking, to me: comparing a Sidewalk Cafe to a cheeseburger stand? He could have used a less cherry-picked example and still made his point. Try a bar, where people do go to socialize and stay longer than it takes to finish their drink/food. There are examples in China and France, too, I'm sure of a street food stand where one goes to eat quickly and then move on. Both the writing in of Pooh and that example, in particular, as well as how Hoff manipulated some of the text to make his point made me less receptive to his argument – and I was, originally, very interested and receptive to the point he was trying to make. I was also hoping to hear more about how he hoped to achieve the things he was advocating. He made his point, and instead of moving on, repeated the same point that I had already accepted. It seemed aimed at the hostile reader, which was off-putting and caused me not to enjoy this book as I had hoped.
I did agree with his idea of Americans as Bisy Backsons, wholeheartedly. I think everyone in this culture, especially disillusioned younger people, think this way. I went to nerd high school, and at some point most of us came to the realization that the all-nighters and excessive AP classes weren't getting us anywhere, and this overly busy self-important lifestyle just didn't work. Problem is, most of us didn't know how to fix it, and that's where I hoped this book would come in. However the book never provided a solution, other than the general advice of “don't do that” and “follow your instincts.” While that's enough information for some, I was hoping for more. I felt that Zen Wrapped in Karma gave detain on how to go about gaining the mindset to achieve the things that Warner described, and I was hoping for that in The Tao of Pooh as well. So I ended the book feeling in agreement with Hoff's points and his very general solution, but not his methods, and with nothing more than a vague sense for what he wanted me to do with this collection of agreements we had amassed.
Your concluding paragraph is really well written and addresses some interesting points. I think it's great that you brought ZWiK into the discussion. While it may be true that Warner explicitly gave his solutions to the reader through practical, worldly/spiritual methods, the Tao of Pooh gives its solution through an unorthodox way. Perhaps it's better to take it with a grain of salt, though - maybe the Tao of Pooh's idea of following your instincts is a good idea every now and then. For example, when we DO take those AP classes and pull that all-nighter that makes us want to give up, maybe we should heed that advice for the future and slow things down a bit. Rather than always trying to be on top of things, it may be a good idea to just take a step back and see the world from a different point of view. Anyway, I ramble. Well done!
ReplyDeleteI liked how honest you were about not liking the book and why you didn't like it. Most of the blogs I've looked at everyone seems to have loved it, including me (but maybe that's just because I've read it before) and not trying to say anyone is brown nosing. It's nice to have another opinion and I see where you're coming from. Hoff doesn't provide a solution, he just seems to be teaching through a symbol that most people have heard of or know about.
ReplyDeleteYour blog was very interesting to read because the other blogs I read talked about how the love the book and thought it was the cutest thing ever, just like I did. But the reasons why you did not like the book was very valid and I did not notice any of those issues until you address them in your blog. I did notice as well that Hoff never tells us how we should go about reaching this solution. But thanks for offering another point of view of this book.
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