[I only spoil the opening of the book and then go heavily into it's meaning.]
The book is about a bear who hibernates in a cave for the winter, and, while he is asleep, a factory gets built over his head. When he wakes up, he is immediately accused by the foreman of the factory that he is being lazy and not doing any work.
When the bear tries to explain that he is just a bear, the foreman laughs at him and claims that he is just a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat. When the bear still refutes these claim, the foreman decides to bring him to his superior to further attempt to convince him.
This story is often referred to as a children's book for adults and for very good reason. The author was trying to make a point about a really troublesome habit that humans have. They don't believe in anything. If something out-of-place happens in most people's lives, there's a good chance that their brains will just throw it out. Nobody believes in what is commonly considered impossible, even as something amazing as a bear walking around inside of a factory.
Even more intriguing is how more and more relevant this book written in 1946 keeps becoming. Whenever I am with most people, even sometimes close friends, there just seems to be this quiet dismissal of the world around them. They have some of their senses on, but a lot of the information just isn't going in. That isn't saying that there is anything in particular to see, but what if something amazing really did happen? They might just shrug it off as... explainable. It's a sad state we are in, and I really don't think we'll ever snap out of it. I often even see the problem in myself. I don't trust myself to see what needs to be seen, although I really would hope I could do better.
Ah, that got depressing!
The book is actually really entertaining and funny! The illustrations help with this too. Tashlin is really good at doing those grand shots that show large places with tons of people in it. It's one of those pictures where you can carefully look around and keep finding funny, little things happening here and there. A good example of this are the "Where's Waldo" books. Tashlin really excels with that sort of doodle art.
The actual drawing of the bear is also wonderful. Tashlin did a good job at giving him a sort of traumatized/confused look. He always looks like he wants to say, "What the heck is happening right now?"
"The Bear That Wasn't" is very much a children's book for adults. It shows us a real problem that we have, and one that we might not actually fix even when presented with the problem. As sad as that is, it still makes for good comedic satire. I highly recommend this book to anyone of any age. It ended up being one of my favorite books of all time.
This blog was written on May 29, 2024.
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Most people are comfortable with the world being bland. They fancy diversity as the world NOT being boring... but polyglots and globetrotters are as miserable as everyone else because the meandering ways of aimless people go nowhere. Their gibberish is actually gibberish. We must venture into supernatural to see beyond the mediocrity of our little rotten Meat World.
ReplyDeleteWell said.
DeleteSticking your head in the sand, only makes it harder to breathe. We must see things as they truly are in order to deal with them. Those who do will know that amazing things are happening on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteIt really does, and it's sad we are so diluted that we can't see any of it.
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