I don't know what paddington is doing on that list, but it made me think of the time someone drew a picture of the queen with paddington after she died, and we had scores of people losing their minds at the idea that paddington bear wasn't the same kind of communist as them
I love the sorrow in which you wrote this
The tragedy of growing up british & left wing is realising all your beloved childhood animals in waistcoats were monarchists to the core
I feel like in many ways "How'd he manage to grow up a middle-aged middle-class British man in Peru, anyways?" is the wrong question but it's still the one I am hung up on, years later.
Hold on let’s do this properly:
Paddington - regrettably a monarchist but in that specific immigrant way. The only actual immigrant on the list. May possibly just be a monarchist as part of the processing stage and is also canonically a child.
Winnie the Pooh - is canonically a stuffed animal, I genuinely don’t think he has this level of thought/agency and is not written as such. The real living breathing animals (owl, rabbit) are not just monarchists, but actively and cruelly bourgeois.
The Velveteen Rabbit - doesn’t wear a waistcoat but not a monarchist either.
Angelina Ballerina - a monarchist and a bit of a little bitch tbqh
The Brambly Hedge mice - really unclear. But like worryingly unclear. Clearly some kind of caste system in operation (lords and ladies) but not capitalist or explicitly feudalist either, it seems a thin overlay over their real political intentions: incredibly intense cheesemaking forming the backbone of a post-scarcity economy.
Beatrix Potter / Peter Rabbit - monarchists.
Richard Scarry - actually I can’t make a call on this one
Animals of Farthing Wood - I … don’t know.
Wind in the Willows - Toad’s a fucking Tory, but I feel like the Water Rat is kind of a comrade
Watership Down - unfortunately many of these rabbits are fashy, even the ones you like. Ursula le Guin said it, not me. They wouldn’t walk away from omelas. However, they touch a lot of grass - enough grass to not be interested in the house of Windsor - which is a point in their favour.
Redwall - monarchists, though not for the British monarchy. and also, somehow, Mouse Anglican verging on Mouse Catholic. Worrying, fascinating.
Oakapple Wood - monarchists
Hobbit - not a woodland creature but wears a waistcoat and is sympathetic to Thorin, Aragorn. Provisionally extremely monarchist and the very earliest interpretations of hobbits appeared to think they are somehow bipedal rabbits, which pissed Tolkien off.
Rupert Bear - British bear in clothes attributed partially for the decline in the usage of the name Rupert - but I don’t know a thing about him
The Highway Rat - all Julia Donaldson creatures lick the boot that crushes them, even the highway rat. Possibly not the Gruffalo. The Gruffalo however is the most naked that anyone has ever been, thus not an animal that would wear clothes.
The Narnia creatures - don’t all wear clothes, but THE definitive monarchists
Fantastic Mr Fox - not a monarchist. and in the wes Anderson film is not even British although the farmers and setting are (brilliant artistic choices, especially including an excellent but fucking random possum that calls the entire ecosystem into question: ultimately these are North American animals subverting and undermining the British landowners in a strange political statement whose intentions and direction are unclear.) Not monarchists, but what?
I also asked my own small British child to name more notable creatures in waistcoats, and after suggesting the obvious (brambly hedge, Angelina) they said, devastatingly, “viruses,” and when I delicately questioned what they meant by this, pointed out that viruses have a protein coat. Thus:
Viruses - possibly monarchists, wear coats, and present in children’s literature as exemplified by the Usborne “See Inside Germs.” Ultimately more data is needed.
Thoughts on Toad and Frog?
They’re American
This post is bigger than me now but:
- The animals of farthing wood/watership down aren't animals in waistcoats, they're just animals. they know nothing of the laws of man
- Bagpuss/winnie the pooh/piglet etc. aren't animals at all, they're stuffed toys brought to life by the magic of a child's love and thusly transcend politics
- Although they do wear waistcoats, the clangers are aliens and so aren't british, or arguably animals. I haven't given a lot of thought to the political structure on their planet and to be honest I don't plan to
- Under certain circumstances, I guess I could see ratty joining a union and maybe even dragging mole along. I'll give you that one
- Toad of toad hall is a tory donor
I feel like this is us OP
Rupert Bear is 100% a monarchist
The Wombles are probably some form of socialist, though. They're an international group that lives in self-sufficient communes and were all in on recycling in the 1960s.
