Legal Commentary

Monday Bear-Blogging: English Bears vs. American Bears

By Ilya Somin

It?s been awhile since we did any Monday bear-blogging. So it?s time to bear the bear-blogging burden burden once again.

Here?s an interesting discussion of English literary portrayals of bears vs. American ones by blogger Erica Grieder. After surveying several well-known examples of literary bears from both countries (Winnie the Pooh, Paddington, Yogi Bear, and others), she concludes that ?American bears are, for the most part, more assertive and autonomous than English bears.?

Unfortunately, it?s not clear whether Grieder has adequately sampled the relevant populations of literary bears. On the British side, she omits Philip Pullman?s armored bears, as well as the Bulging Bears of Narnia. Both are as assertive and independent as any American bears. On the American side, she omits Gordon Dickson?s The Right to Arm Bears, which however probably supports her thesis.

The definitive study of Anglo-American literary bears remains to be written, even as its absence gets ever more unbearable.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on March 07, 2011 (boomark / email).