The Te of Piglet [Mass Market Paperback]

Benjamin Hoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 29, 2006

In The Te of Piglet, a good deal of Taoist wisdom is revealed through the character and actions of A. A. Milne's Piglet. Piglet herein demonstrates a very important principle of Taoism: The Te-a Chinese word meaning Virtue-of the Small.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This topical Taoist manifesto, a sequel to Hoff's bestselling The Tao of Pooh , was a 21-week PW bestseller.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Ten years later, a sequel to the runaway bestseller The Tao of Pooh. If you like marshmallow laced with arsenic, it was worth the wait. In the original, as you may recall, Hoff had an Idea: that Winnie-the-Pooh could be used to explain Taoism, the ancient Chinese way of balance. Now, as luck would have it, Pooh's buddy Piglet turns out to be the perfect embodiment of Te, the Taoist term for virtue, which is attained through sensitivity, modesty, and smallness. Piglet, you see, is a ``Very Small Animal'' (for all his talk about smallness, Hoff, like A.A. Milne, who must be groaning in his grave, likes capital letters Very Much), and the diminutive porker's adventures are the perfect means to preach, Very Lightly, about being positive and ecological and upright. The trick is to ``observe, deduce, apply''; once done, the millennial ``Day of Piglet'' will arrive and human beings will once again achieve ``the state of paradise that existed before the Great Separation occurred.'' Watch out, though: All is not summer in the 100-Acre Wood. Beneath the goofy grin one finds bared teeth, as Hoff snaps away peevishly at Confucianism (``authoritarian, No- Nonsense attitude toward life''), Christianity, feminism (``behind their antimasculine words, it's Overmasculinity as Usual''), Republicans, critics, computers--whatever raises his Taoist hackles. All in a Good Cause, of course. No doubt, The Ching of Eeyore comes next. Then what? Well, by then the Day of Piglet will have come, and the whole world will be a Trillion-Acre Wood...so empty your pockets while you can, and watch Piglet bring home the bacon. (Illustrated with 51 line drawings from the original Pooh books. However did they dare?) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (August 29, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140230165
• ISBN-13: 978-0140230161
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Que?, April 28, 2000

By 

Mr. A. Pomeroy (Wiltshire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Te of Piglet (Mass Market Paperback)

Before reading 'The Tao of Pooh' I assumed it was a long philosophical tract scattered with quotes from the 'Winnie the Pooh' books to give it a gimmicky marketing push. It wasn't - it was a genuinely interesting introduction to Taoism, with a valid Pooh connection. It didn't push its viewpoint as being better than any other, and was thus inoffensive.

'The Te of Piglet', on the other hand, is terrible - a lengthy rant about the authors' pet hates, scattered with a few quotes from the 'Winnie the Pooh' books as dressing.

The author has two points. Firstly, that small things are not necessarily insignificant (a great point, one which just took me six words to express), and secondly, that feminists, scientists, critics, technology, businessmen, microwave ovens, negative viewpoints, unhelpful opinions and bad thoughts will be swept away in an inevitable cleansing, leaving the author and his friends to inherit the earth.

And the author is right, constantly. If you think otherwise, you're contributing to the forces of negativity, and will be swept aside. There is no other way. It's this kind of thing that puts me off religion.

However, to fill the book up, the author seems to wind himself into a twisted rage, berating everything in the world which is not him, for being shallow, self-obsessed, and destructive. Eventually he becomes angry, and loses perspective and self-awareness, and you start to notice silly things that you would have ignored beforehand. Eventually I imagined the author as an bearded real-ale drinker muttering bitter thoughts to himself in a house in California, and at that point I couldn't take anything he said seriously again.

For example, slotted in near the end is the tale of a great king who liked the sound of a nightingale singing so much that, when presented with a flawless clockwork replica, he neglected the real nightingale until it flew away. Over time the clockwork nightingale broke, and the king felt sad until the real nightingale returned. This is presented as great wisdom, but my initial response was 'this is froth'. What does it mean? Presumably the author sees it as a cautionary tale against the evils of metal, but, if you think about it for a moment and don't accept it blindly, it means nothing at all, it's just an empty quote with the illusion of depth. Much the same could be said about the rest of the book - we are constantly told to learn from real life, whilst being presented by wisdom presented as narrative descriptions of life in Ancient China.

Whilst 'Pooh' had a light touch, 'Piglet' attempts to bludgeon the reader with the author's viewpoints, and by the final chapter I felt like reading through the nasty bits of 'American Psycho' again, just to calm down.

Take Eeyore, for example. He's a loveable misanthrope, a welcome note of gloom in the 'Winnie the Pooh' books, who seems bitter but, deep down, means well. The author hates him, however. Really, truly hates him. He doesn't just disapprove of him, he actually hates him.

'The Tao of Pooh' is a great book - even if you're a cynical soul, after reading it you can accept Taoism and respect it, even if you don't agree with its way of seeing the world. 'The Te of Piglet', on the other hand, will make you want to attack the author and his beliefs with a broom.

67 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars When a bookstore owner warns you against a book ..., January 28, 2001

By 

R. Byrd "byrdie" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Te of Piglet (Mass Market Paperback)

... approach it carefully.

One reviewer gave an excellent reason to enjoy this book: he was feeling very down and small and put upon, and Hoff's rants helped to give him an ally and make him feel not quite so insignificant. If you would like to own this companion to "The Tao of Pooh," I suggest that you purchase it when you're in such a mood, or better yet, check it out from the library.

As other reviewers of written, there's much more ranting than philosophy in this book. In "Tao of Pooh," I felt like I was being taught Taoist philosophy from a new perspective. That's what I naturally thought that I was getting into with the "Te of Piglet." Nope. Hoff flirts with the idea briefly, but instead uses Piglet as a soap box to attack the Eyores of the world. Interestingly enough, he eventually seems to realize what he's doing, and so does Piglet (who he spends more time having fictional conversations with than he does quoting the dear character). And Piglet eventually takes him to task for it.

I think that Hoff was desperate. Could he simply not find enough examples in the Pooh stories of Piglet's smallness being used for the betterment of the Wood? I discussed this book with some frieds, and mentioned how the author seemed to be really reaching in his villification of Eyore: in his fictional conversations, he has Eyore coming in to pester and depress everyone. What my friends reminded me of is that, in the original Pooh stories, the characters GO TO EYORE the majority of the time when there's need for tension between the characters, for a less than optomistic view of the world, and even for someone to rescue. Eyore is needed and loved *because* he is gloomy, not in spite of it.

And at the end, Piglet - small little Piglet who Hoff has misused in an effort to have his hissy fit (and, I presume, make his next car payment) - comes to Eyore's defense. And, for once, however briefly, Hoff is blessedly speechless.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You won't get what you think you're paying for..., August 24, 2000

By 

Paul Cox (Enumclaw, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Te of Piglet (Mass Market Paperback)

...if you think you're going to get a great deal more explanation of the concepts and thinking that you might have found in "The Tao of Pooh".

Oh, Mr Hoff finds the time to explain a bit about Te, and how Virtue is a Very Good Thing. But as written by many other customer-reviewers, this book rapidly turns into a vicious rant by Mr Hoff against all the things he finds personally distasteful. I get a kick out of how completely he ignores the many passages in the Tao Te Ching that talk about how little government ultimately influences our personal, spiritual lives.

At any rate, you will get a great deal less in the way of stories taken from the Pooh books- and much more dialogue Mr Hoff makes up to illustrate his points. You will get fewer concepts of Taoism and Eastern thoughts. You will get only a few new, more advanced concepts of Taoism.

What you will get, as folks have pointed out, is a great deal of ranting and political theory. Well, it's Mr Hoff's right, I suppose, just as it's my right to say that if it's a primer on Taoism you seek, don't bother with this book- either get another copy of "The Tao of Pooh" (which is simply splendid) or buy another book on Taoism ("365 Tao" is a good one, IMO).