second thoughts on fatness in my syllabus

[deborah]

My previous post made me think more about representations of fatness of the books on my syllabus. When I counted, I came up with three fat protagonists:

1. Wilbur from Charlotte's Web: Obviously problematic, because he's a pig. On the other hand, Wilbur's love of food is presented positively -- but it's presented positively because he's a pig. Templeton's greediness and ensuing fatness are presented grotesquely, both in text and illustration. On the whole, the text in its own way fairly didactic about eating and exercise habits being species appropriate. Charlotte is supposed to be bloodthirsty, Wilbur is supposed to like eating slops, and Fern is supposed to eat cotton candy occasionally while writing the ferris wheel with Henry Fussy. On the whole, I'd call this book kinda kinda in its representation of fatness, leaning on the negative side because hey, Wilbur, pig.

2. Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit: Once again, not a human character. Now, this book clearly trades in standard stereotypes of fatness, in the character of Bombur, who is amusingly bumbling and fat, and whose weight frequently leads to him getting stuck in funny funny fat conundrums. Oh how funny! Funny fat Bombur! But aside from that, it's also got interesting representations of food and exercise and fatness. Gandalf and the dwarves -- heroes all -- like eating and drinking to excess even more than Bilbo does himself. They sit around all night eating a meal after meal and drinking tankards and flagons of ale, smoking their pipes. A contemporary story this would be a sure sign of their laziness; such characters would be unable to be adventuring heroes. One thing I can't remember, and I'll have to see when I reread this week, is whether Bilbo loses weight as he gains his adventuring chops.

3. Lewis Barnevelt from The House with a Clock in Its Walls: The only fat human hero from the list. Lewis's fatness, on the one hand, is definitely associated with his dorkiness, his lack of athleticism, his fear of the dark, and all kinds of theoretically unboyish behavior. On the other hand, he is unequivocally a hero, and his heroism has absolutely nothing to do with gaining athleticism or losing weight. In fact, the idea that he needs to gain athleticism to become a hero is specifically undercut by the text. In later books in the series, he benefits from having an athletic (female) friend. Additionally, while his level of athleticism is questioned within the text, he never particularly worries about losing weight. I'll have to make sure my next reading this book thinks about issues of fatness, because right now, I'm definitely seeing this kinda kinda text as leaning on the subversive end of that spectrum.

Comments

[katta]

I read this post and went, "Hm, which fat children's literature characters do I remember?" and immediately The Five Find-Outers came to mind. Where the fat character is called Fatty. Oh dear. (OTOH, I kinda like Fatty. *g*)

Then there are the girls in The Wind on the Moon who eat themselves fat as balloons, so that horrible kids prick them with needles, and they cry themselves thin as matches... not very nice for fat OR thin people, that one. :-)

Hmm... Karlsson-on-the-roof is fat and about the most conceited bastard ever. Not sure if that's a positive or negative.

This is really interesting! You've really got my cogwheels started now.

[libskrat]

Bilbo very definitely loses weight and is aware of it. He does not consider it a good thing, nor is the reader meant to -- it's an effect of deprivation and struggle. Still, calling Tolkien fat-positive is dubious at best.

[badgerbag]

I recall bits where his becoming leaner is mentioned or noticed by Gandalf with approval. I'd have to go look it up though.

[libskrat]

You're completely right -- another strike against Tolkien.