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Description

The possum ‘that didn’t’ is a very contented animal who smiles in sunshine and rain, but when a group of human picnickers spot him hanging by his tail, they read his smile as a frown and call him stupid for insisting that he is happy. They decide to take him to the city to find amusement and, because he won’t climb down from the tree, they excavate it and transport tree and hanging possum together. Frank Tashlin's book goes philosophical in two different directions. One is the direction of satire: We laugh at humans taking a possum to a nightclub, but what do we really know about animal happiness? The other direction is existential: from the perspective of the possum, it dramatize the question: What do I do when I'm understood backwards over and over again—when the world I thought I lived in becomes unrecognizable?

Publication Date

2025

Publisher

Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children

City

Montclair

Keywords

animals, environmental degradation, environmental education, being misunderstood, native species, philosophy for children, satire, wilderness

Disciplines

Early Childhood Education | Education | Environmental Education | Philosophy

Possum that Didn't (1950/2016) by Arthur Frank Tashlin

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