A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) is a core kiddy-culture classic. And I’ve always been a big fan. Especially of Eeyore. But it wasn’t till 2025 that I noticed a big bit of bad writing in the book. Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe the redundancy here is more natural English than the same passage with the redundancy removed. But I still think removing the redundancy makes it read better. See for yourself:
One day when he was out walking, he [Winnie-the-Pooh] came to an open place in the middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak-tree, and, from the top of the tree, there came a loud buzzing-noise.
In this drawing, Winnie-the-Pooh is peering up. There are tiny things swarming around up there.
Winnie-the-Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree, put his head between his paws and began to think.
First of all he said to himself: “That buzzing-noise means something. You don’t get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something. If there’s a buzzing-noise, somebody’s making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you’re a bee.”
Then he thought another long time, and said: “And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey.”
And then he got up, and said: “And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it.” So he began to climb the tree. — Winnie-the-Pooh, chapter 1
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REMOVING
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REDUNDANCY
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One day when he was out walking, he came to an open place in the middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak-tree, and, from the top of the tree, there came a loud buzzing.
In this drawing, Winnie-the-Pooh is peering up. There are tiny things swarming around up there.
Winnie-the-Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree, put his head between his paws and began to think.
First of all he said to himself: “That buzzing means something. You don’t get a buzzing like that, just buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something. If there’s a buzzing, somebody’s making a buzzing, and the only reason for making a buzzing that I know of is because you’re a bee.”
Then he thought another long time, and said: “And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey.”
And then he got up, and said: “And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it.” So he began to climb the tree. — Winnie-the-Pooh, chapter 1
Elsewhere Other-Accessible…
• Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) at Gutenberg
Previously Pre-Posted…
• Noise Annoys — discussion of the redundancy of “noise”
• Nice Noise — more discussion of the redundancy of “noise”
Overlord In Terms of Core Issues Around Maximal Engagement with Key Notions of the Über-Feral 
I tried to guess what the bad writing would turn out to be, without much luck. “Is it that the open place has a tree in it, and thus isn’t really open? But that’s not a redundancy…”
Correctness aside, it does seem out of Pooh’s character. He’s supposed to be simple, and simple people (in my experience) don’t really use compound nouns like “buzzing-noise”. They find it difficult to modify words at all, even when they’re supposed to. (A disabled person I know says “friendses” and “wordses” because he has trouble remembering the special rule for pluralising -s endings). So “buzzing” sounds more like something he’d say.
I wonder if Pooh’s manner of talking is supposed to sound like some regional British dialect. I can’t remember if I ever read the books. I mainly associate Pooh with the Disney movie, where Sterling Holloway plays Pooh as a backwoods American yokel.
Yes, like “in terms of” and “prior to”, it’s bad English used by the more intelligent, not by the less intelligent nor by an elite of über-aware glossarchs.
>> I wonder if Pooh’s manner of talking is supposed to sound like some regional British dialect. <> I can’t remember if I ever read the books. I mainly associate Pooh with the Disney movie, where Sterling Holloway plays Pooh as a backwoods American yokel. <<
I've never seen the movie, but I don't like the artwork. I'm sure the books are better, subtler and funnier. Eeyore was the inspiration for Marvin the Paranoid Android.
I've found some Tolkienesque noises in the text:
• There was a sudden scuffling noise from inside the hole, and then silence. → There was a sudden scuffling from inside the hole, and then silence.
• There was a crackling noise in the bracken behind him, and out came Pooh. → There was a crackling in the bracken behind him, and out came Pooh.
It's strange how removing "noise" makes the sentence read so much better. A bit like cleaning an ugly smear off a window.