Winkie (novel)
Encyclopedia
Winkie is the 2006 first novel of author Clifford Chase
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Winkie is a teddy bear miraculously given life and freedom of movement and speech. In the novel, Winkie's gender transforms, from being a 'she' to a 'he,' as he is passed on to different children. He is first called Marie in the hands of Ruth, his first owner. By then Marie was just a toy, albeit already having consciousness and feelings. Marie is then passed on to Ruth's five children. In the ownership of Clifford Chase, the youngest of Ruth's children and named after the author, Marie is then changed into a boy. He was called Winkie from then on. However, when Cliff, like the owners of Winkie before him, abandons and ignores Winkie as Cliff began to grow up, Winkie feels betrayed. He felt altogether alone, for he knew that there will be no one left to 'hug' him any more. He was left sitting on the shelf above Cliff's dresser for years when finally, he was given by some mysterious and unexplainable force the gift of life. Winkie then decides to go out into the world, to get away from the humans that betrayed him. He shatters the bedroom window with a book, and climbing out onto the tree outside, Winkie was able to fulfill the first of his three wishes: freedom. He continued on fulfilling the other two, for he thought of nothing else to do. Noticing some brown pods underneath a tree, Winkie goes to eat them, fulfilling his second wish. After eating, he then proceeded to defacate, "doo-doo" as he calls it - his third wish. Winkie then goes to the other lawns of the neighborhood, making his "special mark." On his twenty-fifth lawn, Winkie met an old woman. Here he was torn between accepting the sweet croons of the woman and turning his back on her. Anger boiling inside him, he chose the latter, scaring the woman away as he yelp "Heenh! Heenh! Heenh!" He then decided to go to the forest, trying to distract himself and forget the encounter with the old woman. After two days of walking and crawling, he arrives. Here he eats more berries. He ended sleeping on a rock, only to be waken up by an excruciating pain in his stomach. Rolling over and over, Winkie felt that his seams would burst open, only to find that the pain was only intensifying. At its peak, however, it disappeared. Thinking that the stomachache was brought by the berries he ate last night, he turned to look at the terrible mess he had made, only to find that, instead of "doo-doo," there was a baby Winkie. For months, father-mother and daughter lived peacefully in the forest, eating off berries and sometimes from garbage cans nearby. Then one day, Baby Winkie is kidnapped by a mad English professor living in the woods. The professor was a terrorist, making bombs then mailing it to other terrorists. He kidnapped Baby Winkie for he fell in love with her innocence and purity, only to be disappointed to find that she speaks his language of books. For months Winkie was distraught, laying down on the ground until vines began to crawl around him. And then, one evening, he heard a hum which he was sure came from Baby Winkie. He ran after the sound, only to find her, glowing and shining brightly, in the hut where the professor lives. Baby Winkie then disappeared, leaving Winkie alone and depressed. He resolved to live in the hut, acknowledging that his daughter is forever gone yet still hoping that she will return. He disposed off the dead professor, who died before Baby Winkie disappeared. In the days after her disappearance, Baby Winkie appeared before Winkie in a dream. "Think back," she said, and then was gone again. After three days, however, Winkie is arrested by the police. In the months following this apparition and his imprisonment, Winkie tried to remember everything, from his life with Ruth until his hearings in court, where he was able to find meaning in his being and existence. His trial, lead by the insecure and stuttering Charles Unwin against the prosecutor and most of the court audience, was not as he expected. On all 9 678 charges - which he knew nothing of - Winkie felt that he will lose. But when Judy the assistant of the prosecutor, seeing that Winkie really was innocent, said that they were withholding evidences deliberately, Winkie regained hope. In the end, the jury reached deadlock. Winkie, in the meantime, was free after the Free Winkie Committee paid for his bail. He traveled to Cairo, Egypt with Françoise - a lesbian cleaning woman who mended him after he was shot during his arrest in the forest - where he began to accept and understand why everything has happened to him.
•Baby Winkie
•Ruth Chase
•Clifford Chase
•Françoise
•Charles Unwin
Clifford Chase
Clifford Chase is an American novelist who has written Winkie, a novel about a sentient teddy bear accused of terrorism, The Hurry-Up Song: A Memoir of Losing My Brother , and who was the editor of Queer 13: Lesbian And Gay Writers Recall Seventh Grade.Chase is currently a Visiting Writer at...
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Plot
Winkie is the story of a teddy bear of the same name who was accused and imprisoned for over nine thousand charges including terrorism, sodomy, witchcraft, treason and others.Winkie is a teddy bear miraculously given life and freedom of movement and speech. In the novel, Winkie's gender transforms, from being a 'she' to a 'he,' as he is passed on to different children. He is first called Marie in the hands of Ruth, his first owner. By then Marie was just a toy, albeit already having consciousness and feelings. Marie is then passed on to Ruth's five children. In the ownership of Clifford Chase, the youngest of Ruth's children and named after the author, Marie is then changed into a boy. He was called Winkie from then on. However, when Cliff, like the owners of Winkie before him, abandons and ignores Winkie as Cliff began to grow up, Winkie feels betrayed. He felt altogether alone, for he knew that there will be no one left to 'hug' him any more. He was left sitting on the shelf above Cliff's dresser for years when finally, he was given by some mysterious and unexplainable force the gift of life. Winkie then decides to go out into the world, to get away from the humans that betrayed him. He shatters the bedroom window with a book, and climbing out onto the tree outside, Winkie was able to fulfill the first of his three wishes: freedom. He continued on fulfilling the other two, for he thought of nothing else to do. Noticing some brown pods underneath a tree, Winkie goes to eat them, fulfilling his second wish. After eating, he then proceeded to defacate, "doo-doo" as he calls it - his third wish. Winkie then goes to the other lawns of the neighborhood, making his "special mark." On his twenty-fifth lawn, Winkie met an old woman. Here he was torn between accepting the sweet croons of the woman and turning his back on her. Anger boiling inside him, he chose the latter, scaring the woman away as he yelp "Heenh! Heenh! Heenh!" He then decided to go to the forest, trying to distract himself and forget the encounter with the old woman. After two days of walking and crawling, he arrives. Here he eats more berries. He ended sleeping on a rock, only to be waken up by an excruciating pain in his stomach. Rolling over and over, Winkie felt that his seams would burst open, only to find that the pain was only intensifying. At its peak, however, it disappeared. Thinking that the stomachache was brought by the berries he ate last night, he turned to look at the terrible mess he had made, only to find that, instead of "doo-doo," there was a baby Winkie. For months, father-mother and daughter lived peacefully in the forest, eating off berries and sometimes from garbage cans nearby. Then one day, Baby Winkie is kidnapped by a mad English professor living in the woods. The professor was a terrorist, making bombs then mailing it to other terrorists. He kidnapped Baby Winkie for he fell in love with her innocence and purity, only to be disappointed to find that she speaks his language of books. For months Winkie was distraught, laying down on the ground until vines began to crawl around him. And then, one evening, he heard a hum which he was sure came from Baby Winkie. He ran after the sound, only to find her, glowing and shining brightly, in the hut where the professor lives. Baby Winkie then disappeared, leaving Winkie alone and depressed. He resolved to live in the hut, acknowledging that his daughter is forever gone yet still hoping that she will return. He disposed off the dead professor, who died before Baby Winkie disappeared. In the days after her disappearance, Baby Winkie appeared before Winkie in a dream. "Think back," she said, and then was gone again. After three days, however, Winkie is arrested by the police. In the months following this apparition and his imprisonment, Winkie tried to remember everything, from his life with Ruth until his hearings in court, where he was able to find meaning in his being and existence. His trial, lead by the insecure and stuttering Charles Unwin against the prosecutor and most of the court audience, was not as he expected. On all 9 678 charges - which he knew nothing of - Winkie felt that he will lose. But when Judy the assistant of the prosecutor, seeing that Winkie really was innocent, said that they were withholding evidences deliberately, Winkie regained hope. In the end, the jury reached deadlock. Winkie, in the meantime, was free after the Free Winkie Committee paid for his bail. He traveled to Cairo, Egypt with Françoise - a lesbian cleaning woman who mended him after he was shot during his arrest in the forest - where he began to accept and understand why everything has happened to him.
Characters
•Marie/Winkie•Baby Winkie
•Ruth Chase
•Clifford Chase
•Françoise
•Charles Unwin