Watership Down author Richard Adams dies aged 96 | Hacker News Reader

Watership Down author Richard Adams dies aged 96

bbc.co.uk

All the places in the book are real, by the way. The Watership Down warren is here:

http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=449912&y=156897&z=115&sv=44...

...and there's actually a warren there. Watership Down makes a nice walk on a sunny day (although a much less nice one on a December weekend when it's raining and sleeting at the same time, to pick an example completely at random).

Adams does a fantastic job of making a landscape that's only a few kilometres across seem epicly huge.

Full list of Google Maps links here:

http://mythgard.org/academy/watership-down-geography/

I'm adding this to my bucket list. This was one of the most memorable books of my childhood.

My introduction to Watership Down was in the Paideia, the book of word lists that the National Spelling Bee used to distribute as study material before bee season. The word lists were occasionally themed around specific books and for awhile they had a Watership Down list. Here are a few of the awesome words I learned from that list (which eventually led me to read and enjoy Mr. Adams' book):

stridulate (what a cricket does when it chirps)

susurration (murmuring, like grass in the wind)

tormentil (an astringent plant)

myxomatosis (a viral infection in rabbits!)

They don't write 'em like that anymore. RIP Mr. Adams.

Don't forget the language Adams created for the rabbits:

http://watershipdown.wikia.com/wiki/Lapine_Glossary

I owe every ounce of my love of reading to Richard Adams and Watership Down.

Watership Down was the first book of its size that I read and it had a profound effect on me that has significantly directed my life. I enjoyed it so much that I kept reading after the book was finished. This led to reading and loving anything written by J. K. Rowling, Isaac Asimov, Ernest Cline, John Grisham, Robert Greene, Orson Scott Card (despite later finding out of his personal flaws), and many other amazing authors.

Many years later, I'm still a huge fan of books, although I no longer read as much fiction as I'd like.

Perhaps it's time to sit down again and go on an adventure with some rabbits.

> Orson Scott Card (despite later finding out of his personal flaws)

I don't typically dive into the personal side of authors whose writing I enjoy, what flaws are you referring to in Orson Scott Card?

He's a raving homophobe.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card

there's also a lot of argumentation in the vein of reading Ender's Game as apology for fascism and in particular the holocaust: http://peachfront.diaryland.com/enderhitlte.html#postscript

"Raving homophobe" is a pretty low-resolution picture of Card. Google "Janis Ian Orson Scott Card" for some nuance. Or see this cached post from her site:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ioaWOkC...

I'm not going to defend much of his political rhetoric, which I find is aptly described by the word "raving." And like others, I don't love a lot of his views on homosexuality. Just noting a higher-resolution picture of him doesn't fit the simple description of "raving homophobe."

>Google "Janis Ian Orson Scott Card" for some nuance.

Thanks for that tip. I'm aware of the Internet's general opinion of Card (seems like a lot more people have something to say about him since the movie came out!) but have never bothered to look up anything more specific. So far, I had been assuming - based on personal experience with well-educated and well-traveled Christians and Mormons - that his position on homosexuality was pretty similar to what Janis Ian described in her post. Also that the Internet's attention - as usual - had been caught by something and blown it out of proportion. I'm glad that those assumptions seem to have been correct.

> Watership Down was the first book of its size that I read and it had a profound effect on me that has significantly directed my life.

It's on a fairly short list of books I've read more than twice, along with LotR, Dune and Hitch Hiker's Guide. There may be others I've forgotten but those four really stand out.

Watership Down is a great story but also Richard Adams publishing it was a story of perseverance. It was rejected by multiple publishers back when publishers were big gatekeepers.[1]

Watership Down published by Rex Collings after being rejected by seven other publishers. Becomes Adams' best-known work selling more than 50 million copies worldwide. He wins the prestigious Carnegie Medal

[1] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/richard-ad...

Aren't the publishers still big gatekeepers? Are there any examples of works by unknown authors that rose to prominence without going through a big publisher? (I wouldn't count something by a prominent author, as they have the name recognition to not need a publisher, at least not as much.)

Sure. Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow series was picked up by a publisher after the first book was self-published. (It also took a major dive in quality IMO, but he seems to have recovered with his newest novel). I think this is becoming a more common pattern (popular self-published book leads to larger deals), although I'm just a reader and not involved in the industry.

Hugh Howey is one.

Depends on what you mean by 'rose to prominence', but Andy Weir's The Martian (being one of the most fun science-y novels I've read in recent years) started life as a number of blog entries before being self-published (only to be picked up by a 'real' publisher once the buzz had started)

J. K. Rowling comes to mind. Scholastic wasn't a "big publisher" in the traditional sense, more of a niche marketer.

Tom Clancy would also qualify, I think.

I'll take this opportunity to mention Shardik, one of his many overlooked novels. It's dark, complex, and in my opinion a greater work than Watership Down. It's got world-building that is on par with Tolkien and is filled with flawed, realistic characters.

It's been years but man Shardik seemed like a fantastic book when I read it. All my fantasy before then had been of the Piers Anthony or David Eddings type and it was great to be immersed in a world that was like ours but fantastic.

(Though the older I get the more fantastic our world seems.)

I first saw the animated film, which I loved and immediately had my parents purchase the book on my behalf. This story taught me a different kind of myth making and adventure from the high fantasy I read voraciously. It touched my understanding of humanity and nature in new ways, and was part of a foundation of great books that made me a life long reader.

I remember that being my first "epic" of books I read as a child. My school library had a poster of Newbery Medal winners (the Pulitzer of children books) and Watership Down was on it. I must have read it a lot, because I still remember nearly all of the plot and details and character names, as strange as they were. It's such a strange and detailed book that I was surprised as an adult to find out its benign origins. I guess that partly explains why it didn't turn into a LOTR-like series of volumes. I had always wanted to read more about El-Ahrairah's and Rabscuttle's adventures.

Watership Down is a great book, but I am having trouble corroborating a Newbery Medal or Honor?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down#Awards

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/...

Oh you're right, well guess I'm getting too old to remember my elementary school days :). That Newbery list was pretty much where I got all of my memorable reading at that age, including Rats of NIMH and the High King (aka the Black Cauldron series), so I must have conflated it with Watership Down. Seems more likely that I liked NIMH enough that a librarian recommended Watership Down.

The Watership Down that the book is set at is located near to Newbury - perhaps that's where the confusion arises?

It won the Carnegie Medal. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Medal_(literary_awa...

He wrote a sequel, Tales from Watership Down; a collection of linked stories set in the world, most of them telling the story of what happened to the warren afterwards. I thought it was rather rambly and lacked the power of the original --- but there are some more El-Ahrairah and Rabscuttle stories.

Review:

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1997-01-26/entertainment...

I loved that book as a kid. Had read it a couple of times by age 8 or 9. Probably one of the books that had the most profound influence on me from an empathetic point of view. An absolute treasure.

My favourite Goodies moment was a spoof of Watership Downs:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qDsLZmGBdt8

If you enjoyed Watership Down, check out Duncton Wood by William Horwood.

dammit

Don't you mean "Embleer Frith"?

I think it might be embleer rah, but it's been a while since I've read the book.

2016 please just end already.

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