Revisited: Watership Down | Hacker News Reader

Revisited: Watership Down

theparisreview.org

109 pointsbenbreen50 comments

Richard Adams's passing was not too long ago, just December of last year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13265256

Another great article: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/04/richard-adams-...

Was blown away to discover that Adams had written WD, his first attempt at a book, at the age of 52, and that it all came from an impromptu story he made up during a car ride: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/04/richard-adams-...

My favorite book of all time, bar none. Adventure, bravery, friendship, loyalty, love, life, and death. Written with a vividness and tenderness that brought me to tears. It sounds trite, but it's so true. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and do so.

You may also like William Horwood's Duncton Wood:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncton_Wood

What do you all think of "The Wind in the Willows"?

I found it too slow and couldn't finish it. Though maybe I was tried when I was too young.

I found wind in the willows less hard going than Duncton Wood: - though my fist exposure was to the stage play in London.

Toad Of Toad Hall was a UK Christmas institution with the actor playing Mole (Richard Goolden) having done so since the 1930's

It's the literary equivalent of a big woollen blanket. Best read in winter, with a warm mug of mulled wine.

It's wonderful.

Like the author of the article, I also don't think of WD as an allegory but a story about rabbits. It is one of the first books I read that really pulled me into another world. Later I read 'Plague Dogs' which is a different animal and a bit perplexing.

Like Watership Down, Plague Dogs was made into an animated film, which can be found available on the intertubes.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084509/

Warning: The Plague Dogs film is so viscerally traumatic that even if you're an adult the imagery can travel back in time and ruin your own childhood.

Man, I had nightmares from the Watership Down movie as a kid. Now I feel like I have to watch Plague Dogs just to balance things out.

I read Animal Farm twice, once as a child reading a story about animals, once as an adult reading it as allegory. I enjoyed it a lot more the first time.

The Plague Dogs has got to be the most depressing books I've ever read--almost sadistically so. The sucker-punch ending isn't eased any by the last minute deus ex machina either, it's just plain bleak from beginning to end.

Adventure, bravery, friendship, loyalty, love, life, and death.

All these, plus another component I personally enjoy in adventure books -- flawed characters who complement each other, and so become collectively stronger than they stand as individuals. For example, Bigwig has an amazing character arc, where he learns to subordinate his strength to Fiver's vision and Hazel's leadership.

Other examples include the foursome in "The Three Musketeers" (who explicitly arrange their affairs to contribute equitably from among their talents, money, and time), and "Kidnapped" (where David Balfour and Alan Breck have to learn to trust each other in order to negotiate the dangers they face on each other's behalf).

The moment where Bigwig tells Woundwort that his chief rabbit has told him to defend the run and so that is what he is going to do is one of my favorites in all of fiction. Both for how it shows Bigwigs characters growth, what it says about duty, and for how Woundwort reacts being unable to comprehend that Bigwig would listen to any rabbit weaker then him and assuming that there is an even more fierce rabbit in charge somewhere.

Casual Trivia: Watership Down inspired one of the earliest role playing games, Bunnies and Burrows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunnies_%26_Burrows

Yes I always wished that I had had a chance to play that - Mouse Guard is a more modern RPG with similar theams

My impression was that Mouse Guard was a lot more Redwall-esque - is that wrong?

Mouse Guard is basically the rangers from the Lord of the Rings in mouse form, with cats and owls as monsters.

There's one copy of Bunnies and Burrows available on Amazon, if you still want to try it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00R26QEWI/

"My younger siblings had seen the animated adaptation and had told me there was a lot of blood."

I too always associated this story with violence before I read it. The violence in the adaptation has really shaped the reputation of the story.

The story has some intense moments, but there are far more memorable bits, like the language and the puzzles and the relationships.

The movie feels like Miike or Tarantino in comparison.

There is animated serial that's less voilent than the movie. There are differences in comparative to the book but I liked it anyway.

The 1978 movie adaptation is superb and deeply memorable. Voices actors include the great John Hurt and Richard Briers. Here's a taste:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGyQmH9NZcw

There's at least one thing about the film, though, that I find mysterious. It was given a 'U' rating in the UK (which means universal, i.e. suitable for all ages). Yet many people find it scarily unwatchable -- why?

SPOILERS. True, there's blood, which is unusual for a children's animation. The enemy warren, savagely run by General Woundwort, is terrifying. But I think the real objection seems to be the perception that vulnerable little rabbits are being picked off one by one as our group journeys across the countryside. Yet, if you look closely, you notice that only one member of the group, a minor character, is actually killed (Violet; by a bird of prey). Bigwig escapes from the snare, Hazel recovers from being shot, and so on.

UPDATE. I think I've figured it out. Because of the beautiful song 'Bright Eyes' (sung by Art Garfunkel), we have mourned Hazel even though he was only wounded. So it feels as if he has died, even though he hasn't.

Bright Eyes is a very emotional song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elkCXVp_BqU

Don't forget the scene where the rabbit warren is gassed. Imagine you are ~five and you see that for the first time:)

What really hit me was the haunting, archetypal imagery surrounding the rabbit mythology and the Black Rabbit of Inle. When you are a kid just figuring out that you and your loved ones will die and you see that kind thing it has an impact.

Honestly, the emotional music and expressionist death imagery combine to create almost an initiation-like experience for the unsuspecting kids who sit down to watch a cartoon about bunnies!

>Don't forget the scene where the rabbit warren is gassed.

Good point and you're not the first to point this out to me today. I may have to amend my thesis...

I think both book and movie are wonderful. The artwork in the film captures the spirit of the English countryside in a way I've never seen elsewhere. The only thing I think it really misses from the book, is the depth of the rabbit religion.

I have lost count of the number of non-Brits I know living here that have watched Watership Down as adults and expressed incredulity that it is considered a children's film here!

I read the book in second grade and the following paragraph has made a great impression on me and still does

"One day the farmer thought, 'I could increase those rabbits: make them part of my farm--their meat, their skins. Why should I bother to keep rabbits in hutches? They'll do very well where they are.' He began to shoot all elil--lendri, homba, stoat, owl. He put out food for the rabbits, but not too near the warren. For his purpose they had to become accustomed to going about in the fields and the wood. And then he snared them--not too many: as many as he wanted and not as many as would frighten them all away or destroy the warren. They grew big and strong and healthy, for he saw to it that they had all of the best, particularly in winter, and nothing to fear--except the running knot in the hedge gap and the wood path. So they lived as he wanted them to live and all the time there were a few who disappeared. The rabbits became strange in many ways, different from other rabbits. They knew well enough what was happening. But even to themselves they pretended that all was well, for the food was good, they were protected, they had nothing to fear but the one fear; and that struck here and there, never enough at a time to drive them away. They forgot the ways of wild rabbits. They forgot El-ahrairah, for what use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price? "

Such a wonderful book, I read it every single year for about twenty years, until I misplaced my copy. There's a beautiful walk that takes one by Watership Down and Nuthanger Farm. Recommended: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2009/jun/07/watership-dow...

You can also find the "bridge under the iron road" using the map from the original book, though there isn't a public right of way to it. It looks a lot like the one in the film though with trees grown bigger.

Trivia: much of the actual watership down is owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Do you have a maps link?

Edit: never mind, look what I found - all the locations :) https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=13rvLA-0vQ5pfBiRjzb...

If you like Watership Down I don't think I can recommend enough H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. While the books are very different, one is a novel the other is a memoir they both touch on nature, death, life in beautifully similar ways.

A seriously traumatising bit of literature, and I'm on the fence over whether it was a positive influence in my life or a negative one - and whether I want my own kids to now read it/experience it, or not.

On the one hand, it most definitely highlights the fragility of the human condition. On the other hand, it definitely highlights the fragility of the human condition.

In my case, back in 1978 as an 8-year old kid, the movie was definitely a major cause of upset and trauma. Would I now receive cathartic relief by introducing it to my own ~8 year old kids? I'm wondering if I'm going to gain anything by inducing my own children to confront the reality of the mob at such an age - even if I, myself, went through it and seem to have come out okay. The conundrum is, perhaps I've become Watership Down, all the while resisting it ..

This book was my first introduction to dystopian societies and I've had a fascination with them ever since.

What do folks think about this?

"She felt comforted by the rabbits’ straightforward approach to their emotions and said that reading the novel might actually help neurotypical people understand autism in a new way."

I felt there was a strong allegory to entrepreneurship in WD. I read it as the story of a founding team: one visionary who saw things differently, the other who was able to lead. They escape from their rigid community, and build a specialized team.

Very deep stuff in there, so well told.

I finally read this as an adult recently, and it is amazing. I'd love more recommendations for books like it (with non-humans as protagonists).

Great book. Named my Manx cat (with a 'bunny tail') Hazel-Rah. She's never forgiven me... ;)

When I was in my late teens and doing security things on the internet (1992/93) I used the handle Silverweed and everyone assumed it was a pot reference.

Try Shardik too, his next work.

the Follow up Maia is quite different in tone definatly X rated

A great novel. I'm glad I was reminded of it. I think I will read it to the kids.

I can't quite remember it in detail. What age kids would it be appropriate for?

It is (or was) on the official recommended leisure reading list for 7-10 year olds in England. More recent lists seem to put it for 11-12 year olds. ("Key Stage reading list watership down" is what I searched for, and sometimes it's stage 2, otherwise 3.)

I think I was 7 or 8 when my mother / English teacher gave it to me.

Somehow I'd more or less forgotten about it (even though I'd read it twice myself by age 9). So what we thinking, it'd be ok for a 6yo? How about a 4yo?

There is explicit violence, bloodshed, and death. Make your own judgement.

Haha, yeah it doesn't sound great. It's hard though with these things. Ideally you need to see a snippet of the sort of it to judge yourself.

I would just read it yourself, its quite an enjoyable read for adults.

The website http://www.arbookfind.co.uk/default.aspx is sometime helpful for finding "appropriate ages". Schools use the system to help children find books matched to their reading level.

I've long had a desire to get "Prince With a Thousand Enemies" tattooed from elbow to elbow across upper back. Also have had various online handles based on that phrase over the last 20 years.

Watership Down index (work in progress):

https://johngtait.github.io/

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