Watership Down

[Kil Tyme]

Never read WD, but for those who like it or "Animal Farm", I highly recommend "The Book of the Dun Cow" by Walter Wangerin, Jr. Another amimal tale, but with some action scenes, heroic acts, and morality play with heart-tearing emotional writing that are amoung the best I've read. A real hidden treasure of a book.

[sgt.null]

thank you. will look for it at half-price books.

[rusmeister]

I read the Book of the Dun Cow, and after Watership Down it was a dreadful letdown - just didn't hold a candle to WD.

I have the soundtrack (score) by Angela Morley - almost the only woman who does composing for films (what's up with that, ladies?)
It is excellent, and has a feminine feel while giving full militancy to Efrafa.

Plague Dogs was OK, good but not a masterpiece as was WD. His more recent "Tales from Watership Down" was a total abomination with a heavy feminist agenda - "Women are TOO as good as men!" as if we needed stories to tell us that.

In the movie it was:
"You stupid bunnies! You got no mates! Vere are mates? Vere are chicks?"
"
"Can you run? I think no-ot. I think...not!"
"My Chief told me to defend this run!"
"Come back you fools! Come back and fight! Dogs aren't dangerous!"

[sgt.null]

i'll have to find the st, thank you. didn't know one existed.

[Trapper]

We're talking about the soundtrack to the animated movie in about '78, right?

I never saw it myself, but I remember one of the tracks was big on juke-boxes at the time:

"Bright Eyes"

How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly close and fail?
Bright eyes

That one?

nb just wiki'd Angela Morley, yes it's the same one.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down_%28film%29

[onewyteduck]

Pity the authors other books were of a faecal nature.

Oh, I don't know, Watership Down is a beautiful story and nothing else he wrote was as good but Traveler came close. And it was a fun read because you had to figure out who and where Traveler was talking about! (For those of you not familiar with Traveler, it's an American Civil War story told through the eyes of Robert E. Lee's horse, Traveler.) I enjoyed the Plague Dogs too, but I'm a sucker for dogs. Shardik, Maia......'eh.

Now there was a horror story....Girl On A Swing? It was most definitely of a faecal nature.

[duchess of malfi]

I loved Watership Down but after reading Shardik and the gawdawful Maia I sort of gave up on this writer. Maybe I will try Traveler.

For those who have not read Maia - do yourself a huge favor and skip it. It is about a young and beautiful girl who becomes a sex slave for a much older and hugely obese guy.

[onewyteduck]

If you do, please let me know what you think of it. It was such a great story!

[Trapper]

I just don't want to spoil my perception of a great book (WD) by reading inferior works by the same author.

I'm reading the Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb at the moment. It's great, keeps my attentiion, but IMHO it's not even close to her first series. I do not want to risk having my perception of Watership Down belittled in such a manner by reading inferior works from Adams.

I've read some good reviews of Plague Dogs and now Traveler.

I'm not planning to read them at the moment.

That is probably my loss...

EDIT: I have since finished the Liveship series and I'm far more impressed with it than I was at the time I wrote the above.

[Tjol]

I haven't read it for 25 yrs, but does anybody else rate this book?

I wouldn't call it a work of fantasy or sci-fi, obviously.

I would call it a kind of a cross between "The Guns Of Navarone", LOTR, and "1984".

I mentioned on another thread that "Lord Mhoram's Victory" was the most magnificent act of valour I have read.

I was telling my housemate (a Dragon-Lance kinda guy, bless him) about Watership Down the other day. It was quite embarassing when I almost broke down when I told him about Thlayli (Bigwig) telling Woundwort that his "Chief Rabbit" had told him to guard that post, so that's what he was going to do. That gets me almost as much as LMV.

That, and Hazel joining the Owsla of el-ahrairah at the end.

Pity the authors other books were of a faecal nature.

I think the end battle between Bigwig and the chief warrior of the attacking rabbits had a similar feel. Lord Mhoram's Victory though has one other element in it that I very much like, not only is he facing a greater enemey, but he is doing so by at least partially compromising his ideals. He's not only risking his flesh in the battle, but his ideals as well.

I enjoyed watership down well enough, it wasn't a waste of time to read, and moved pretty well, I think it only took me a week of reading sessions to burn through it.

[Trapper]

I think the end battle between Bigwig and the chief warrior of the attacking rabbits had a similar feel. Lord Mhoram's Victory though has one other element in it that I very much like, not only is he facing a greater enemey, but he is doing so by at least partially compromising his ideals. He's not only risking his flesh in the battle, but his ideals as well.

Nice post Tjol.

I'd argue that Bigwig acknowledging for the first time that Hazel is indeed his Chief Rabbit is a change in his ideals. The poignant part is that while he had perhaps desired to have it out with his more fearsome opponent before, it is his willingness to die for the greater new reality he has found that makes him able to win.

[Tjol]

I think the end battle between Bigwig and the chief warrior of the attacking rabbits had a similar feel. Lord Mhoram's Victory though has one other element in it that I very much like, not only is he facing a greater enemey, but he is doing so by at least partially compromising his ideals. He's not only risking his flesh in the battle, but his ideals as well.

Nice post Tjol.

I'd argue that Bigwig acknowledging for the first time that Hazel is indeed his Chief Rabbit is a change in his ideals. The poignant part is that while he had perhaps desired to have it out with his more fearsome opponent before, it is his willingness to die for the greater new reality he has found that makes him able to win.

You know, I never thought of that before reading your post, but it seems obvious now that you've said it. It does represent an evolution of Bigwig, and a putting on the line one set of values in sacrafice for something bigger.

[Ylva Kresh]

I love Watership down. It was many years since I read it though. Liked the characters and the language (anyone else that sometimes thinks "Rhududu!" when you are annoyed with cars around you?). And the Black Rabbit of Inlé...

I liked Watership down as much as I disliked Maia and therefore I have not read anything else of Adams.

If you like Watership down, there is a very similar book by someone called Aaeron Clement (I think) called "The Cold Moons". It is about badgers but essentially a similar story.

And embarrasing enough, I always cry when I see the movie and hear Art Garfunkles "Bright Eyes".

[Avatar]

I've read a few of his others, including Maia and Shardik, but I think WD was his best.

--A

[Trapper]

If you like Watership down, there is a very similar book by someone called Aaeron Clement (I think) called "The Cold Moons". It is about badgers but essentially a similar story.

And embarrasing enough, I always cry when I see the movie and hear Art Garfunkles "Bright Eyes".

I read something years ago called "Duncton Wood" which I thought at the time was halfway decent and similar, although for the life of me I can't remember anything about it now.

I've never actually seen the WD movie, although I have distant fond memories of "Bright Eyes" playing on juke-boxes at the time it came out.

[Avatar]

Sure, and there are always the Brian Jaques books as well. Similar in concept anyway, if not in specifics.

--A

[Cagliostro]

I tried the Brian Jacques Redwall books. At least a few of them. The first one was good, but when I noticed that the following ones seemed to be imitations of it, I grew bored. I really wanted it to be good though.

LOVE Watership Down. In fact, the movie I saw as a double feature with the Lord of the Rings movie (Bakshi). I had just finished Lord of the Rings, and was looking forward to it. They opened with Watership Down, and at first I was annoyed as it seemed like a kids movie, but I think the scene where Fiver has his first vision, I got chills, and realized I was in for a different experience altogether. Which shouldn't have surprised me as I remember kids a few years before saying it had bunnies blown up by cannons, which thankfully wasn't true.

I memorized the movie, read the book, and have been a fan since. My friends and I would go out late at night and do naughty things (like throwing wet toilet paper balls at cars going over a bridge or making Easter Egg hunts with the newspaper stacks left for the paperboys at around 5am), and would occasionally get chased. We'd hide somewhere, and found great inspiration from Watership Down. Particularly this bit:

All the world will be your enemy, Prince With A Thousand Enemies, for whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you. Digger, listener, runner, Prince With the Swift Warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.

I quoted that every time we were hiding out in someone's back yard while pickups were cruising the neighborhood for us. We were never destructive (well, a tad at first, but after a bit, not), but we liked circulating chaos into the neighborhood.

[Avatar]

Yeah, the first book, Redwall was definitley the best. The 2nd was interesting prequel, the 3rd alright, but they got worse and worse really. Almost more...simplistic.

--A

[Holsety]

When I was a kid, I loved em. I think I stopped liking them around Long Patrol, but didn't realize it until Triss, which I didn't finish.

It's actually one of the only books I've been able to put down. It's not so much that it was bad as that I was a little sad and disillusioned.

I still have all my books. I went to a reading in NYC when I was a kid, and I still have signed copies of some of the books.

But all in all, the only kids book I remember which has really endured is Taran Wanderer (Lloyd Alexander). Well, my dad read Dune and LOTR to me and my bro, and my mom covered The Iliad, but I feel like that's different. I probably wouldn't have followed those without their help (I was probably 7-9 when we were doing Dune).

EDIT-Mariel is still my favorite. All she needs to take on the baddest mofos of the rats is...a knotted rope.

[Iryssa]

I've never read the book...but man, the movie gave me the creeps when I was a kid!! I should watch it again sometime, just to see if it still creeps me out. Also, I should probably read the book...