Watership Down Revisited - Part Two

Finishing this book early on a warm Sunday morning gave me a renewed longing to live on a farm in the English countryside. It is clear that the author was intimately familiar with the setting and with human nature. The fact that the characters are rabbits rather than humans is enchanting.

I love many characters in this book, but Hazel is my favorite. Hazel is a great leader. Is it because he is the cleverest rabbit? No. The biggest? No. The best fighter? No. Hazel is none of these, but Hazel is a great leader because he understands that for the group to survive and prosper he must effectively utilize all of his resources. He asks each rabbit to employ his own unique talents. Each rabbit knows that his gift is appreciated. Hazel even embraces those gifts that he does not understand; he is not afraid of the unknown. He has great courage and trust. He asks none to do what he would not do himself. He is loved by his followers.

And by those who read his story.

Watership Down Revisited

When I started rereading this book I loved so much when I was younger, I  worried that I wouldn't feel the same about it any more. I wanted to love it all over again. And I do! I still love the characters (never met better rabbits anywhere and that includes Harvey*) and I still love the story. Life is preventing me from flying through it the way I would like but I'll get there.

Here's a brief example of Richard Adams' insight and descriptive magic, from page 176 of my Avon Books edition--

The full moon, well risen in a cloudless eastern sky, covered the high solitude with its light. We are not conscious of daylight as that which displaces darkness. Daylight, even when the sun is clear of clouds, seems to us simply the natural condition of the earth and air... We take daylight for granted. But moonlight is another matter. It is inconstant. The full moon wanes and returns again. Clouds may obscure it to an extent to which they cannot obscure daylight. Water is necessary to us, but a waterfall is not. Where it is to be found it is something extra, a beautiful ornament. We need daylight and to that extent it is utilitarian, but moonlight we do not need. When it comes, it serves no necessity. It transforms...

Indeed it does, sir. And so do beautiful books like this one.

*Shocking, I know.

The Break & Watership Down

Rereading Watership Down since my book club will discuss it next week. In an unrelated note, I find myself missing the Russian names and all of the drama from Anna Karenina. Either I'm completely crazy or it affected me more deeply than I knew. Or some combination of the two, I suppose.

I first read Watership Down when I was 15 or 16, and then I saw the movie. That was the moment I learned that a film can never be as good as the book. Never.* My imagination is always going to be better than a 2-D representation (or 3-D, as current fad has it) of someone else's imagination. See the movie first, and then read the book if you must. Or read the book and see the movie with the realization that parts of it will be disappointing. My current Netflix movie is the first part of The Thorn Birds mini-series from the 80s. I know it won't be as good as the book, but sometimes it is nice to see a representation of the characters, and I would love to see the setting. Uh oh, I just Wikipedia-ed it and it wasn't filmed in Australia! See, I'm disappointed already.

*Disclaimer: I am aware that one should never use never. I admit that there may be the rare film that is better than the book, but that is probably because the book is less well-written than the screenplay. (Terribly polite way to say the book sucks, isn't it?)