Watership Down, spoiler post

[paperlibrarian]

NOTE: This is the last discussion post Book Retorts is going to have on LiveJournal. If you would like to continue with the book club, know that we're recreating it on Facebook and you are welcome to join us. It will be a closed group, but you can ask for an invite from from me, Zee, or anyone who already has access. I *think* I added everyone I

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[cryptaknight]

If you like the mythology, the sequel is really just an anthology of of el Ahrairah stories with cut scenes from Hazel's warren.

I really like Watership Down on the whole. My third grade teacher read it aloud to us, and I've reread it periodically since then. I forgot about it for a while, and then there was a line in a Stephen King book about 'going tharn' that reminded me of it and I bought a copy. It's one I'll probably pass down to my kid and hope he likes it.

[paperlibrarian]

I'm not sure I want to go so far as a sequel. :P It's funny, cuz I really hated it at first because it dragged, and since about the last third-ish, I've been kind of fond of it, instead of calling it "the goddamn Rabbit Book." I'm now not even sure I want to put it in the giveaway pile. Except I do. WHAT TO DO??

[zinnea]

He's a good storyteller but a bad writer,Accurate. But I love this book so much. I know that it's really meant to be an allusion to human society and culture and the impact of technology and "progress" on the environment (usually this is bad) and all of that but for me this book will always be special because at ten years old I'd heard of things like symbolism and allusion but it was reading Watership Down that made me understand that sometimes the best way to tell a story is indirectly

[paperlibrarian]

I don't think his intent was as direct as that, though. He specifically says in the introduction of the copy I have that the story was made up in his head during a car ride. While he may have said, "Okay, how I can discuss the badness of human progress more as I put this to paper?", the introduction also does not suggest that.

Why did you hate the sequel?

[zinnea]

Very few writers really ever do sit down with the intent to write about the human condition, but it happens anyway.

The stories in the sequel feel really half-assed to me, to be honest, like, "Okay, FINE, you want a sequel? HERE'S YOUR STINKING SEQUEL LEAVE ME ALONE." I don't think that was his actual intent, but it's how the stories read to me. A couple of them are okay but they're never really immersive enough to bring me into their world.

His book Plague Dogs is one I would never recommend to anyone, not because it's badly written but because it's just so damn depressing. But my friend reminded me the other day that he wrote Girl in a Swing and I think I'm going to reread that because I don't remember a thing about it but I do remember that i liked it.