fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3616 ]

[ SECRET POST #3616 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3616 ⌋

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Well, I guess my overall interpretation was kinda different. Maybe my suspension of belief is harder to undermine?

There was a conversation or two where one of the rabbits said "it's because they're not ~natural" and idk if that was actually true, but I didn't really get the impression that wanting to live a different life meant wanting a less or more natural one for the most part, but wanting to avoid really bad things like living under the reign of a selfish tyrant. I can see where you're coming from with that.

I think Lapine was implied to be the language rabbits used 100% of the time unless they were talking to other animals. They used a few Lapine words in the book because there wasn't a good English equivalent, or as a worldbuilding feature, not because those were the only words they spoke actually in Lapine. Likewise I think all their names were in Lapine but they used an English equivalent where possible for the sake of simplicity (for example, Dandelion's actual name would be whatever the Lapine word for "dandelion" is). The author stated at the beginning of the book for example that Fiver and Pipkin's names were Hrairoo and Hlao respectively.

The rabbits had mythology, and storytelling, but they didn't really have art - there was art in Cowslip's warren and the Sandleford rabbits were really confused by it and never understood it - and they didn't really have history (their entire history was just their mythology and I don't think they had much sense of the overall passage of time).

I'm sorry you didn't like it though :( sucks if you were the one to suggest it. If it makes you feel better, I enjoyed it so your suggestion was a good one because it made at least one person happy :)

(I was early because I was refreshing the page to make sure I wouldn't be late! and I might go out later tonight so I didn't want to do a post-and-run. Also I already had my comment typed out on a text doc)

Even their mythology is more tales with a social or cautionary value than entertainment, even if the Sandleford rabbits use it as such on their migration, they don't have the time or the luxury of true art unless farmed like Cowslip's warren is. It is just not a feature of their lives in the way we understand it, it is almost like the primitive tribal tails of human hunter-gatherer societies.

I enjoyed it on the level of simple animals can lead very complicated lives just in a different context from our own..

Oh god, really? I thought they were speaking two different languages the whole time... Now I feel a bit silly.

But why could the cats/dogs/rats (but not the mice) speak perfect Lapine then?

They did have art, though. Don't you remember the bunny poets? I thought it was implied those existed in many warrens.

I think history and mythology were mixed. Some of the stories about El-ahrairah were actually about El-ahrairah, while some of the stories about him were historical in the sense that they were about real rabbits and their deeds, but were told as El-ahrairah stories. Wasn't it implied somewhere close to the end that in the future some of those El-ahrairah stories would be about Hazel?

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I really wanted to like it too. It just didn't happen. However, I loved the other book I was reading at the same time. The comparison didn't really help Watership Down's case, though.

Ok, fair point about the poetry.

I thought other animals all spoke this common uniting tongue, but some of them had really heavy accents or were not portrayed as being able to communicate as well, and I think that was a failing on the author's part (the inconsistency, at least).

What was the other book?

So there were two languages after all? This is too complicated!

OK, so there is a true universal animal language that all animals everywhere speak (to some extent?) + the own language of the different species (like Lapine), yes?

And the rabbits were always talking Lapine with each other, but the universal language with other species? So Kehaar actually spoke Lapine with a heavy accent, not the universal animal tongue with an accent, yes?

Aww, that's sweet. He made such an effort to talk to his favourite bunny.

The other book was In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. That thing is a piece of art. But then, Capote is magic and had more talent in the tip of his little finger than Adams can ever even dream of possessing. Of course, that's just my opinion. :P

And with that last paragraph, you can go fuck yourself good sir or madam.

lol. does the truth hurt, sugar? or why are you so defensive?

I thought Kehaar was speaking the universal language but with an accent.

Not that it has much bearing, to me, on the overall story. I think that's part of the difference in our interpretations.

That looks really depressing but also like it could be really interesting. (Of course, I'm not much one to talk about depressing when the other book I'm reading is about the biggest pandemic in human history and I find it fascinating)

yeah, the language thing is a small part overall, but i found it so confusing. which is why i kept thinking about it to make sense of it.

the book is very depressing. i don't like true crime at all usually, and this didn't change my mind about the genre, even if i think it's excellent.

what is your depressing book?

The Great Influenza by John Barry

He was. The 'hedgerow patois' that they all used to talk with other species. Adams mentions it twice in the book.

It says in the book that Hazel, for instance, spoke to Kehaar in 'hedgerow patios' - basically a language all the animals shared that made them able to speak to one another, or at least to get basic ideas and information across. He used it with the mouse he saved, as well (Adams said 'there is a very simple, limited lingua frnca of the hedgerow and woodland').

So not two languages at all times, just when speaking to animals that didn't speak lapine. I would imagine, in Adams' world, the mice, and birds and foxes and etc. all have their own language; a lot like the diverse languages of Africa, and many people use Swahili to converse across that language barrier.

Like Westron in Middle-earth!

I will take your word for it! :)

oh, i totally missed that he apparently addressed that. thanks for the info! i think the different levels of ability within the common tongue got me on the wrong track.

No worries. :)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3616 ]

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

da

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!

Re: Book club - November discussion for Watership Down!!!