I remember seeing Winter's Tale on your bookshelf when you first moved in to your current apartment. Had you not yet read it then? Or did we just sort of nod about it.
Oh, I'd read it back in eighth grade, when it came out. Maybe you just concluded I had excellent taste in fiction and moved on? :)
What is it about those rabbits that gets everyone excited?
The thoroughness of the world-building? The archetypical themes? The life-or-death struggle? The sheer exuberant storytelling?
Of course, I wind up liking it for a reason that I'm pretty sure that isn't why everyone else gets excited (at least, not that they're conscious of): it's a book about leadership -- the King archetype -- and group dynamics. Indeed, in a sense, the characters are the groups in it -- the Old Warren, Strawberry's Warren, Efrafa, Watership Down, etc. -- that's the level on which much "character" development happens. We see individual character development, but much of the story is about how this random assortment of individuals turn themselves into a functioning team -- into a people. And it's set against a ground of all the other ways of groups organizing themselves that they encounter in their adventures.
The character who does most develop is Hazel, whose story it is: this whole thing is the story of how Hazel learns to be a Chief Rabbit (i.e. king). It's unique in my reading experience in that it doesn't treat kingship as a black box, as something which is bestowed by outside agency and then enjoyed or abused. It's actually a portrayal of someone learning how to be a Leader of Men. Or rabbits, as the case may be. It's about natural authority and the complex relationship of group to leader.
Re: "For what can be imagined more beautiful than the sight of a perfectly just city rejoicing..."
Oh, I'd read it back in eighth grade, when it came out. Maybe you just concluded I had excellent taste in fiction and moved on? :)
What is it about those rabbits that gets everyone excited?
The thoroughness of the world-building? The archetypical themes? The life-or-death struggle? The sheer exuberant storytelling?
Of course, I wind up liking it for a reason that I'm pretty sure that isn't why everyone else gets excited (at least, not that they're conscious of): it's a book about leadership -- the King archetype -- and group dynamics. Indeed, in a sense, the characters are the groups in it -- the Old Warren, Strawberry's Warren, Efrafa, Watership Down, etc. -- that's the level on which much "character" development happens. We see individual character development, but much of the story is about how this random assortment of individuals turn themselves into a functioning team -- into a people. And it's set against a ground of all the other ways of groups organizing themselves that they encounter in their adventures.
The character who does most develop is Hazel, whose story it is: this whole thing is the story of how Hazel learns to be a Chief Rabbit (i.e. king). It's unique in my reading experience in that it doesn't treat kingship as a black box, as something which is bestowed by outside agency and then enjoyed or abused. It's actually a portrayal of someone learning how to be a Leader of Men. Or rabbits, as the case may be. It's about natural authority and the complex relationship of group to leader.