Ship of Fools: R.I.P. Richard Adams

Thread: R.I.P. Richard Adams Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

At 96 he lived a good, long life, and his books brought enjoyment to millions. As one site said, "El-Ahrairah finally came to take him." (And I didn't choke up until I read that.)

May his memory be eternal.

Posted by Barnabas62 (# 9110) on :

The ending of Watership Down seems very appropriate today.

RIP

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

Personally I preferred Shardik and Maia to Watership Down, but all of his work that I read was amazing. It's a sad loss.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Watership Down was amazing. So good that it gave birth to a whole subgenrelet of fantasy fiction in which (some species of mammal here) have an entire culture and life unknown to humans and sometimes save the world. The only title that comes to mind is Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams but I know there are epics about ants, moles, etc. None of them were anywhere near as good as Richard Adams' work.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

"Watership Down" was amazing.

Light and peace to Adams.

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :

A person who could write with so much beauty and tenderness must surely be close to the heart of Frith

RIP

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Well put.

We had that weird argument about kid lit back in April, and the repeated invocation of Adams's name made me pick up Watership Down again. When I started reading it again the same thing happened as the first time I read it- I kept thinking of ways to describe my real life daily experience in Lapine.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Yes, you're seeing the true world builder at work. Adams could create a reality that was really real -- you can swear in Lapine! And he beat Tolkien -- he made not one world, but several.

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

Is WD kid-lit? Maybe YA. But bunnies fucking like bunnies hardly seems the stuff of pre-adolescent fiction.

Posted by Dafyd (# 5549) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
But bunnies fucking like bunnies hardly seems the stuff of pre-adolescent fiction.

There's no explicit rabbit sex in Watership Down although breeding is important to the plot.

In every other respect the characters appear convincingly to be rabbits that think and talk. Unlike say Duncton Wood where the purported moles are just human Buddhists in velvet coats.

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

mousethief

Agreed

You can add the level of violence, both human on rabbit and rabbit on rabbit. Just because it is about rabbits does not mean it is fluffy, cute and safe for children.

Jengie

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

My Place of Employment (New York Public Library) catalogs Watership Down as adult or young adult (teenage), not children's.

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Dafyd:
There's no explicit rabbit sex in Watership Down although breeding is important to the plot.

No explicit sex, no. But sex. Well, "breeding." More than Hazel wanted there to be, but not as bad as it could have been. That's more, I think, than is appropriate in kid-lit.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Nicolemr:
Personally I preferred Shardik and Maia to Watership Down, but all of his work that I read was amazing. It's a sad loss.

I too preferred Shardik. But Watership Down was very good too. A great Author.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

How about y'all just replace my hasty description of the conversation Adams came up in with what ever suits you, and focus on the bit where I talk about the impact reading his work had on me? I'd rather be included in than single out. I mean, if my error is not too unforgivable.

Because the bit about wandering around for days with the language of the warren in my head was what mattered to me, and I thought maybe others could identify.

[ 28. December 2016, 20:35: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

I've never read the book or seen the film (I have, however, made the pie) but, as a child of the 1970s, it was always there and a few weeks ago I turned on the radio partway through an audio adaptation and instantly knew what I was listening to.

Back twenty years or so ago, when I found that the real Watership Down was just down the road I went to take a look - here it is.

So even without reading the book, it meant something.

AG

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

Kelly--

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
We had that weird argument about kid lit back in April, and the repeated invocation of Adams's name made me pick up Watership Down again. When I started reading it again the same thing happened as the first time I read it- I kept thinking of ways to describe my real life daily experience in Lapine.

Cool!

Posted by Gill H (# 68) on :

I often play Bookworm on my phone during my commute, and get irrationally annoyed when it won't accept 'tharn' as a word.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

That's when you know it's a great book -- when it is real even off the page.
I am visiting my brother for the holidays, and his daughter my niece has been re-enacting all the Harry Potter books with two friends and filming it. They've been doing this for ten years now, from when they were young teens until now in their late twenties. All the footage is lovingly edited and strung together so that you can see all seven novels with these three girls playing -all- the roles. It takes a truly great book to inspire this kind of devotion; I'm reminded of the sisters in Little Women who role-played Pickwick.

Posted by Cathscats (# 17827) on :

Loved Watership Down always, but loved it more when I read Adams' autobiography and intuited that the book is, on one level, an elegy for the war-time comrades he knew and lost.

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