Watership Down Part I: The Journey

[sholio]

And here we go with the Watership Down reread! Feel free to link to it if you like. Posts will be roughly once a week, give or take a bit depending on my free time, one post per section and then, after that, perhaps some additional posts for the extra stories and adaptations.

Spoiler policy: I will be avoiding spoilers for future chapters in the main body of the post, but spoilers are fine in the comments. Therefore, if you're reading for the first time, the posts will be fine to read, but the comments are read-at-your-own-risk. (Let me know if you feel this should change.)

Also please feel free to talk among yourselves in the comments if someone else raises a point or asks a question you want to comment on. If you have your own discussion questions, things that were unclear, or anything else you want to ask about, please bring it up!


So first of all, I'm really enjoying the reread! It's been so long since I read the book that, while I remember some scenes with incredible vividness (the river crossing, Fiver's vision of a field of blood, the snare), as well as the overall ambiance, I'm rediscovering a lot of the specific details as I read.

One thing I remember from every time I've read this book is how intensely I visualize everything. I love all the lush descriptions of sunsets and meadows and exactly what plants would be growing or blooming at any given time of year -- including the darker parts, a hedgehog run over on the road or a crow trying to peck a rabbit's eyes out.

I'm fascinated to notice, this time around, how the book takes place on a rabbit timescale, in both time and space. In addition to the rich and detailed nature descriptions, I think this micro-focus on events happening at rabbit-speed is another part of what makes the book feel so immersive, drawing you into the rabbits' world. The time scale feels stretched, compared to how humans experience time. Two days feels like a really long time; a mile feels like forever. But these are small creatures who live a whole lifetime in just a couple of years. At the start of the book, Hazel and Fiver are only about six months old. No wonder a whole multi-part epic journey can take place from moonset to sunrise.

I didn't remember Hazel being as big and assertive as he is, especially early on. Fiver thinks he'll get into the Owsla someday, which suggests that Hazel is not a small rabbit! I also had forgotten that Bigwig is as smart as he is. I had remembered it more of a Hazel = brains, Bigwig = brawn kind of dynamic, but in fact Hazel can fight pretty well, and Bigwig is actually the only one besides Blackberry and Fiver who understands what's happening with the floating raft, as well as having a much greater working knowledge of the outside world, from roads to snares, than the others do. He also looks out for the smaller rabbits, not to the extent Hazel does, but definitely to an extent, noticing that they need to stop because they're tired and protecting Pipkin from the crow.

Also, the snare scene is still wonderful. As well as just being generally excellent on its own (and highly relevant to my h/c-loving interests; it's no surprise this is one of the scenes I've remembered most vividly all my life), I love that it brings them together and helps forge them into a cohesive group, after being scattered and fighting and constantly struggling over leadership in the chapters leading up to this one. There's a very cohesive structure to this section; it doesn't resolve the question of where they end up yet, but it's built around their bonding as a group in a very pleasing way.

Cowslip's warren - you know, reading the book analytically as well as for pleasure, I'm actually not really sure how we're meant to take that section. Is it simply an obstacle for Hazel's group to overcome? Are they meant to represent corruption and collaboration, with their more humanlike aspects as objectively horrific as Hazel's group find them? Or are they what happens when rabbits don't have to spend all their time trying to survive and find themselves with free time to develop concepts like Art? Hazel's group views them with suspicion, fear, and horror, but are we meant to? Discuss!

Incidentally, I had completely missed that Nildro-hain died on every previous reread, and would have missed it this time if it wasn't briefly mentioned later on. (I don't think that's a spoiler; I think we're meant to infer it here. It was just a little too subtle for me.)

Questions:
1. Do you have a particularly favorite bit of nature description or other favorite bit from this section? Favorite scene or chapter?

2. Who are your favorite rabbit(s), if you have any? (Or is it someone who hasn't showed up in the book yet?)

3. Thoughts on Cowslip's warren, thematically or otherwise?

4. Do you agree about the snare scene as a bonding element to close out the section? Come talk to me about the snare scene! Presumed dead! Teamwork! Rabbit first aid!

5. How do you feel about Fiver's powers, and the other slight elements of magical realism, in an otherwise basically realistic book? I mean, besides the talking rabbits. Do the fantasy touches work for you?

And anything else you want to talk about!

Comments

[rachelmanija]

The Silverweed section is one of my favorites and most haunting parts of the book. There's a lot in there which can only be appreciated upon re-reading, as you don't understand the import the first time, and some bits of foreshadowing I only noticed this time, even though I've read the book so many times before.

I do think we're meant to see it as horrifying. Normally one sees art as a positive thing, Silverweed's poetry is good art, and in the book as a whole art (mostly storytelling) and adopting new ideas are all positive. I think this makes Cowslip's warren and their situation complex and interesting. The rabbits are being creative, which normally is good, but it's a compensation for an ongoing horror that they're choosing not to do anything about.

We see that later the Watership Down rabbits do take some ideas from their warren (their building techniques and IIRC a few other things) so it's not that everything about the warren is bad, but that the central badness of it makes all the good aspects irrelevant.

Cowslip's odd manner when he first meets them makes more sense - and is utterly horrifying - when you know that he's luring them to their deaths.

When they crouch in their scrapes before going to Cowslip's warren, there's this bit of description: Across the field the bloom of the cherry tree under which they had sat that morning hung sodden and spoiled. Just like the inviting warren, which is rotten at heart.

I only realized the significance of this bit this time around:

[Blackberry says,] "What do they stand to get from asking us to join their warren?"

"Fools attract elil by being easy prey," said Bigwig. He goes on to speculate that the other rabbits don't want them hanging around attracting predators.

Holy shit! Bigwig answered Blackberry's question exactly, though none of them realize it: they are the fools who will become easy prey to elil - in this case, the farmer and his snares - and that's what the rabbits of Cowslip's warren stand to gain by inviting them.

The day after they arrive, Bigwig and Hazel find a scene which, in retrospect, we realize is where a rabbit was snared and taken away by the farmer. I think this isn't just some rabbit, it's Nildro-Hain, Strawberry's mate; she was seen the night before and then never again, and Hazel notices Strawberry isn't around when they return to the warren.

Unlike most poetry in books by non-poets, I really like Silverweed's poem as poetry. It's subtle enough that when I read this book as a kid, I didn't understand how it related to what Fiver said about it. Going away with the wind, the stream, the leaves, and the sun is a metaphor for dying; Silverweed makes it sound beautiful and peaceful, a longed-for transformation to another state.

Silverweed's poem is the only time any of Cowslip's rabbits ask "Where?" His poem repeatedly asks, "Where are you going?" In the context of the warren, "Where?" means death; "Where is So-and-So?" can't be asked, because the answer might be "Snared, dead." So when he says, "Where are you going, wind?" the answer has to be to death.

Silverweed seems a psychic, like Fiver, but one who turned inward rather than, like Fiver, taking action. Hazel tells one of Cowslip's rabbits that Fiver is "a bit of a poet too," so this is a connection they clearly all understand. Bigwig even understands that Fiver's rant about things being true and still being folly is about Silverweed, when Hazel can't make heads or tails of it. What Silverweed is saying is true, in the sense that death is a journey and a transformation; it's folly to embrace a death you could avoid.

Right after this, Fiver says, "Where is the--"

Hazel interrupted him and as he did so Fiver started.

I never noticed this before, but Hazel is doing what Cowslip's rabbits do: they interrupt rabbits who say "Where--" No wonder Fiver starts!

"You are closer to death than I" is such a haunting line.

Another think that struck me just this time is that the rabbits of the warren of the shining wire aren't just choosing to live with the risk of the snares, they're actively accepting the death they bring to the point where they refuse to help anyone who gets caught by one. We see that they don't kill immediately, and it's possible to rescue a rabbit who gets caught. But when Fiver runs to ask for help, they all ignore and finally try to silence him.

I don't think it's just because it's an outsider who got caught. I think they have a law of not helping each other, either. If the rabbits keep breaking out of snares, then it stops being worth it for the farmer to feed them and protect them from elil. They'd become an ordinary warren with ordinary dangers and no special perks. Better to write poetry to the shining wire.

[rachelmanija]

Bigwig is my favorite but I love Hazel more and more on every re-read. Often the main character in this sort of story is kind of a blank slate, but Hazel is really interesting. I love how protective he is of Fiver and how he defers to Fiver on matters where he thinks Fiver knows best.

One of Hazel's best qualities is that he knows the strengths of the other rabbits and will listen to their advice and trust their expertise. It's a genuine leadership trait but not one depicted often because in western culture it's seen as weakness: leaders are supposed to be individualists who do everything themselves. I wonder if the more collective nature of rabbits made Adams able to create a leader whose greatest strength is letting others' strengths shine.

[rachelmanija]

Good point about the passage of time from rabbit POV; I hadn't registered that.

My favorite example of rabbit POV is that the genius-level conceptual breakthrough is that if wood floats, you can sit on it and also float. What really makes that work is that it's so far removed from how most rabbits think that only a few of them even understand what happened.

I also love that anything more than four is "a thousand." Basically, "one, two, three, four, lots."

The nature descriptions are so marvelous. The bean field is my favorite from this section. The scented field that's also a refuge (well, before the crow shows up). Lovely.

[sholio]

Bigwig is my favorite but I love Hazel more and more on every re-read. Often the main character in this sort of story is kind of a blank slate, but Hazel is really interesting.

I agree! Bigwig is also my favorite (and I didn't actually know he was yours! Look, I tried to keep the Feels About Thlayli to a minimum in my write-up, but some of it slipped in anyway) -- but I really like nearly everyone, at least the ones who have more of a personality than Background Rabbit No. 2, and Hazel is not at all boring or hard to like as a protagonist. Actually, Hazel being a more nuanced and interesting character than just The Leader makes the power struggle between Hazel and Bigwig early on really interesting, because it's not at all a foregone conclusion which way it's going to go or which way it should go; that is, Hazel isn't a clear and obvious better choice. He's a lot more reasoned and thoughtful than Bigwig, and as you say, one of his biggest strengths is that he listens to and trusts others. But Bigwig wouldn't have been a bad choice either - he's smart, he's not actually as prone to bully the others as Hazel is worried about, and in fact later on Hazel has no hesitation about leaving him in charge when Hazel's not around; everyone seems to take for granted that he's the obvious second-in-command.

Actually, thinking about the general dynamic between the rabbits and their various areas of strength, and especially thinking about the times when Hazel is wrong, or fails to grasp something that the others do (e.g. not understanding the floating board when Blackberry, Fiver, and Bigwig all get it) makes me realize that Bigwig and Fiver are very intuition-driven, and Hazel's not - he thinks things through, but this is both a strength and a weakness. It's what makes him a good and thoughtful leader, but there are also times when he thinks his way to the wrong conclusion or simply gets bound up in a way that the less thoughtful and more direct-action rabbits don't have a problem with. Which of course is when he benefits from listening to and trusting the ones who are better at quick and intuitive decision-making than he is.

And I also really like how Hazel's best skill as a leader is depicted as his willingness to listen to and trust his advisors, and generally be someone who is able to pull others together. I don't know if it's all that uncommon to see it in media, honestly, but I think it is a lot less common for leader-protagonists; I think you're more likely to see those kinds of traits in a background character who plays The Level-Headed One vs. the maverick protagonist, so getting this up-close a look at it in someone who is the center of the narrative is rarer.

[sholio]

Yes! There are so many lovely little bits of rabbit-esque thinking in this book - in general, their inability to understand mechanical concepts and human behavior, and the various ways in which they work around that or misconceptualize it is really well done (like the way they think of cars at night as uniquely dangerous monsters compared to cars in the daytime), and I love the numbers thing, too. They don't come across as stupid, just fundamentally alien, and I think that sense of alienness is really well done - and consistent, too. It feels like a peek into a world of relatable characters who think very differently from how humans think.

[sholio]

I'll probably come back to say more about this later, but there's lots of fascinating food for thought here; thank you so much for writing all this up! You're right, I think, about how innovation and art are both presented as good things in other contexts - rabbits' affinity for stories and for tricksy cleverness, as well as Hazel's ability to innovate, are all shown as good things and beneficial most of the time. But not with the warren of the snares, where all of this is twisted into self-protection and denial.

It also occurs to me that one of the rabbits' core values is that Rabbits Stick Together. Not rabbitkind in general; fighting with strangers appears to be common, and the first reaction of Hazel's rabbits to meeting other rabbits is to worry that they might be attacked or killed. But warrens definitely do. One thing that is shown over and over and over is Hazel's group's loyalty to each other. In fact, that's all over the snare scene. Without the group, Bigwig would have died; they got him out of the snare through determination and teamwork and sheer stubborn willingness to chew themselves bloody until they got the wire undone. Which is the exact, literal opposite of what the foreign rabbits' warren does, what they have to do, and it's their willingness to sacrifice their own that's destroying them.

I totally agree about the law of not helping each other; I think that's implied in the "never ask where" rule. I mean, they also probably don't know how, the way that the rabbits from Hazel's warren have that knowledge, but it's also kind of fundamental with them that if someone goes missing, you never go looking. And Strawberry might have been right there when Nildro-hain died, and ran off and left her. Speaking of which ...

The day after they arrive, Bigwig and Hazel find a scene which, in retrospect, we realize is where a rabbit was snared and taken away by the farmer. I think this isn't just some rabbit, it's Nildro-Hain, Strawberry's mate; she was seen the night before and then never again, and Hazel notices Strawberry isn't around when they return to the warren.

Yes! I think you're right. I wondered about the significance of their discovery of the snare scene, but then forgot completely about it - I mean, it's obvious that it's where a rabbit was snared once you get to the later scene with Bigwig, so it's clearly what's going on when rereading, but I hadn't connected it with Nildro-hain. You've got to be right, though. I had thought she was snared around the same time Bigwig was, but this makes way more sense.

Holy shit! Bigwig answered Blackberry's question exactly, though none of them realize it: they are the fools who will become easy prey to elil - in this case, the farmer and his snares - and that's what the rabbits of Cowslip's warren stand to gain by inviting them.

Nice catch! I didn't notice that either.

"You are closer to death than I" is such a haunting line.

I really love that; it's so eerie. It's especially striking in a scene where Bigwig is all but at Fiver's throat - and there are interesting echoes later when Fiver does more or less the same thing with Vervain (I think?) and freaks him COMPLETELY THE FUCK OUT.

[selenak]

We see that later the Watership Down rabbits do take some ideas from their warren (their building techniques and IIRC a few other things) so it's not that everything about the warren is bad, but that the central badness of it makes all the good aspects irrelevant.

Same with Efrafa, just in the other direction; and again, the Waterhip Down rabbits later incorporate some of the good aspects. That's another difference to either warren, too: the willingness to adopt new habits and ideas if they provide benefits, least of all when said ideas hail from opponents. Both Cowslip's warren and Efrafa are not willing to do that (see what happens when Blackavar and the female rabbits first suggest alterations), but Hazel and "our" rabbits are. (Though not their old chief rabbit; his failure to listen and to be flexiple for input dooms the Sandleford Warren.) I'm reminded of Neil Gaiman once quipping you can sum up Morpheus' arc in "Sandman" as "The King of Dreams learns you have to change or die; he makes his choice". There's something similar going on in Watership Down. (Though "change" of course does not mean changing everything about yourself.)

Something that struck me upon first reading and still does when rereading is that I can't not associate every day fascism with Cowslip's warren. Obviously with Efrafa, the parallels are fare stronger drawn because of the authoritarian command structure which Cowslip's warren does not have. But the willingness to sacrifice a part of your friends/neighbours for your convenience and safefy, the element of betrayal that lies in that, and the whole dressing it up with euphemisms or not talking about it - that's represented in Cowslip's warren.

Silverweed seems a psychic, like Fiver, but one who turned inward rather than, like Fiver, taking action.

I think that's why Fiver is especially horrified by Silverweed's poetry - he sees Silverweed as how he might have turned out himself, if he'd been born into this warren.

Also: it strikes me that Hyzenthlay is the other rabbit we hear create and declare poetry. In both cases, the poetry grows out of an unbearable situation. But Hyzenthlay and the other does are willing to do something about it, miserable as their situaton is, while Silverwood (as far as we know) is not.

[killabeez]

I love your thoughts about Hazel, here! Just to expand a little, in my eyes, he isn't the fastest, strongest, smartest, bravest, most intuitive, most creative, most charismatic, though he has all of those strengths—but he inspires the most loyalty and trust, because of the way he values each rabbit and sees them as important.

[helen_keeble]

I’m not reading along (at the moment at least) but I do love how the book gradually teaches rabbit language, so that when, at the climax, Bigwig (I think) tells another character “Silflay hraka u embleer hrair”, it needs NO translation. :-D

[mildred_of_midgard]

YES! I thought that was genius the first time I read it, and I still do.

[sholio]

Yesssss. I love that aspect of the books - it's so well done; they teach you little bits of the language without being intrusive or confusing or even overly reliant on footnotes, and that line is just great.

[sholio]

Yes, I think you're right! Hazel's main strength isn't being the best at anything specific (although he is, as you say, most of those things to a degree) and he's demonstrably not good at, for example, the kind of lateral thinking that Blackberry is good at. But recognizing and encouraging others' strengths is what he excels at.

[killabeez]

and not just rabbits, as we see later on. :D

[rachelmanija]

I forgot that Hyzenthlay is also a poet! And she's also a seer. So it often/usually goes together.

I also found Silverweed's warren more fascistic on this re-read. It's much more subtle than Efrafa but it's there.

[sholio]

Obviously with Efrafa, the parallels are fare stronger drawn because of the authoritarian command structure which Cowslip's warren does not have. But the willingness to sacrifice a part of your friends/neighbours for your convenience and safefy, the element of betrayal that lies in that, and the whole dressing it up with euphemisms or not talking about it - that's represented in Cowslip's warren.

Yes, that's a really good point and very accurate! (Also, man, Efrafra is always pretty harrowing but it certainly hits harder these days.)

[sholio]

Yes! I love that Hazel sees past the species difference to make friends with almost anything that will make friends with him back and not try to kill him. :D

[lunabee34]

I don't have time to reread right now, but I am loving this conversation. So many wonderful insights here.

Hazel is my favorite from start to finish. But I love them all.

[krait]

I totally agree about the law of not helping each other; I think that's implied in the "never ask where" rule. I mean, they also probably don't know how, the way that the rabbits from Hazel's warren have that knowledge, but it's also kind of fundamental with them that if someone goes missing, you never go looking.

Oh, yes, I agree very much, and I think it's even more strongly reflected in their lack of a Chief Rabbit:

"We don't call anyone Chief Rabbit," he said. "It was Cowslip's idea to go and see you this afternoon, so he was the one who went."

It was Cowslip's idea, so nobody else is going to help. Every individual prioritises their own survival first; cooperation is clearly against the rule of the warren. And Fiver drives it home when he's explaining the history he's put together:

"They forgot the ways of wild rabbits. They forgot El-ahrairah, for what use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price? [...] They had no Chief Rabbit - no, how could they? - for a Chief Rabbit must be El-ahrairah to his warren and keep them from death, and here there was no death but one, and what Chief Rabbit could have an answer to that?"

A Chief Rabbit holds the group together and helps his warren survive. Their lack of a Chief Rabbit says volumes about their refusal to help one another and their every-rabbit-for-himself attitude.

(Notable, too, is how the rabbits of Cowslip's warren refused to hear stories of their travels when Hazel offered; I think they were afraid or ashamed, because they must have known that Hazel's group had helped and supported each other to make it this far.)

[krait]

Some of my thoughts are up above, but to continue - concepts of leadership in this book are so varied, and really run the gamut! We've got the very traditional monarch, the Threarah, who ultimately fails his people by complacence (thinking no threat can be greater than threats encountered in the past); we've got Hazel, the inexperienced new leader who's still proving himself; we've got the extreme individualists of Cowslip's warren who live at the mercy of their enemy; we've got the overbearing tyrant of Efafra who creates such a miserable state that it breeds his own downfall; and we've got the mythical ideal in El-ahrairah.

On the smaller scale, some of the things I noticed and wanted to comment about:
* It's really interesting to me how Fiver has a deep suspicion and fear of the warren, but actually puts himself in more danger through his reaction to it - he keeps slipping out aboveground (where the snares are), stays out of the flayrah field (the only place snares are pretty much guaranteed not to be), and goes bolting madly out of the tunnels after Silverweed's poetry (not looking where he's going). So there are definitely limitations/drawbacks to his Seeing.
* Cowslip actively encouraging Hazel to lose his caution: "It's quite safe, Hazel," said Cowslip behind him in the hole. "I know you're used to taking a good look round when you silflay, but here we generally go straight out." D:
* Bigwig refers to Hazel as "one of the best rabbits we've got" quite emphatically, and then Hazel proves it true a minute later by saving his life. ♥

[krait]

Bigwig answered Blackberry's question exactly, though none of them realize it: they are the fools who will become easy prey to elil - in this case, the farmer and his snares - and that's what the rabbits of Cowslip's warren stand to gain

There's even more answers going on!
* When they first spot Cowslip, Hazel says, "I don't see how it can be a trap, and anyway we can always run." It's absolutely a trap that none of them can see, on both the metaphorical and the most literal level! But they do end up solving it by running.
* Hazel's first words to Cowslip are "We've come over the heather," but Cowslip says nothing until after Hazel speaks again.
* When Fiver asks Cowslip outright if he can be trusted, Cowslip replies, "[I]f you want the answers to your questions, then I'd say yes, you can trust us: we don't want to drive you away. And there is a warren here, but not as big a one as we should like. Why should we want to hurt you? There's plenty of grass, surely?" All of this except the trust is entirely correct: they want the newcomers to stay, the warren being bigger would benefit them, attacking the newcomers would be pointless, and food is abundant enough they'd never need to worry about grass.

And, of course, they do sing like birds! :D

[sholio]

You are welcome to chime in without actually rereading, if there's anything you want to say! I really love everyone, and as discussed above, Hazel is a really fantastic character.

[sholio]

I had another thought about this today, which is the way the rabbits refer to death as "they stopped running." This is perfect rabbit-think - to live means to run - but it also means that Silverweed's warren are experiencing a kind of living death; instead of running to stay alive, they have all embraced their eventual fate. They've all both literally and figuratively stopped running even though they're technically still alive.

[sholio]

Cowslip actively encouraging Hazel to lose his caution: "It's quite safe, Hazel," said Cowslip behind him in the hole. "I know you're used to taking a good look round when you silflay, but here we generally go straight out." D:

AAAAAUGH, you're right. Everything about those scenes gets infinitely worse with the reveal in mind.

Bigwig refers to Hazel as "one of the best rabbits we've got" quite emphatically, and then Hazel proves it true a minute later by saving his life. ♥

I noticed that! ♥ Actually, in general I didn't remember how much Bigwig likes and respects Hazel from the beginning - he clearly values Hazel's opinion enough to take him to the Threarah even before they leave the warren, and then trusts him enough to come with him (though it's also just because he feels like he doesn't have much to lose). For all that they butt heads over leadership early on, Bigwig doesn't really do a complete 180 on Hazel (as opposed to his change of heart on Fiver, where it is a complete turnaround); it's more just that his respect for Hazel depends to the point where trying to usurp Hazel's command isn't even on the table.

[rachelmanija]

Oh, yes, I love that. It's so true.

And then Hazel and company run out of that warren.

[lunabee34]

Thank you! I will keep reading and comment if I feel inspired. :)