This is why I left Seattle
(media.kotakuinaction2.win)
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Been listening to the audiobook of Watership Down.
It occurred to me that when it's discussed, it's Efrafa that gets most of the attention ... but the Warren of Shining Wires gets kind of glossed over.
Why?
Because that place pretty much sums up modern civilization, and there are certain questions you must not ask in rl as well.
But what leapt out at me this time was the enormous cultural difference between the Sandleford rabbits, and SW ones, how the SW rabbits traded stories about a trickster hero that inspire rabbits to survive against all odds, for miserable, empty, nihilistic nonsense like the poem Silverweed recites .... They felt they no longer needed Frith's promise, when The Man provides food both great and plentiful, and protection from the other 999 ... but they were physically free enough, so they didn't mind the mental shackles they willingly donned ...
Now imagine the transitional period, as it's implied the warren was there first.
That's a fascinating point. I had no idea the book was more of a philosophy with rabbits. The concept of being raised for slaughter is a tragic idea.
The trickster rabbit? Anansi?
Unlike Man's tricksters, El-Ahrairah always advocates for his people. It's the gods he plays tricks on. Which makes sense; for humans, the trickster is both a comedic character as well as a representation of the fickleness of Nature and Fate; rabbits need tricks and wile just to survive, so he more serves as an example of how to stay alive ... and stories about him tend to be scary af.
Adams was pretty good at looking from their perspective.