Voting in the Federal election takes place this Saturday, here's hoping Julia et al will be going going Gone!!! and this great country will survive without going broke.

Watership Down

Watership Down is another of my favourite books, and it's only about a small group of rabbits. It was written by British author Richard Adams.
Although the animals in the story live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language (Lapine), proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel recounts the rabbits' odyssey as they escape the destruction of their warren to seek a place in which to establish a new home, encountering perils and temptations along the way.

Adam's makes the point of man's destruction of the environment for the sake of progress. I found this novel poignant, and it made me think for the first time about the common treatment of harmless animals. This was the first fantasy book I ever read apart from Tolkein, and the first animal book; it was after reading this book that I started collecting my dog books. I am still not a great reader of fantasy, but I will try any genre. (I went on to read Cold Moon, a fantasy about the almost total destruction of the Badger population in England in the 60s' another lovely book.)

The novel takes its name from the rabbits' destination, Watership Down, a hill in the north of Hampshire, England, near the area where Adams grew up. The story is based on a collection of tales that Adams told to his young children to pass the time on trips to the countryside.

Published in 1972, Watership Down was Richard Adams' first novel, and is by far his most successful to date. He also wrote The Plague Dogs, a book I found too disturbing to finish.
Though it was initially rejected by thirteen publishers before eventually being accepted , Watership Down has never been out of print, and was the recipient of several prestigious awards. Adapted into an acclaimed classic film and a television series, it is Penguin Books' best-selling novel of all time. In 1996, Adams published Tales from Watership Down, a follow-up collection of 19 short stories about El-ahrairah (this was a mythological rabbit that was a part of rabbit culture) and the rabbits of the Watership Down warren.

I have read Watership Down many, many times since that first read. It sounds like a simple book, but it is not. A compelling, sad, but also happy and wonderful saga about a motley crew of rabbits who leave their ancient warren when the gentle 'Fiver' predicts death for all who stay, and against all odds they survive because of the intelligence of Hazel their leader, their fearless fighter Bigwig, and their faith in each other. The old warren is demolished to make way for roads and supermarkets and a new suburb.

It made me wonder about all animals, not just our favourite cats and dogs. What about pigs, they are very intelligent. What about cows and chickens and all the animals we make lead a terrible life because we intensively farm them. I am not and never will be a vegetarian, but I also will never again eat any animal product that is not free range. And I mean free range, none of this supermarket free range, I use a certified butcher, and he's wonderful, people come from all over Melbourne to buy his meat and poultry. Sadly our choices are ever being squeezed by the big supermarket chains. I've even given up buying any fresh goods in a supermarket. I go there strictly for the tinned and dry foods I need, but finding a good green grocer was not easy either, they are also a vanishing breed. I am also not a rabbid greenie. We don't have to destroy everything, but we don't have to be made to fear all progress either. Maybe going back to a simpler life would be better for everyone. I shake my head when people claim to be environmentalists, but then hop on  a private plane to somewhere to tell everyone else how to save the environment. Hollywood stars like Kate Blanchett who told us to have a 2 minute shower to save water and build a smaller home to save energy, yet she has a great big swimming pool at her energy guzzling mansion;  or those who drink their water out of plastic bottles that are overloading us with landfill, and pull out their green shopping bags that are creating more pollution in production than any predecessor, and yet they all sit back and watch our food sources being dictated by big business, real food slowly disappearing, and kids getting fatter on processed muck. That shouldn't be what it's all about. If we stop consuming all this junk and go back to a properly bred and grown food chain I think there would be far less impact on the environment and the animals we consume could live out happy lives in a natural environment.

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