Our relationships with stories fascinates me.
This week I'll be finishing reading the book "Watership Down." My first exposure to this story was through an animated film I saw in grade school. Like many children, I presume, this movie completely freaked me out. All I can remember is the story is about rabbits, and that it filled me with dread. So much so that I couldn't go near this book ever since, until a couple years ago when I watched an early "Lost" episode that showed Sawyer reading it.
Hmmm . . . said I.
You see, there's something strangely cinematic about scenes in movies and TV where a character just sits there and reads. Books are experiences and knowledge that we can share with each other. When a fictional character in a movie is reading a book that we've read, we also share that experience and knowledge with that person, even though he doesn't actually exist. But if we haven't read the book we might ask "what is going through that person's mind in this scene while he's reading?" The character in the show has an advantage over us, so to speak. He knows something we don't.
What insight was Sawyer gaining from this book that could explain the mysteries of the island? I wondered. It took me a couple of years to get around to it, but after reading "Watership Down," I can't say. "Lost" is still just as big a mystery as it ever was. But I am extremely glad that I can soon say that I've read "Watership Down," and not because I've read a book that Sawyer's read.
No, no.
This book is spectacular, and completely imaginative in a way that so few are. It's like the scenes in "The Once and Future King" where Merlin turns little King Arthur into various animals. But it's so much better than "The Once and Future King" (which would have been good if the king being referred to in the title was King Arthur and not King Pellinor, who doesn't just show up once, but keeps coming back again and again in his quest for the questing beast, but that's a discussion for another day) After a morning reading "Watership Down" I feel like I've experienced life as a rabbit.
It's strange I can't really describe this book without giving it justice. I'll just say that I'm a bit maddened that such a scary movie had kept me from reading this book earlier.
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1 comment:
I like that your couch is now floating in a lake...nice touch.
I don't think I've ever read this book in it's entirety, but I have the feeling that I read it out-loud or had it read to me when I was living in DC (I was in my early 20s and my friends and I were going through a phase of reading things outloud...it's quite enjoyable...you should try it sometime. I highly recommend it with the Harry Potter series and Good Omens).
Anyhoo...I also remember the movie scaring the begeezes out of me when I was younger, and even as an adult. But, it's a fascinating story with great symbolism. We should chose it as one of our book club reads :)
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