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'Watership Down' Author Richard Adams Died On Christmas Eve At Age 96 (theguardian.com)
Initially rejected by several publishers, "Watership Down" (1972) went on to become one of the best-selling fantasy books of all time. Last Saturday the book's author died peacefully at the age of 96. Long-time Slashdot reader haruchai remembers some of the author's other books: In addition to his much-beloved story about anthropomorphic rabbits, Adams penned two fantasy books set in the fictional Beklan Empire, first Shardik (1974) about a hunter pursuing a giant bear he believes to be imbued with divine power, and Maia (1984), a peasant girl sold into slavery who becomes entangled in a war between neighboring countries.
Adams also wrote a collection of short stories called "Tales From Watership Down" in 1996, and the original "Watership Down" was also made into a movie and an animated TV series. In announcing his death, Richard's family also included a quote from the original "Watership Down".
"It seemed to Hazel that he would not be needing his body any more, so he left it lying on the edge of the ditch, but stopped for a moment to watch his rabbits and to try to get used to the extraordinary feeling that strength and speed were flowing inexhaustibly out of him into their sleek young bodies and healthy senses.
"'You needn't worry about them,' said his companion. 'They'll be alright -- and thousands like them.'"
Adams also wrote a collection of short stories called "Tales From Watership Down" in 1996, and the original "Watership Down" was also made into a movie and an animated TV series. In announcing his death, Richard's family also included a quote from the original "Watership Down".
"It seemed to Hazel that he would not be needing his body any more, so he left it lying on the edge of the ditch, but stopped for a moment to watch his rabbits and to try to get used to the extraordinary feeling that strength and speed were flowing inexhaustibly out of him into their sleek young bodies and healthy senses.
"'You needn't worry about them,' said his companion. 'They'll be alright -- and thousands like them.'"
How much of a role did WD play in the rise of Furries during the last 20th and early 21st century?
Still not as sad as when Hazel dies.
Slashdot - some things never change.
I'm sorry to say that Richard Adams died and is now in eternal damnation. You see, Adams failed to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior, and therefore died in a state of sin. As a result of this unfortunate situation, Adams immediately descended into Hell. There is no hope or salvation for Adams because he is doomed to spend eternity burning in Hell. Our God does not desire that anyone would go to Hell, but it is a consequence of giving us free will. Jesus Christ suffered and died for our sins, then rose from the dead to show the world that He is God. Unlike Mr. Adams' fantasy writing, this is very real, as proven by the testimony of Jesus, who rose from the dead. The Resurrection is historical fact and proves without a doubt the existence of Heaven and Hell. Sadly, we can be quite confident that Adams will spend eternity burning in the fires of Hell. Don't condemn yourself to this fate. Please accept Jesus as your personal savior this instant so your sin can be washed away and you can be certain of spending eternity in Heaven. If you're ready to accept Jesus Christ, please pray this prayer with me:
Heavenly father, I have sinned and wandered through the darkness of the world long enough. I ask for your light and your forgiveness, that I may be born again and be cleansed of my sins. Lord Jesus, thank you for paying the price for my sins on Calvary's cross. I only ask that you count me among the saved and you come into my heart today, where I welcome you as my personal savior. I hope to be counted among the saved and to spend eternity with you in the riches of Heaven. I pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I read the novel in grade school as an assignment, then the whole class got to watch the movie as well. There is no better way to traumatize kids than the mass-death scene in the warren. I won't forget that ever.
My mother once rented Watership Down for me to watch. After all, it was a cute movie about RABBITS.
Yeah, she should have though better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGyQmH9NZcw
I hear Donald Trump won the Presidency and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
I don't think it would have had much impact. It's a little-known work.
Anthropomorphic personification is not a new phenomenon, as well. There are depictions of it in literature, art and artifacts going back many centuries, typically just before collapses of otherwise developed societies.
If anything is responsible for the rise of the so-called "furries" during the last 25 years, it is the breakdown of society and morals in the Western and Japanese cultures.
We've seen the gradual rise of leftism (which is, of course, distinct from liberalism, although the two are often confused) and political correctness, which has pushed Western society away from its traditional values and morality.
That is what political correctness is: it's the enabling and legitimization of inherently deviant behavior. People who would have been shunned and ridiculed are instead wrongly held up as models of reasonable behavior.
Under such a system, deviant behavior, like dressing up as neon-colored furry animals and inserting sexual pleasure devices into one's anus and dipping one's genitals into warmed cooking oil while pretending to be molested by the pack's alpha furry, is promoted as being "normal".
A single literary work, and any related movies, can't impose this sort of change in society. It can only happen when a leftist agenda is forced upon entire generations of people, often through their schooling, from a very young age.
Watched it multiple times a few years back - it was the kid's favourite for a while. Not sure if he really got it, mind.
Remember noting that the voice actors were like a who's who of British theatre, and that most of them had gone to the great owsla in the sky.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
...based on the prior comments. Watership Down is a fine work even though it was made into a mediocre animated feature. And Maia is not just about a slave girl, it's about a sex slave girl. It's the sort of thing more people on here probably like to read, if only they knew how.
Sad, sad, sad. Slashdot is truly a den for the mediocre nerds who fancy themselves as misunderstood geniuses and assorted shit people. Wake up, zitfaces: it's time to take a long hard look in the mirror, understand just what you are (shit) and what your future prospects are (shit) and come to the unavoidable conclusion that suicide is the only solution. So, do the right thing: remove your presence from the world. Now.
Does it ever end?
Remeber that he was an old white man.
As soon as all the old white men die off, the world will be ushered into a grand new world where transgendered black latino lesbians can all live together in peace and harmony. The planet will be cold as hell because we conquered global warmining.
Abortions will be free to all, and in fact mandatory. The state can finally getting around to protecting the children. The state will scoop into the loving embrace of CPS all children so the can get a free state sponsored child rearing and indoctrination. We can get rid of such old gender divisive terms as 'Mom and Dad'.
I can't wait!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down_(miniseries)
http://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/681125-animated-watership-down-mini-series-coming-from-bbc-and-netflix
http://deadline.com/2016/04/watership-down-miniseries-john-boyega-james-mcavoy-bbc-netflix-1201745167/
the most misunderstood movies made to scare the shit out kids too young to understand the images.
Adams was the first author I ever wrote a personal letter to. I received a very nice response from his secretary, addressing my comments (not just a form letter) and a photo of Adams, which I kept in a frame for years. I must have been 10 or 11 at the time...
Some years later I wrote extensively on Adams' The Girl in the Swing, as part of a chapter in my lit dissertation (pairing it with two other contemporary novels about mother-daughter violence, Morrison's Beloved and Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills). I only read Shardik once and Plague Dogs two or three times, and never did make it all the way through Maia; but WD and TGiTS I nearly had memorized at one time.
And speaking of that ... what's with this barbarism in the article: "They'll be alright". In all the editions I've seen, including the one in Google Books, it's "all right". Yes, language changes and English has no central authority - I'm a descriptivist myself - but let's respect the author's usage preferences, eh? "Alright" is a probably-inevitable (because parallel with "already"[1]) but ugly corruption of the original phrase, and there's certainly no reason to prefer it.
[1]"already" is a compression of Middle English "al redy", in which "al" is itself a simplified "all", so "alright" has an etymological precedent. And, as I already noted, it's probably inevitable. Doesn't mean we should let it contaminate a perfectly good "all right", though.