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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.'"
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.
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.
Fortunately, that is incorrect, so y'all may rest easily that Adams has not turned into an eternally burning firelog. You see, Hell is for Christians only - other religions do or do not have their own planes of torment, as the case may be. And since Adams failed to accept Jesus, he's been denied both Heaven and Hell. His post-mortem destination thus is his own business.
As for the parent, as one fine movie line goes,
[voice="Jack Nicholson"] Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here. [/voice]
To be fair I think it was only announced on Boxing Day, so they're only three days later than everyone else. That's about the norm for /. these days.
Of course the question still remains, how is this 'news for nerds'?
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.
Or, for those of you who don't want to have to edit the broken link in the address bar to get there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
"Bright Eyes" - that song is one of the strongest sad songs that I know of.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
You seem to know a lot about what these people are doing.
Quite a few furries were influenced by Watership Down, though it's not clear how many actually read the book vs. how many watched the animation. Lots of rabbit "fursonas" are the result.
There's even a furry news site called Flayrah, a direct reference to the book.
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/
That and people who tried to flesh out Lapine into a full language, where on lay nahl drao koi embleer lendril means something like "we don't need no stinking badgers."
But then the outcome of CBS/Paramount's lawsuit over Klingon might govern to what extent fans can use a language. It goes to trial a month from now.
Quite a few furries were influenced by Watership Down, though it's not clear how many actually read the book vs. how many watched the animation.
Watership Down: Read the book, missed the film, but really enjoyed the pie.
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.