Reading some books

[lunabee34]

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


My rating has nothing to do with the quality or significance of the novel; I just find the treatment of women and children to be very upsetting, and that greatly impacted my enjoyment. I was assigned this book to read in a lit class as an undergraduate and haven't read it since. I remembered very little about it (and possibly would have avoided reading it if I had remembered it had so much child death and harm and spousal abuse in it).

Reading this right on the heels of The Spell of the Sensuous makes for an interesting experience. I see so many of the principles Abram mentions illustrated here (an oral, indigenous people whose language and way of life is deeply connected to a sense of place and the plant and animal life in that place, etc).

The novel seems to me to be about two things: the central narrative is about a man who is trying so hard to be a better man than his father was that he performs a kind of toxic hypermasculinity to overcompensate. The other men often find Okonkwo's behavior to be over-the-top, and yet Okonkwo has trouble finding outlets for his anger and his dissatisfaction with himself that aren't beating his wife and child (or killing his foster child because he's afraid of being thought weak for not doing so). Overlaid is another narrative about the destruction of indigenous culture by white colonizers with Okonkwo as exemplar.



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Watership Down by Richard Adams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I first read this book as a kid; I believe I read it once more as an adult (but at least 10 years ago), making this my third read.

I absolutely love the way the story of a band of rabbits attempting to find a new warren is interwoven with stories from their rabbit mythology. These stories are about El-ahrairah, the rabbit trickster god, and his many adventures and mischiefs.

My favorite part of the book is the very end when Hazel wakes to find El-ahrairah in his burrow; I won't spoil what happens for anyone who hasn't read, but that part brings tears to my eyes.

Highly recommended for most ages; I think the prose is a little too complicated to hold Fiona's attention for long at four, so I wouldn't recommend it for reading aloud to the pre-k set, but it's just as lovely a read at 38 as it was at 10--suspenseful, magical, and heartwarming.



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Today a student told me that she bought a pet bunny when she was a kid at a flea market and didn't expect it to live long. Life expectancy for that sort of bunny indoors is about four years. This bunny lived for TWELVE FREAKING YEARS, MY FRIENDS. I am firmly convinced he ended up in El-ahrairah's Owsla.

Comments

[the_rck]

I love that bit of Watership Down. It was perfect.

I also adore the moment when Woundwort has to accept the idea that Bigwig isn't head rabbit and makes entirely wrong assumptions about why.

[lunabee34]

Yes! He just assumes that the real head rabbit must be even more fearsome and strong, never suspecting that the lame rabbit who came to him earlier in the day was actually the head rabbit.

[the_rck]

Which is an interesting blind spot for Woundwort given that he built his power on the idea that rabbits could do things that they never had before. He didn't get that part just from being bigger and tougher; it was him thinking differently. The idea of rabbits fighting a dog is not part of how most rabbits think. Whatever else one might say about Woundwart, he wasn't stupid.

[lunabee34]

That is so perceptive of you. It is an interesting failing on Woundwort's part and one not entirely in keeping with his characterization. I wonder if we're supposed to read that moment as a commentary on the way that even though he's very innovative, Woundwort has to had to rely on physical strength and intimidation to keep his warren in line.

[the_rck]

Possibly it's not so much that Woundwort can't conceive of a head rabbit being smarter than Bigwig. It's that Woundwort thinks too little of Bigwig and assumes that Bigwig wouldn't allow himself to be subordinate unless physically forced to be.

In his way, Bigwig is as unusual as Hazel.

[lunabee34]

*nods*

I do love that Bigwig starts out thinking he's going to be in charge and quickly realizes that Hazel is the bunny for that job.

[zulu]

Absolutely love Watership Down. Reread it every couple of years. I hope L will enjoy reading it with me some day!

[lunabee34]

I'm sure he will. Emma read it within the last couple of years and really enjoyed it.

[monanotlisa]

It may be time for my reread of Watership Down...

[lunabee34]

It's so lovely. It felt quite comforting.

[china_shop]

I started my university education at an agricultural college (for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture), and I still remember having re-read Watership Down and then sitting down to dinner with someone who'd just been rabbit hunting. That was pretty traumatic. ;-P

[lunabee34]

*huggles you*

I can see how that would be traumatizing.

[kore]

Watership Down is so great. One of my fave books, so my parents took Tiny Moi to see the movie! WHOOPS. I still love it tho, especially all the mythology and storytelling and rabbit lifestyle stuff, which is almost like pre-Le Guin. "Underground, the story continued." //SOB

[lunabee34]

I haven't seen the movie, but I have heard from numerous people that it was way more frightening than they (or their parents) had expected.

I love the mythology best, too. I could read a whole book of El-ahraihrah steals the king's lettuces stories. LOL

[darlingdeathbird]

Ah, so you are a teacher! What do you teach, if you don't mind me asking? :)

[lunabee34]

Not at all!

I'm a college professor of English at a US university.

Have an icon of actual student quotes.

[darlingdeathbird]

Ooooh!

[chelseagirl]

I've not read Things Fall Apart, and your review does not inspire me to do so. ;-) But I have my aunt's copy of Too Late the Phalarope, by the same author, which I need to read at some point.

I read and reread Watership Down in junior high/high school and remember loving it. M and I sat down and watched the movie a few years ago, which I'd never seen and which was quite lovely.

[lunabee34]

I haven't read anything else by Achebe either.

I haven't seen the Watership Down movie. It's animated, right?

[the_rck]

It's animated. Some parts are... Um. Well, they spent some time on showing the gassing of the old warren. My impression is that that's the bit that scares most kids; it's certainly the part that eleven year old me never forgot.

[lunabee34]

Oh, yeah. That would be pretty upsetting to watch as a kiddo.