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Post by Azerane on Jul 25, 2011 10:52:49 GMT 9.5
Firstly, I am writing this post as I sit very, very bored in LA airport... I've been here over 10 hours between flights and I've still got just under another 3. Fun times  I brought Tales From Watership Down with me for the journey, as it's nice light reading, easy to get through with the short stories. So mostly I was wondering, do you have some favourite stories of El-ahrairah? I think my main favourites are The Blessing of El-ahrairah and the Fox in the Water. The Fox in the Water isn't especially clever in any way, but I like the charm of the way El-ahrairah speaks to the fox. The blessing has always been a favourite, I think mostly because it covers a lot of the history of the rabbits and shows how they came to be how they are today. It's more than just a story, it's a background to why the rabbits are the way they are and explains their culture and abilities. |
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Tima
New Member
Posts: 21
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Post by Tima on Jul 25, 2011 17:57:10 GMT 9.5
It's been a while since I read Tales and I have trouble remembering any of the El-Ahrairah stories from it... however, I can still say for sure that my favourite story is the one about the Black Rabbit. That story is creepy, grim, desperate and desolate. It also contains one of my favourite quotes:
That line talks about fatalism and predetermination; about how bad things happen and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. It also talks about sacrificing yourself for someone you care about. In the movie, this line is used when Hazel's running towards the farm with a plan to save his rabbits. He begs Frith to accept his sacrifice for his warren. But we hear this reply which says that no higher power is gonna interfere in the events, it's all in Hazel's hands, and there is a strong likelyhood that he might fail.
Eventually both El-Ahrairah (in the book) and Hazel (in the movie) do manage to pull off what they were set out to do. Despite the grim line, they struggle hard without ever giving up, and due to their struggle, they do succeed. So there's a somewhat optimistic tone to the line after you're familiar with the book/movie and know what's gonna happen.
Another part that I really like about this particular El-Ahrairah tale is how it ends. El-Ahrairah finds out that he's managed to save his people, but time has passed, and the whole war has been forgotten long ago. A new generation of rabbits has barely even heard about it and doesn't know how privileged they are to live in a safe, happy warren. I've been thinking about similar things a lot, and I feel a lot of people living in Western countries complain about stupid things because they've never encountered suffering/conflict and don't realize how exceptionally well things in their life are. My second favourite line from this tale is:
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Blackavar
Junior Member
The council were merciful!
Posts: 62
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Post by Blackavar on Jul 25, 2011 18:59:52 GMT 9.5
All very good points Tima, I like the way you summed it all up. I personally love the story's "The Kings Lettuce" and "The Trail of El-ahrairah"... only because the cunning and loyalty of both El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle are fantastic. Even though Hufsa was a snitch, I actually felt really sorry for him when nobody took his recount of the fantastic events seriously. I especially liked how they did a version of that story in the TV series, only this time Vervain was the one who ended up telling the crazy story to Woundwort. One of my favourite episodes.
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Post by Azerane on Aug 4, 2011 10:22:11 GMT 9.5
Those are certainly good quotes, and I'm especially a fan of the first one Tima and I am really happy that they included it in the movie. They're not just lines that are reflective of the rabbits, but are actually life lessons that can be taken on board.
I never really had any like for Hufsa in "The King's Lettuce", I think it was the fact that he was a snitch, although it was loyalty to prince rainbow, he was betraying El-ahrairah's trust, and El-ahrairah is certainly the more likeable character, considering we don't really know much about Prince Rainbow.
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