Mariel and I were enjoying Mother Auma's funny posts when I noticed that Mariel was toying with her expanders (which she is not supposed to do, as it inhibits her dental progress). I pushed her over, and she fell on the floor. I grabbed her leg in a vain attempt to steady her.
"Are you dead?" I queried, rather unsurely.
She looked up at me from her fit of giggles, and quoted L.M. Montgomery. "No, Diana, but I think I am rendered unconscious."
I played along. "Where, Anne, WHERE?!"
Ah, the joys of reading.
Monday, January 12, 2009
I took a quiz and I am...
Susan Pevensie is the second oldest of the Pevensie children. You strongly believe in logic. You're a smart one; perhaps too smart. You're not very optimistic but that is a result from the war. You try and act older than you are and it shows. You're very good looking and a lot of people envy you. Just have a little faith.
---The "Which Narnia Character Are You?" Quiz
---The "Which Narnia Character Are You?" Quiz
Watership Down Characters: Fiver
Fiver is very small and underweight. He is more tense and jumpy than the other rabbits. He has “wide, staring eyes and a way of raising and turning his head which suggested not so much caution as a kind of ceaseless, nervous tension.” As rabbits can count up to four, any number after that is hrair, “a lot” or literally “a thousand”. Fiver’s Lapine name is Hrairoo, meaning “Little Thousand” or “Little of a Lot”. He was the runt of a five-rabbit litter.
Fiver has a strange gift. He can see the future in bits and pieces, and can see through pretenses and shams. This makes him wiser than other rabbits, and he is truly the one who guides them to Watership Down. He is timid, but when he sees things as they truly are, he acquires a sort of quiet, almost eerie eloquence that commands attention. At one point, Bigwig gets furious with him because Fiver is the only one who can see that in the warren they have just found, there are snares everywhere and the rabbits are unwittingly a part of the man’s farm. “You wretched little beetle!” he yells. “It’s ‘me, me, me’ all the time, isn’t it! ‘Oh, I’ve got a funny feeling in my toe, so now we must all go and stand on our heads!’ And now we’ve found a fine warren and got in without a fight or even a disturbance, you’ve got to do your best to upset everyone! I suppose you’ll go wandering about now until an owl gets you!”
“No,” Fiver says quietly. “You are closer to death than I.”
“Are you trying to frighten me?” Bigwig snaps. “Well, I’m finished with you – and I’m going back to the warren to make sure everyone else is too!” He turns and dashes off through the bushes – and runs straight into a snare, proving what Fiver had been saying.
Fiver lends an air of mystery and things unseen to the story. “Fiver,” says Hazel, “what would we have done without you [at the farm]? We’d none of us be here, would we?”
“You’re sure we are here then?”
“That’s too mysterious for me,” replies Hazel. “What do you mean?”
“Well, there’s another place – another country, isn’t there? We go there when we sleep; at other times too [as in when we daydream]; and when we die. El-ahrairah comes and goes between the two as he wants, I suppose, but I could never quite make that out, from the tales. Some rabbits will tell you it’s all easy there, compared with the waking dangers that they understand. But I think that only shows they don’t know much about it. It’s a wild place, and very unsafe. And where are we really – there or here?”
Fiver is admirable because he can stand firm in the face of disbelief. Richard Adams modeled him after Cassandra, the ancient prophetess cursed always to tell the truth and never to be believed. Even when everyone else thinks he is making a fuss about nothing, he does not squash his gift down and say, “Oh, yes, I’m sure I must have just eaten something that disagreed with me and I’m having a nightmare,” if he is really sure that this is his gift “speaking” to him. He “sticks to his guns” and always tells the truth. I admire him for his honesty as well.
Fiver has a strange gift. He can see the future in bits and pieces, and can see through pretenses and shams. This makes him wiser than other rabbits, and he is truly the one who guides them to Watership Down. He is timid, but when he sees things as they truly are, he acquires a sort of quiet, almost eerie eloquence that commands attention. At one point, Bigwig gets furious with him because Fiver is the only one who can see that in the warren they have just found, there are snares everywhere and the rabbits are unwittingly a part of the man’s farm. “You wretched little beetle!” he yells. “It’s ‘me, me, me’ all the time, isn’t it! ‘Oh, I’ve got a funny feeling in my toe, so now we must all go and stand on our heads!’ And now we’ve found a fine warren and got in without a fight or even a disturbance, you’ve got to do your best to upset everyone! I suppose you’ll go wandering about now until an owl gets you!”
“No,” Fiver says quietly. “You are closer to death than I.”
“Are you trying to frighten me?” Bigwig snaps. “Well, I’m finished with you – and I’m going back to the warren to make sure everyone else is too!” He turns and dashes off through the bushes – and runs straight into a snare, proving what Fiver had been saying.
Fiver lends an air of mystery and things unseen to the story. “Fiver,” says Hazel, “what would we have done without you [at the farm]? We’d none of us be here, would we?”
“You’re sure we are here then?”
“That’s too mysterious for me,” replies Hazel. “What do you mean?”
“Well, there’s another place – another country, isn’t there? We go there when we sleep; at other times too [as in when we daydream]; and when we die. El-ahrairah comes and goes between the two as he wants, I suppose, but I could never quite make that out, from the tales. Some rabbits will tell you it’s all easy there, compared with the waking dangers that they understand. But I think that only shows they don’t know much about it. It’s a wild place, and very unsafe. And where are we really – there or here?”
Fiver is admirable because he can stand firm in the face of disbelief. Richard Adams modeled him after Cassandra, the ancient prophetess cursed always to tell the truth and never to be believed. Even when everyone else thinks he is making a fuss about nothing, he does not squash his gift down and say, “Oh, yes, I’m sure I must have just eaten something that disagreed with me and I’m having a nightmare,” if he is really sure that this is his gift “speaking” to him. He “sticks to his guns” and always tells the truth. I admire him for his honesty as well.
Higher Powers
Imagine if there were no authority higher than the government. Governments are, after all, nothing more than collections of exceedingly human politicians and bureaucrats. What if these people who are mere flesh and blood like you and me were the top, the be all and end all, the final answer? How depressing. And frightening.
--Whatever Happened to Justice, by Richard Maybury
--Whatever Happened to Justice, by Richard Maybury
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Watership Down Characters: Hazel
Hazel is a leader among rabbits. He is described as being “still below full weight” and with a “shrewd, buoyant air”. He is not one of the “Owsla”, the top rank of clever and strong rabbits in a warren, but he is not a bullied, harassed rabbit because of this. He can take care of himself and is a very good leader.
Hazel is protective of those under his care. His brother Fiver is small, underweight and often bullied, and Hazel keeps older, stronger and meaner rabbits away from him. He is capable too, and noble in that he is willing to stay by the smaller rabbits. When they are journeying, they come to a river. It is swelled and rushing, but on the side they’re on is a dog who is hunting. The older rabbits can swim the flood, but Fiver and Pipkin are too small and tired out to. Bigwig, an impatient, tough rabbit, says that those who can should cross the stream and whoever can’t can just come later or not at all. Hazel says that he isn’t leaving Fiver and Pipkin, and if one of the other rabbits hadn’t found a large piece of wood for a raft, Hazel would have stayed and been killed by the dog along with Pipkin and Fiver before abandoning them.
Hazel is essential to the plot. One might call him the “star”. He is the one who takes care of everyone and keeps them going until they reach Watership Down. Without him, the plot would feel empty, as though something important were missing. But like everyone else, he has his weak points. Because he is secretly a little upset at not being chosen to “ambassador” to Efrafa, a nearby warren, he leads a disastrous raid on a nearby farm to rescue four rabbits who have lived there all their lives and are well taken care of, but lack the important instincts necessary to live in the wild. This raid results in three rabbits joining their warren, one being captured again and put back in the hutch, and Hazel being shot with a gun in his leg (causing in him being slightly lame there for the rest of his life).
I admire Hazel for his bravery, fortitude and nobility. When everyone else is tired and wants to stop traveling and stay where they are, he is the one who keeps them going. When Bigwig is caught in a snare and believed dead, he is the one who tries to get them away before a man comes. When the other rabbits begin to doubt Fiver’s visions and start turning against him, he is the one who restores them to sense. “A Chief Rabbit must be El-ahrairah [the rabbit hero; literally Elil-Hrair-Rah, enemies-thousand-prince: Prince with a Thousand Enemies] to his people and teach them cunning.” He is a true leader and one of the best personalities I have ever met.
Hazel is protective of those under his care. His brother Fiver is small, underweight and often bullied, and Hazel keeps older, stronger and meaner rabbits away from him. He is capable too, and noble in that he is willing to stay by the smaller rabbits. When they are journeying, they come to a river. It is swelled and rushing, but on the side they’re on is a dog who is hunting. The older rabbits can swim the flood, but Fiver and Pipkin are too small and tired out to. Bigwig, an impatient, tough rabbit, says that those who can should cross the stream and whoever can’t can just come later or not at all. Hazel says that he isn’t leaving Fiver and Pipkin, and if one of the other rabbits hadn’t found a large piece of wood for a raft, Hazel would have stayed and been killed by the dog along with Pipkin and Fiver before abandoning them.
Hazel is essential to the plot. One might call him the “star”. He is the one who takes care of everyone and keeps them going until they reach Watership Down. Without him, the plot would feel empty, as though something important were missing. But like everyone else, he has his weak points. Because he is secretly a little upset at not being chosen to “ambassador” to Efrafa, a nearby warren, he leads a disastrous raid on a nearby farm to rescue four rabbits who have lived there all their lives and are well taken care of, but lack the important instincts necessary to live in the wild. This raid results in three rabbits joining their warren, one being captured again and put back in the hutch, and Hazel being shot with a gun in his leg (causing in him being slightly lame there for the rest of his life).
I admire Hazel for his bravery, fortitude and nobility. When everyone else is tired and wants to stop traveling and stay where they are, he is the one who keeps them going. When Bigwig is caught in a snare and believed dead, he is the one who tries to get them away before a man comes. When the other rabbits begin to doubt Fiver’s visions and start turning against him, he is the one who restores them to sense. “A Chief Rabbit must be El-ahrairah [the rabbit hero; literally Elil-Hrair-Rah, enemies-thousand-prince: Prince with a Thousand Enemies] to his people and teach them cunning.” He is a true leader and one of the best personalities I have ever met.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Literary Diet
On her receiving the Caldecott Medal in 1959, Barbara Cooney said, "I believe that children in this country need a more robust literary diet than they are getting.... It does not hurt them to read about good and evil, love and hate, life and death. Nor do I think they should read only about things that they understand.... a man’s reach should exceed his grasp. So should a child’s. For myself, I will never talk down to—or draw down to—children."
Barbara Cooney is the writer/illustrator of Chanticleer and the Fox, Miss Rumphius, and other children's books.
Barbara Cooney is the writer/illustrator of Chanticleer and the Fox, Miss Rumphius, and other children's books.
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