THE LOTTERY
By Greta Lieske
IV Leader Editor and Columnist, March 19, 2009
My sleeping patterns have just returned to normal. No longer am I haunted and tormented by the images of…gulp…bunny carnage whilst I slumber. “Bunny carnage?” you may question. Well, yes, you heard right. I have just finished reading Richard Adams’ 1972 novel, “Watership Down.” Sure, it may be a staple of high school reading curriculums, but it somehow slipped through the cracks of my educational career. There are some books you know you can’t get around, like “Great Expectations,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the juggernaut beast, “The Grapes of Wrath.” But, somehow I was never required to read “Watership Down.” As a baby from the 80s I was pretty aware of the book because we had the 1978 animated movie on diskette (when disks were still cool, the size of pizza boxes and slowly being murdered by video cassettes). I never actually watched the film, but could hear the rabbit chaos from the next room as my siblings sat, mouths agape. It wasn’t until years later that Watership and I met again. I have begun quite a feat in the last year as I plan to read every book that is and/or was placed on a banned book list. Any type of censorship burns my biscuits and it’s my little contribution to stick it to the man (even though my reading doesn’t necessarily change a thing in reality, I shall continue to glorify it in my imagination). And to my surprise, “Watership Down” was pretty high on the list. I just couldn’t figure out why this novel with an endearing, little fluffy rabbit on the cover would be on any banned book list. Violence was the excuse for every banning, but still I had to ask, “Surely, you jest?” I was barely 50 pages into the 400 plus page novel before I realized the true nature of “Watership Down.” Sure, the book is about the journey of a group of rabbits trying to find a new home in the English countryside after their old warren is destroyed by man. But actually, “destroyed” is not exactly the right word…um…BUNNY GENOCIDE is more accurate. The journey is one that is filled with fields of blood, cold little bunny carcasses and detailed blow-by-blow accounts of shredded ears, haunches and countless other mortal wounds. When did bunnies become super heroes and villains like a bad comic book movie re-make? When did the bunny world become a “kill or be killed” environment? They eat grass and wiggle their cute little noses! I don’t want to hear them trash talkin’ like they’re a VH1 reality star alum. After the initial shock of realizing what I had gotten myself into, however, I started to get into the book and stopped looking at the characters as merely rabbits. The book takes a closer look at the ideas of home, leadership and how humans interact with the realm of all things nature. Not to mention, it also takes on pretty harsh criticisms of different governmental institutions that are not ran by the people. The group of rabbits comes across two separate warrens in their search for a home of their own. The first is an example of a type of socialist regime in which no one out ranks another, while being forced to ignore the fact that the warren is surrounded by snares and every few days a member of the community is killed by humans. The second, named Efrafra, is a totalitarian regime ran by General Woundwort (because what other name would you have if you are a bunny dictator?). And apparently, even rabbits have their own version of god in the uber-bunny, El-ahrairah. Stories of the past and El-ahrairah are passed down in an oral tradition with the rabbits gathering in the warren on nights to tell tales of trickery and grandeur. I’m sure if bunnies had opposable thumbs a bunny bible would have popped up; they’re not fools after all. In the end, “Watership Down” exceeded my expectations as most banned books do. If this novel is one that you weren’t forced to read in school, do it anyway. It’s entertaining, well-written and, as shocked as I am to write it, moving. If not for the content, read it just because you have the opportunity and free will to do so, or any other book that was once considered taboo. Because banning books is just like trying to ban ideas; the only way to stop it is to take it in.