Watership Down

I've finally managed to get through the book that I just couldn't finish (I won't tell you which it is, because I did really like it, and now it may look like it is a horrible and boring book while it isn't). As I am waiting for my Amazon order to get in, I started to re-read Watership Down, which is one of my favourite books ever. I love the themes of friendship and loyalty and freedom of choice, the rabbit's stories and "religion", and the beautiful descriptions of the English countryside. I love that it has many short chapters so that you can read a whole chapter before going to sleep, instead of just a few pages in other books (even though it comes down to the same amount of reading, you still feel more accomplished when you finish a whole chapter).
Now I first read this book when I was somewhere between 10 and 12, because that was around the time that I had read all the children's books in the library with any literary value twice, and all my own books at least 5 times. I was raiding my mother's books, which led me to some great books I may have read a little bit too early on, including The Lord of the Rings, The Clan of the Cave Bear, and Wild Swans. All in Dutch, of course. I couldn't read a full sentence in English until I was 13, due to a lack of playing computer games, but I think I made up for that quite nicely.
Anyway, having read that book so early on, and at least 5 times afterwards, I thought I knew what it was about. I thought I knew what I would find. But when I started to read it again (I have this great second-hand Penguin paperback from 1976 that used to be orange on the side, but has turned completely white after years of standing in the sun (in someone else's bookcase, I never put books in direct sunlight), which has travelled to several countries with me and even has my address and e-mailaddress in the back from that time that I lent it to a German girl I had only known for 3 days and wouldn't see again in my life, ever. But the book came back, somehow), I did discover new things.
Firstly, there is really a strong focus on the military, isn't there? I mean, really. I knew that Efrafa is bad, and that Sandleford isn't the best place to be, but besides that there are many many references to military practises and morale. Why did I never notice this before? Because I love to know why authors did certain things in their books (this is an ongoing discussion between me and a classmate; he doesn't want to know the first thing about the author, the author is dead, whereas I want to know everything), I looked it up, and it turns out that Richard Adams was actually fighting in the Netherlands in 1944. It's all his own WW II experience put in there. So when he says that Hazel isn't going to leave Fiver and Pipkin to the dog, but stand and fight with them, I immediately get this image of one of his superiors not leaving soldiers behind. Or when Hazel takes care of Pipkin's hurt paw before going to sleep, thinking that he is responsible for the well-being of all, it must have a similar basis. To me, this just gives the story that much extra meaning, I know it's about universal themes and not just about rabbits, but when the author has experienced a certain situation for himself it makes it that more believable, I think.
Secondly, there are some really brilliant jokes in there. Really funny situations. I never noticed them before. Maybe I was too busy being swept away with the story before, or maybe my English wasn't good enough or maybe I was just too young (you know, like when you watch a Disney film again, and go "I never knew that was in there! That's a brilliant joke! Why did I never see that before?"?) to see them, but there are some humorous things. Like how Hazel and Blackberry keep saying to Bigwig how he is a strong and useful guy, especially when he is annoying the hell out of them, and then ask him to go do something on the other side of a hill ("exploring") so that they can have a little peace of mind. Great.
Thirdly, Bigwig used to be one of my favourite rabbits, together with Blackberry because he's smart. Blackberry is still a favourite, but Bigwig has gone down the ladder a bit, because it turns out that he really is quite annoying and bullying, even though he is quite smart (he is one of the few to understand Blackberry's raft idea). But I now prefer Dandelion, because he is the story-teller, and Hazel, because, well, he is Hazel. You can't not like Hazel, I think. Funny how these things change. Fiver used to annoy me, always whimpering and whining and never standing up for himself, but now I see that he actually handles things in quite a clever way, and in the end they always do what he wants, even if he has to have a hard time to get there.

So there. New insights. I know it is one of the qualifications of great literature that you can read it again and again and still discover new things, but I also know not many children's books are considered great literature these days, so perhaps Watership Down doesn't qualify for everybody. It does for me. I think it is one of those books you can read at ten and still read when you're ninety (if you get that far), and still discover new things, messages, stories, and morals in. What more could you want from a book?