Re: Watership Down -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 13:09:16 03/10/08 Mon
Author: CS Holden
Subject: Re: Watership Down
In reply to: Kiernan 's message, "What constitutes a model?" on 19:45:46 03/09/08 Sun

Your notion of mythology itself containing models--or being a model for the hearers--got me thinking about a book I read in high school called "Watership Down," by Richard Adams. It's really good. (There was an animated movie based on the book, too.) It's a loose allegory about the birth of the USA and its history up until WWII, and the characters are almost all rabbits.

Sounds ridiculous, but the rabbits have created their own mythological stories to explain the existence, behavior and traits of rabbits everywhere. "El-ahrairah" is the protagonist of almost all these myths--he is the father of the rabbit race, in effect their Adam/George Washington figure. And everything he does is mythologized. Rabbits' instincts do not simply come from the rabbits' nature; they are cunning and fast because of something El-ahrairah did.

But interestingly enough, all the stories about El-ahrairah are essentially stories about what every rabbit does by his nature. For instance, when the Creator figure (the sun, called "Frith") gives his blessing to all creatures, the rabbit runs and hides into a hole, so only his bottom sticks out. That is why, the rabbits figure, that the strongest part of a rabbit's body is his hind legs. In other words, out of the rabbit's natural tendency to hide, the rabbit is given the power to escape danger as well. So El-ahrairah is not so much an external model for the rabbits as he is an imitation of rabbits themselves--but not just any imitation. He is the imitation that is also the epitome.

Simply put, what rabbits do naturally, they justify by attributing it to El-ahrairah. Then they appropriate all of his behaviors as best as they can, in effect mythologizing themselves through the stories. And since rabbits are always being hunted and attacked, most of the stories involve El-ahrairah outsmarting or escaping hunters and attackers. He's the scapegoat that keeps on giving, in a way.

Incidentally, the name "El-ahrairah" in the Lapine (rabbit) language means "prince with a thousand enemies."

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