Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Tales of Amy's Garden


Black Rabbit: Hazel? You know me, don't you?
Hazel: I don't.
[the visitor reveals himself as The Black Rabbit]
Hazel: Oh, yes, my Lord... I know you.
Black Rabbit: I've come to ask if you would like to join my Owsla. We shall be glad to have you, and I know you'd like it. You've been feeling tired, haven't you? If you're ready, we might go along now.
[Hazel pauses to look back at his rabbits]
Hazel: I feel like I can't leave them. So many are gone now. Bigwig. Fiver. Strawberry. Even that nice old man who wrote about us. Fiver left him a manuscript scraped out on a lettuce leaf and he was able to interpret it and share it with everyone. He even wrote a book. We became famous. For five minutes. Until people forgot us and started watching cooking shows. But he spoke in our voice. So people would know how it is to be a rabbit. 
Black RabbitYes even the nice old man has passed. You have done so well since you have moved to the new warren. It is so much safer and cleaner. You left all the bad ju ju behind you.
Hazel:Wait a minute. They were Jews? I  know you are the Black Rabbit and all of you people hate the Jews but I don't think they were Jewish. Anyway I don't care about those people anymore. i only worry about my friends. The other rabbits I led here. Will they be safe without me?
Black Rabbit: You needn't worry about them. They'll be alright, and thousands like them. If you'll come along, I'll show you what I mean.
[Hazel lies down and dies]

39 comments:

Methadras said...

Carrie Fisher lasted a lot longer.

Trooper York said...

Not really. Richard Adams was about 90 or something.

Things are not always as they seem.

MamaM said...

This:

So many are gone now. Bigwig. Fiver. Strawberry. Even that nice old man who wrote about us. Fiver left him a manuscript scraped out on a lettuce leaf and he was able to interpret it and share it with everyone. He even wrote a book. We became famous. For five minutes. Until people forgot us and started watching cooking shows. But he spoke in our voice. So people would know how it is to be a rabbit.

It's where you shine through! While offering a fitting tribute to another. Well done! There were many other Garden posts that hit the mark too. You're the reason I picked up Watership Down several years ago to read it completely through for the first time. Thank you for that along with the other good times that happened under the Big Tent.

deborah said...

I was thinking of your warren tales a couple weeks ago when Chip put up that Winehouse ASL. Fun times.

edutcher said...

Henry the K?

Idol of every poly sci major in the world in the 60s and 70s?

William said...

I was very sorry to hear about the death of Carrie Fisher. She was smart and funny and likable. The one good thing about it was that it completely overshadowed the death of George Michaels. I didn't want to hear any more about what a brave heroin addict he was.

deborah said...

I'm just yanking ric's chain, ed :)

chickelit said...

OMG, I now have a chirbit voice for deborah!

chickelit said...

It'll be deep and sonorous too.

deborah said...

No worries there.

The Dude said...

Hey, even I can do a Henry Kissinger impression - rumbling monotone droning on about nothing.

Wait, no I can't - it immediately morphs into Arnold.

Has anyone seen those two in the same room at the same time?

chickelit said...

Thank you for that along with the other good times that happened under the Big Tent.

I went back to the Big Tent recently and spotted blake. Neither one of us could seem to raise the Author for a round of good cheer.

chickelit said...

William wrote: I didn't want to hear any more about what a brave heroin addict he was.

But the man was bedeviled by straight white males. In a way, it's our fault. Ask Ritmo.

deborah said...

Don't know about that, Sixty, I think K's voice is much deeper, and it's very gravelly.

chickelit said...

I agree with MamaM about Troop's old series. At it's height it was like prophesy.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Geez, you really get off on this stuff. How long ago did she die, already?

I hate to break the news to you, but even your favorite 50s/60s pinup models and sitcom stars have warts and stuff.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Really? A Kissinger avatar?

From a kitten to Kissinger. That's not too incongruent for you?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

But the man was bedeviled by straight white males. In a way, it's our fault. Ask Ritmo.

I have no idea what you're talking about. But I do hope it helps you make sense of our very human world.

And I won't even ask. Enjoy these secret, post-hoc snipes from afar.

chickelit said...

From a kitten to Kissinger. That's not too incongruent for you?

It makes perfect sense, if you're aware of the precedent.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

It makes perfect sense, if you're aware of the precedent.

Well, you could always explain it. But I get the impression you're a bigger fan of inside jokes than I am.

Sometimes even jokes so far dug inside that the cortical connections to it were given a memo saying, "On vacation, do not disturb!"

chickelit said...

I have no idea what you're talking about. But I do hope it helps you make sense of our very human world.

I was referring to your comments at Althouse where you made George Michael the sine qua non of 80's music. An equivalent to David Bowie.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

George Michael had a lot of hits and was on top of the charts for a couple years in the 1980s. Sine qua non sounds a bit exaggerated. But an homage to the way he put the right edge on an uptight time sounds in order. Sometimes you don't miss things all that much until they're gone.

The 1980s were less demanding of our art than the decades before. An analog of sorts to Bowie moreso than an equivalent. I guess it sounds treacly in retrospect but each era has its analogs. And yes, his singing voice was very, very good. A thousand times better than Bowie's voice, as great as Bowie was at all these other things we're so well aware of that of course mattered.

And whatever any of that has to do with "straight white males" and whatever they're at "fault" for I still haven't a clue. But maybe you don't either if you're willing to forget the subject so quickly.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I guess my point is that I don't see what's so hard to see about a decade-later analog to the gender bending Ziggy Stardust being a guy as selectively hyper-masculine as Michael, especially while writing/singing insanely funky warped beats such as the over-the-top blatantly direct I Want Your Sex.

Bowie was just as brave and direct, if more bizarre and iconoclastic. But an analog's an analog. FFS, women still assumed George Michael was straight. And yet, his sexuality was as overpowering and unsuspicious as Jagger's or Jim Morrison's or anyone else's. Yes, that's noteworthy.

Somehow or other, I'm confident that I'm getting at some weird culturally relevant point that music critics will probably figure out in a few decades or so.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Deborah - you're gorgeous!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

April's work with the cats will help comfort her as she quickly approaches early spinsterhood.

Yep. A lady with a 20-year+ old miniature Uma Thurman avatar really has her finger on the pulse of sexuality in America. But with someone as introverted as she is, I hesitate to use phrases with the words "finger" and "pulse." She's liable to not leave her house for days and possibly blow out a few circuits.

Whichever relative/office-colleague got her the, er, personal massager for Christmas really didn't know how badly she needed it.

deborah said...

Thank you, dahling, I'm blessed with curly hair.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

And I realize she just called another woman "gorgeous!" -- right after she switched to about the butchest old Jewish man avatar she could find.

That's our April. Incoherent as always. She loves Trump BTW, didn't ya hear?

It's all about what they do for her. Very transactional. You'd never know it, though.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

George Michael had a great pop voice.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I had no idea you were such a knock-out, Deborah.

deborah said...

High praise coming from you, gorgeous ;)

Trooper York said...

This was a call back to my old series about Watership Down. Amy was just an avatar for someone else who will remain nameless.

I wanted to honor the great Richard Adams the author of Watership Down who just past at a ripe old age.


Trooper York said...

Some authors have just one great book in them.

Michael Shaara.

Harper Lee.

John Kennedy Toole.

George Rape Rape Martin.

They either retire,: disappoint or just repeat themselves.

Chip Ahoy said...

Richard Adams! I thought that was Beatrix Potter.

chickelit said...

But maybe you don't either if you're willing to forget the subject so quickly.

I do want this to pass. Every site I visit is talking about three people I cared absolutely nothing about when they were alive. George Michael, Carrie Fisher, and now this author. And I have cared greatly about celebrities in my life, so it's not callousness. But for these three? Absolutely nada. Even now, when I try to look to see what others saw, I see nothing special. What's spookier is that people in my real life don't care about these people either. I asked them all today. So there's a real disconnect for me. This online mourning seems very made-up and manipulative and dare I say -- repulsive. Perhaps it's time I take a break.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Millions of people were affected by the works of these people but I suppose that if you weren't then why should they be so selfish as to think that what they find special - the many millions of them - should outweigh what you don't care for. You're right, because they didn't matter to you it's selfish of their fans to oppress you with their interests in them.

Trooper York said...

The death of certain celebrities effect us in different ways. Some I mourn. Some I am just indifferent. Some I will relish and cheer.

It will pass in a day or two.

New people will die.

Nobody gets out of here alive.

MamaM said...

I wanted to honor the great Richard Adams the author of Watership Down

Which you did, wonderfully in your inimitable style.

Trooper York said...

Someone emailed me just now that Richard Adams and his gentle story has become the subject of a diatribe. Heh.

Subtext is all. You know what I am talking about?

chickelit said...

Trooper York said...
The death of certain celebrities effect us in different ways. Some I mourn. Some I am just indifferent. Some I will relish and cheer.

George Soros' death will be a cause for celebration worthy of a national flash mob.