Hello everyone, and welcome to the beginning of a new blog. I’ve been a (social) blogger for years now. I’ve had a Tumblr account that I’ve wasted a good chunk of my life on, and before that I’d write Facebook notes, before Facebook was more than nostalgic memories and constant game invites. But blogging has always been something I’ve done for myself, as sort of a digital diary, which I’ve discovered is a lot less reliable than a physical one.
But for this blog, I’d like to concentrate on artistic endeavours. I’ve been an artist my whole life, in some shape or form. I’ve been writing and drawing since I was a little kid, I’ve been painting since public school, writing poetry and novels since high school, and doing photography and working with photoshop for the last couple of years. I’ve also been shooting YouTube videos, which I upload every Friday, and I’ve been doing that since the beginning of the year (although I have slacked off a bit, but summer came up quick, and the days I usually film have been pretty busy).
As for blogging, I plan on writing a blog three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Just so you all become familiar with my posts, I plan to talk about film, television, books, music, photography, art… really anything artistic on Mondays (to kick things off, I’ll be talking about a book I recently finished). Wednesdays I’ll talk about something related to my own writing or photography. I’m in the middle of writing the third book in the A Chronicle of Crowns series (currently available through Amazon), and I’m working on compiling a poetry book as well! Fridays (and I’m very excited for these days), I’ll be doing interviews with other artists. This week I have an interview lined up with my close friend and visual artist, Taylor DeMille.
But lets continue with today’s post!
“All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.”
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Watership Down! Odds are you’ve heard of this novel before. That’s because it’s a classic. It’s an adventure novel, written by English author Richard Adams and first published in 1972, and features a cast of rabbits. That’s right, rabbits. It takes place in southern England, and tells the tale of the rabbits of Watership Down, from their journey to discover their new home, to their desperate quest to find does to help populate their new home.
I’d first read this book in high school. It was a Grade 11 Classic Lit class, and even though I liked it, I’m pretty sure I read like… three chapters and then put it down. I had a lot of other stuff to do, okay! At least, I probably did… But for some reason, the book had constantly popped back into my mind ever since. Every once in a while, I’d be thinking about Watership Down, how I needed to read it and actually finish it, how I remembered it being really dark… at least for a novel about rabbits. But whenever I’d check for it at Chapters or other bookstores, they’d never have it. I had completely forgotten about it until one day, this past spring, I was at a local library that was having a book sale. I’m always looking for a score on books, being an author myself I’ve learned a lot about plot, character development, and the act of writing, from reading. And in fact, it’s one of the most important things any writer can do to develop their skill. Anyway, where was I…? Right, the book sale. So I was looking around, seeing if they had anything good to offer, and was shocked to find Watership Down. And, they only wanted 25 cents for it, so, that was alright with me.
I have a long TBR list; I have this habit of picking up books faster than I can read them. And I have been reading a lot more this year. Every time I read five books I make a YouTube video about them, and that’s actually been a huge motivational factor. But I pushed aside a lot of books to make room for this one because it’d been on my mind for so long. And I was glad I did.
Too be honest, it took me a while to read, though in my defense it is a big novel, and even though the action wasn’t exactly fast-paced (I mean, it is about rabbits after all), the description and writing was so beautiful. I’ve never read a simple, commonplace scene written so well as in this book. Take a look at this quote:
“Mixed with the resinous scent of the firs there came another smell, strong and fragrant, yet sharp—the perfume of flowers, but of some kind unknown to Hazel. He followed it to its source at the edge of the wood. It came from several thick patches of soapwort growing along the edge of the pasture. Some of the plants were not yet in bloom, their buds curled in pink, pointed spirals held in the pale green calices, but most were already star-flowering and giving off their strong scent. The bats were hunting among the flies and moths attracted to the soapwort.”
The whole novel is riddled with descriptive little passages like these – the flowers that are bloom, the direction of the wind, the way the leaves in the forests sway – and I know some people might find those passages boring, but to me, they were beautifully written words that painted such a calm and detailed painting. Yes, I found the pacing of the novel to be very slow, I didn’t think much happened plot-wise, but the whole piece was so beautifully wrapped up in this slow, day-to-day pace, that didn’t leave you on the edge of your seat, so much as leaving you settled after a day of rushing about.
I know talking about the pastoral scenes of Watership Down isn’t exactly the explosive first blog post a lot of people would start off with, but I was very touched by the beauty in this novel. And I highly recommend it, especially for fantasy novelists who are fans of Tolkien’s highly descriptive work. So if you find yourself in need of some stress relief, brew yourself up some tea, find a comfortable chair, and unwind with Watership Down, it’s definitely worth it.
