I’m trying to ignore the headlines, the doom and gloom, and the political turmoil around us as I work on a chapter to be included in a book celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Watership Down, by Richard Adams. The book will include contributions from various participants in a conference hosted in 2022 at the University of Glasgow by the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic (https://fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk). My own contribution will discuss Bunnies and Burrows, the role-playing game that B. Dennis Sustare and I published in 1976, and the connections between Watership Down and role-playing games.
In the course of thinking about this chapter, I had the occasion to read the introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of Watership Down, written by Madeline Miller. Miller is best known for her celebrated novels that revisit the world of Greek mythology: The Song of Achilles and Circe. Both novels were highly praised, the former winning the Orange Prize for Fiction. But her introduction to WD was the reason for this blog post.
In summarizing what she loved about the novel, she reminded readers that the characters in Watership Down are not demigods or classic heroes. In her words, “when you aren’t half immortal, when you don’t have ichor in your veins, when you’re a prey animal who has a thousand enemies trying to eat you”, well, that is the stuff of real heroism. In particular, she calls attention to the qualities of Hazel that makes him a great leader.
“Hazel is anything but traditionally heroic. He begins the novel a gangly outcast with little physical strength and ends it permanently disabled. His notable traits are his gentleness, his quiet conviction in doing what’s right and his willingness to listen to things others would dismiss.”
“He isn’t the best fighter (Bigwig), the fastest (Dandelion), the best storyteller (Dandelion again), the cleverest (Blackberry), the farthest seeing (Fiver), or the most authoritative (Holly). But he has several tremendous gifts, first and foremost his humility. Like Socrates, he knows what he doesn’t know. He is emotionally intelligent… He has integrity: when he makes mistakes, he apologizes for them. And, if the sign of a civilization’s strength is how it cares for its most vulnerable members, Hazel is exemplary there too.”
These character qualities were among the features that Dennis and I wanted most to bring to the role-playing game, Bunnies & Burrows. I think we succeeded, if continuing interest in the game—which is approaching it’s own half-century anniversary—is any indication. In fact, I’ll be running B&B tournaments at several gaming conventions next year, including the Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo in January and North Texas Role-Playing Game Con in Dallas in June.
But that is not what prompted this post. Rather, I’m concerned about the times in which we live and the choices we must face. What we need, in my opinion, is a leader with the qualities of Hazel: intuitively kind and decent, not necessarily the smartest or strongest or most glib, but one that surrounds himself with the best people. We don’t need a wanna-be Woundwort. We need someone who, despite some infirmities, knows the difference between right and wrong. This November, choose Hazel.
Scott R. Robinson 