Wind in the Willows

[KEV67]

I have just bought this book again. I have started it before, but I never managed to get to the end. I think my father read it to us, but I don't think he got to the end. Last time I tried it as an audio book on CD, but I was a bit suspicious it was a BBC adaption, not a straight reading. It certainly seemed pretty gay. Perhaps it is gay, but I do not trust the BBC with their adaptions any more. This time I plan to read it from the end to the beginning. I mean I am going to read chapter 12 first, then chapter 11, etc. I am not going to read page 192 first, then 191, etc. I have done this with other books I wanted to have read, but had trouble finishing. I did with with Don Quixote and The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. The Wind in the Willows should be easy compared with those.

[poppy]

The Wind In the Willows is a delightful book. I didn't read it until I was an adult but thoroughly enjoyed it, only wish I'd read it as a child so I could compare my impressions.

[KEV67]

Reading it backwards, it seems to presage the Russian Revolution only, in real life, the White Russian counter-revolution failed.

[France]

I was read the Wind in the Willows when I was about six and I can remember the feeling of being utterly transported by the magic and fantasy of the story. I was already a reader but it was mostly animal stories like Black Beauty and a series about Bob the sheepdog, the Wind in the Willows gave me a taste for the magical and different which I've never lost.

[PYX]

8 hours ago, France said:

I was read the Wind in the Willows when I was about six and I can remember the feeling of being utterly transported by the magic and fantasy of the story. I was already a reader but it was mostly animal stories like Black Beauty and a series about Bob the sheepdog, the Wind in the Willows gave me a taste for the magical and different which I've never lost.

Oh yeah, I love that book! It's just such a feel-good, funny, engaging story. It's got so much heart and coziness, but also a real sense of adventure. And you always come away having learned something too.

[KEV67]

10 hours ago, France said:

I was read the Wind in the Willows when I was about six and I can remember the feeling of being utterly transported by the magic and fantasy of the story. I was already a reader but it was mostly animal stories like Black Beauty and a series about Bob the sheepdog, the Wind in the Willows gave me a taste for the magical and different which I've never lost.

If you could read Wind in the Willows when you were six then you were precocious. I think the reading age for that book is much higher than that.

[France]

12 hours ago, KEV67 said:

If you could read Wind in the Willows when you were six then you were precocious. I think the reading age for that book is much higher than that.

Wind in the Willows was read to me though I read Black Beauty when I was five (my mother left off reading it to me to answer the telephone and I got so impatient that I picked it up and realised I could read it myself and finished it on my own). I was home schooled, was on my own in the middle of the country and basically barely ever saw children of my own age so reading and going for long walks with the dog were my two chief occupations - passions I still have today.

[KEV67]

The interaction between humans, animals and animals that seem like humans is doing my nut. For instance, Toad can ride a horse, so he is man-sized. He is large enough and can speak well enough so as to disguise himself as a washer woman.  The horse is just a horse, however.  So what size is Mole and Ratty. In another chapter Ratty gets talking to a sea rat, as if they are the same species.  But Ratty is actually a water vole while the sea rat is a rat. The prison warden's daughter likes animals, but surely pets, not animals that are really humans. 

[PYX]

On 6/24/2024 at 1:41 PM, KEV67 said:

If you could read Wind in the Willows when you were six then you were precocious. I think the reading age for that book is much higher than that.

'The Wind in the Willows' is definitely not the easiest book out there. The language is pretty sophisticated, and there are a lot of deeper layers of meaning.

[KEV67]

Just finished reading The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Jolly glad young Portly was fine. Personally I agree with Mole: children should not be over protected, and should be allowed to enjoy their childhood. Nevertheless, religion and mysticism in the animal kingdom! So Richard Adams was not the first to do it in Watership Down. The writing style was poetic. This barely seems like a children's story. It's not exactly Beatrix Potter. Mind you, I have not read any Beatrix Potter, so I cannot say that with any authority.

[KEV67]

I think Toad's interest in motor cars is really a metaphor for heroin addiction. I thought Badger, Ratty and Mole were maybe unjustified in falsely imprisoning Toad when he wanted to drive his new motor car. However,  if really they were only trying to keep him off the smack to stop him killing himself, then maybe their actions are forgivable. 

[poppy]

I read it purely as a book that celebrated friendship and the adventures they had together. 

[KEV67]

I got to the chapter in which Mole finds his own home. In the BBC CD I bought it was quite different and definitely implied Mole and Ratty were a gay couple. In the book Mole was overcome by emotion of coming across his old home. They find some food in cupboards and beer in the cellar. Then some fieldmice carol singers come around. Eventually they retire to their separate bunks. Absolutely no gay sex implied. However, if the last chapter is about class warfare and revolution; Toad's fascination with motor cars being an analogy for heroin addiction; the Piper by the Gates of Dawn being whatever that was about, then maybe this chapter is about gay love.

Edited June 30, 2024 by KEV67

[poppy]

In an aside, Pink Floyd named one of their albums The Piper at the Gates of Dawn after the Wind in the Willows reference.

[KEV67]

On 7/1/2024 at 7:48 AM, poppy said:

In an aside, Pink Floyd named one of their albums The Piper at the Gates of Dawn after the Wind in the Willows reference.

Is it one with Sid Barrett and is it any good?

The next chapter is Wild Wild Wood. Iirc Paul Weller sang a song called that. Just checked and I think the title is Wild Wood, although Weller sang, "...find your way out of the wild, wild wood"

[poppy]

11 hours ago, KEV67 said:

Is it one with Sid Barrett and is it any good?

The next chapter is Wild Wild Wood. Iirc Paul Weller sang a song called that. Just checked and I think the title is Wild Wood, although Weller sang, "...find your way out of the wild, wild wood"

 

I'm not familiar with the songs on that album. The first Pink Floyd album I heard was Dark Side of the Moon.

 

In another aside, when I was twelve we moved to a small farm that had been called Wild Woods by the previous owner. I didn't realise until later that it came from The Wind In the Willows. 

[KEV67]

I am trying to work out what Wild Wood is really about. Badger reminds me of Tom Bombadil in LotR. The Wild Wood is a place where you should feel safe but you don't. It is a place that is easy to get into but difficult to get out of. I think it must be a metaphor for a psychological state. If that is the case then what does that make Badger? He is someone very big and friendly. So maybe the Wild Wood is a childish, psychological state. After all, it is a children's book, supposedly. 

 

[KEV67]

Finished it, yowzer! I just read the introduction by A.A. Milne. He wrote that the book judged the reader. If the reader did not like it then he or she was deficient in some important way. 

[PYX]

On 7/5/2024 at 9:56 AM, KEV67 said:

Finished it, yowzer! I just read the introduction by A.A. Milne. He wrote that the book judged the reader. If the reader did not like it then he or she was deficient in some important way. 

He implies that if the story didn’t resonate, maybe there’s something 'off' with the reader. That can definitely sound a bit harsh.