Optymistyk
New Member
My adventure with this book began two weeks ago, when while surfing the web I accidentally stumbled upon an old Disney movie called "The Fox and the Hound". Being very fond of Disney animated movies, I decided to see the film. It was great. Very, very good. Instantly became one of my favourite animated movies. The characters are very likeable, the drama is very strong for a child movie and the story is simple yet brilliant. If you are not "too old for Disney", I greatly recommend it.
But, we are not talking about the movie. When I found out that the movie was based on a book I instantly bought it. I wanted a more mature view on the story. And I got more than I was prepared for.
DO NOT judge the book based on the movie. These are two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORIES. The movie is very, very loosely based on the novel. They disagree on pretty much everything. In fact I think Disney should have just slapped a completely different name on it.
I am not going to tell you the story as you can easily find it on the internet. I am however going to tell you why I think this book is so unique.
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5.The book is told from the perspective of a fox and a bloodhound. But what sets it apart from other books with animal main characters is that these are not anthropomorphic - not biased by our human perspective. Mannix put a lot of effort into making sure they are as authentic as possible. They do not think like humans or behave like humans. They do not speak nor understand human speech. In the book there is very little dialogue because of that reason. You are rarely given what exactly a character said, and when you are it's usually a command the hunter tells his dogs. And although you can't really identify yourself with the animals, you do grow greatly attached to them. After all those are living beings with emotions just like us. It must be extremely hard to pull this off but Mannix does this with flying colours.
4. This book is so metal. People say G.R.R.Martin is a serial killer. Well, IMHO compared to Mannix Martin is just cute. This book is absolutely brutal and honest, it represents things how they are and it doesn't shy away from anything. The animals are not cute little furballs like in the movie - they are wild creatures, driven by instinct and emotions. They enjoy killing, and they often sadistically play with their querry. They hunt, they breed and they fight with each other. The humans place cruel traps and stop at nothing to get what they want or to destroy what they fear. Kind of makes me wonder who thought making a children movie based on this book was a good idea.
3. No tired cliche's, no princess to rescue, no save-the-world kind of scenario. The book is so earthbound you could easily believe this really happened. There is no good and evil too. Are the animals evil because they kill? Or is the hunter evil because he does his job? In the end you even feel sorry for the hunter, even though he does many things which seem terrible from the animal's points of view.
2. It's the 8-th story, the Holy Grail of literature. There's a theory that there are only 7 kinds of stories told over and over with slight variations. This book proves that this theory is wrong. I had no idea where the book was heading, and quite frankly at some moment I thought it had no real story behind it at all. Like "here's how it would be like to be a fox and a hunting dog, have fun". I was so wrong, the plot is so deep you could actually drown in it by the end of the book. And although the story is kind of all over the place and it could easily be compressed to 100 pages(from 200) , Mannix uses this time to make you more attached to the characters and to teach you more about foxes, dogs and nature in general.
1. The ending is absolutely ingenious. It must be one of the best endings I've ever seen. The brilliance of it stimming from the fact that, although it's told from the perspective of a fox and a dog, it's fundamentally a story about humans. And, because it's so grounded you can't just escape it by saying "well, it's just a fiction, it never really happened.". It did happen, it happens all the time and it's gonnah keep happening. The story is very relevant to our times too. You must be thinking to yourself "Yeah I know, hunting is bad bla bla bla what a twist" but actually, you'd be wrong. There's even a moment when the fox is missing the old times, when he was being hunted and things were simplier. THE FOX IS MISSING THE TIMES HE WAS BEING HUNTED. That's how bad things get by the end. The message was so strong that after finishing I just kept starring into the monitor for 30 minutes or so, reading the last chapter over and over again like a mindless zombie. It is not your usual happy ending though. I've read many sad books and this one is probably the most depressing. I had problems with sleep that night and I just can't stop thinking about it ever since I've finished reading. It's the kind of book that's going to make you hate yourself and the humanity in general.
This book is very old now and largely forgotten. It's no longer in the print, and a used copy of the book costs 90$ (I consider buying it, putting on a display and worshipping Mannix, wtf). If there's anything more depressing to me than the book itself, it's the fact that people can't recognize such good literature. So I just had to share this with you guys.Luckily you can still buy it in a digital version relatively cheap. If you like wearing new skins and can withstand a sad truth in return for philosophical enlightenment then this book is for you
But, we are not talking about the movie. When I found out that the movie was based on a book I instantly bought it. I wanted a more mature view on the story. And I got more than I was prepared for.
DO NOT judge the book based on the movie. These are two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORIES. The movie is very, very loosely based on the novel. They disagree on pretty much everything. In fact I think Disney should have just slapped a completely different name on it.
I am not going to tell you the story as you can easily find it on the internet. I am however going to tell you why I think this book is so unique.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.The book is told from the perspective of a fox and a bloodhound. But what sets it apart from other books with animal main characters is that these are not anthropomorphic - not biased by our human perspective. Mannix put a lot of effort into making sure they are as authentic as possible. They do not think like humans or behave like humans. They do not speak nor understand human speech. In the book there is very little dialogue because of that reason. You are rarely given what exactly a character said, and when you are it's usually a command the hunter tells his dogs. And although you can't really identify yourself with the animals, you do grow greatly attached to them. After all those are living beings with emotions just like us. It must be extremely hard to pull this off but Mannix does this with flying colours.
4. This book is so metal. People say G.R.R.Martin is a serial killer. Well, IMHO compared to Mannix Martin is just cute. This book is absolutely brutal and honest, it represents things how they are and it doesn't shy away from anything. The animals are not cute little furballs like in the movie - they are wild creatures, driven by instinct and emotions. They enjoy killing, and they often sadistically play with their querry. They hunt, they breed and they fight with each other. The humans place cruel traps and stop at nothing to get what they want or to destroy what they fear. Kind of makes me wonder who thought making a children movie based on this book was a good idea.
3. No tired cliche's, no princess to rescue, no save-the-world kind of scenario. The book is so earthbound you could easily believe this really happened. There is no good and evil too. Are the animals evil because they kill? Or is the hunter evil because he does his job? In the end you even feel sorry for the hunter, even though he does many things which seem terrible from the animal's points of view.
2. It's the 8-th story, the Holy Grail of literature. There's a theory that there are only 7 kinds of stories told over and over with slight variations. This book proves that this theory is wrong. I had no idea where the book was heading, and quite frankly at some moment I thought it had no real story behind it at all. Like "here's how it would be like to be a fox and a hunting dog, have fun". I was so wrong, the plot is so deep you could actually drown in it by the end of the book. And although the story is kind of all over the place and it could easily be compressed to 100 pages(from 200) , Mannix uses this time to make you more attached to the characters and to teach you more about foxes, dogs and nature in general.
1. The ending is absolutely ingenious. It must be one of the best endings I've ever seen. The brilliance of it stimming from the fact that, although it's told from the perspective of a fox and a dog, it's fundamentally a story about humans. And, because it's so grounded you can't just escape it by saying "well, it's just a fiction, it never really happened.". It did happen, it happens all the time and it's gonnah keep happening. The story is very relevant to our times too. You must be thinking to yourself "Yeah I know, hunting is bad bla bla bla what a twist" but actually, you'd be wrong. There's even a moment when the fox is missing the old times, when he was being hunted and things were simplier. THE FOX IS MISSING THE TIMES HE WAS BEING HUNTED. That's how bad things get by the end. The message was so strong that after finishing I just kept starring into the monitor for 30 minutes or so, reading the last chapter over and over again like a mindless zombie. It is not your usual happy ending though. I've read many sad books and this one is probably the most depressing. I had problems with sleep that night and I just can't stop thinking about it ever since I've finished reading. It's the kind of book that's going to make you hate yourself and the humanity in general.
This book is very old now and largely forgotten. It's no longer in the print, and a used copy of the book costs 90$ (I consider buying it, putting on a display and worshipping Mannix, wtf). If there's anything more depressing to me than the book itself, it's the fact that people can't recognize such good literature. So I just had to share this with you guys.Luckily you can still buy it in a digital version relatively cheap. If you like wearing new skins and can withstand a sad truth in return for philosophical enlightenment then this book is for you