DDW Challenge; at the movies. Rabbits

Don’t be fooled by their looks. We know from both Watership Down (1998) and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) that Lepus curpaeums, or Bunnies as we call them, can turn very, very nasty.

Or, if not nasty, then just plain weird; for example, Rabbits (David Lean, 2002).

For years, rabbit scholars have studied this rather puzzling phenomenom; how did bunny go bad?

Various reasons have been put forward; drugs, drink, something nasty in the woodshed (although there is only one recorded instance of this which was at Cold Comfort Farm).

I modestly offer my own contribution to this debate; I call it The Curse of Miss Potter.

Beatrix Potter was a writer turned farmer, who in the late Victorian period wrote an account of a widowed Rabbit trying to stop her children, three daughters and a son, from entering a vegetable patch owned by a local farmer, Mr McGregor. While the daughters took their mother’s advice, the son, Peter, did not.

He was by all accounts already a bit of a rebel; I think this stems from his realisation that he is different from the others. While his sisters are given names like Mopsy, Floppsy, and Cotton-tail, his name, Peter, marks his out as macho rather than cutesy. A heavy burden for one so young.

At some point in the narrative his character changes and the seeds of later notoriety, not just for him but many fictional rabbits are sown. Some have suggested it was due to the ‘incident with Mr McGregor’s sieve’. I think it something far more traumatic and much closer to home; I suggest it’s when Beatrix Potter writes “your Father was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor”. After this he really goes off the rails, hiding in watering cans, eating too much parsley and so on.

He then seems to disappear for a while. His attempt in 1938 to break into movies is doomed when his nemesis, Ms Potter, falls out with Walt Disney. An appearance in the 1971 ballet, The Tales of Beatrix Potter were thought by many to be a chance of rehabilitation but he leaves the production in a huff when he realises he’s been typecast yet again as a mischievous character.

Eventually he calls it a day and resigns himself to appearances as a garden ornament.

Or does he?

If you are brave enough to view this large then I think you’ll see something rather sinister lurking in the second row. It's him, quietly biding his time. Waiting for the signal.


PS. Thanks to everyone for yesterday's comments. The image made the Spotlight.