Today I learned

[james_davis_nicoll]

that in the UK, the film version of Watership Down was rated a children's movie when it was first released. Interesting.

Comments

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

I know you're referring to the film but I note in passing that the novel of Watership Down was on the syllabus for 11 year olds at the time and my brother studied it, as were Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies (although my teacher substituted The Inheritors instead because she thought a general genocide was more engaging for her all-female students than boys bullying each other...).

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The kids who studied Lord of the Flies in school seem to be in two categories: the ones who were just repelled and the ones who were nodding along the whole time, thinking "Somebody recognizes how it would be." I was in the second camp.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

You have my sympathy for being in the second camp. It's one of those syllabus books where pertinent commentary from a good teacher can make a significant difference to student readers.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

My class was dragged through Lord of the Flies when I was about thirteen. The extra two years may have given some of us the sophistication to be both repelled and understanding that it would be like that. Because, well, have you met boys that age?