Reading Again: Watership Down (Chapters 31, 34-End); Stories, Historicity, and Generation Gaps

I'm cheating a bit since the main prompt for this was in a chapter I read yesterday, but it ties in with today's reading as well.

At the end of Chapter 31, "The Story of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inlè", the young rabbits in El-ahrairah's warren saved from the siege did not appreciate their elders, or the effort they had exerted fighting for and achieving the safety they were living in. In fact, they despised their elders and their stories and said they had "nothing to do with us." El-ahrairah was grieved at this because he had suffered much to benefit the warren. He said this situation made him learn "that with creatures one loves, suffering is not the only thing for which one may pity them. A rabbit who does not know when a gift has made him safe is poorer than a slug, even though he may think otherwise himself."

The generation gap in El-ahrairah's warren was very stark. The younger generation was unwilling to learn from the older generations, and would have to learn the hard way that their positive self-perception would come crashing down when actually tried. It is easy to take credit for good things and peaceful times won through the work of others, it is much harder to acknowledge and take ownership of personal shortcomings. Better to learn to acknowledge and overcome one's shortcomings during the good times, leaning on the knowledge and experience of older generations, than ignore and deny the shortcomings until disaster proves them plainly.

The younger rabbits of the Watership warren are different in that they appreciated the tales of the older generations and were eager to hear them. But there is a danger here also. The history and lessons learned were preserved and mythologized, but this mythologization could allow younger generations to discount the myths as only stories with no real substance. Looking at religious history, one can see far too many examples of how quickly this can happen. Once historicity is thrown out the window, stories become whatever one wants and can be applied or ignored at will. We can see something like this within contemporary Christianity when the historicity of the Bible is questioned or outright denied. Once historicity goes, one loses truth and is left with a dissolving myth. Once historicity goes, lessons are lost and mistakes are repeated.

As a voracious reader, I think there is a reason why the best stories, while being unique and original, remind us of other stories. There is truth behind the best stories even if the details are fictional. Myth and fiction can be useful teaching tools in presenting themes as long as truth is held fast and not discarded with the fictions. It is a tragedy indeed when a generation, a society, a culture loses its ability to discern the difference between fiction and myth and the truths that lie behind them. Once that discernment is lost, there is only drowning in a sea of relativistic narrative that can be used or dispensed with as convenient. We'd be trapped in our own fictions unless the truth comes to save, and thankfully He does. Thankfully He does.