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This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Welcome to Fortress

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Fiction episode 12. Join me as I talk about The Wind and the Willows by

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Kenneth Graham, written or published at least in 1908. In this book we

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see the adventures of a riverbank community of animals including mole, rat,

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and toad. I guess Badger didn't make it into this AI generated thing because he

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doesn't technically live on the riverbank but that's okay. So question, does

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this book belong in a place of honor in the fortress in the fortress fiction? My

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answer is a firm no but more about that later. First I'm going to tell you how

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you can read this book if you want to investigate it yourself. This book can be

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borrowed free from Cloud Library. You can obtain it again free from Project

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Gutenberg, the text file of it, and LibriVox for an audiobook version of it.

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Your local library, you can also get it for you there and then you can purchase

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it from the publisher's website and many other online retailers including

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audiobook format or in audiobook format from Kobo and Audible. So other works by

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the author which my inclusion of these here is not an endorsement of the author

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or these other books it's just letting you know if you like this and you want

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to investigate more of what the author is like or what more of the author's

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works are you can look here and find them. So in 1894 he published Pagan

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Papers. In 1895 he published The Golden Age. In 1898 he published The Head's

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Woman. Dreamy Days came in 1898 which includes a story called The Relecting

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Dragon and The Wind of the Willows was published in 1908 a long time later.

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That's a very interesting span of years. So I have the bibliography

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rather sourced in the show notes which you can find over on mjmwnews.com and

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now as for the qualities of this book I'll go ahead and talk about it I made a

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few notes here to discuss. So Toad is quite the scamp though he may be headed

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toward reform at the end of the book perhaps and probably Toad, Mr. Toad, is

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my biggest problem with this book. He's maybe... so first of all or not first of

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all an amendment real quick. This book is strange in that it takes place in a

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world where animals are capable of speech in human society. They're capable

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of driving carriages, leading horses, harnessing them, driving automobiles,

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passing as washerwomen as Toad does in the book at some point. I looked into

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picture books of this, illustrated books because the original book is

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illustrated and or had illustrations very early on I should say and there's a

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range of approaches to the illustrations that are made. In some

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illustrations the animal people are the animals are rather large very close to

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human size and others they are very diminutive realistic size you would say

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and others range in between. So it's a little hard to identify exactly what's

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going on here and it sounds even at some point like there is an area place I

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believe it's the well I can't remember which location it is actually at this

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point but it sounds like oh I guess Mr. Toad's hall was begun or is it Badger's

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home? I think it's Badger's home actually was something begun by people and then

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there was war or some sort of unrest and people left and then Badger came into it

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and added to it and finished it. I believe it was Badger's hole or his

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dwelling and I couldn't tell if people was being used of animals as it had been

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used previously in the book I believe or if it was being used of humans and the

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problem with these anthropomorphic animals is that they have human I mean

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they're anthropomorphic they are basically humans but when you mix them

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into a world of actual humans then it muddies the water and makes things

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difficult to understand so that's something to understand for you for you

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know for the full context of this book and also I would say I don't remember

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when Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and whatever was made it was before this

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book in time for sure I don't remember how many years it preceded it but there's

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a bit of the I was gonna say the folly of Alice there's a little bit of the absurdity

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of Alice in Wonderland in this book and a little bit of like the joking and

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playing with language and parlor humor I think is the word the phrase that they

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used in the biography that I read the extra information like the extra

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features for the Alice in Wonderland book and that's interesting a little more

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entertaining in this and definitely this had much a much stronger narrative and

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more of a focused story but still it feels like an adventure and it feels

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like it's a little random a little be being made up on the on the fly so those

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are kind of some issues I have but getting back to mr. toad he is

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definitely an immoral figure at the end towards the end he is being wronged by

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certain individuals and he performs a recovery arrayed a I don't know what you

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would call it and I feel like he's in the right for doing that but all of his

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other actions throughout the story are quite either immoral or they're morally

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in the gray and I find it very curious and there are a little comments in their

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concern in the book about like almost like criminal justice reform and how

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the there's a train operator in there who doesn't want to be bossed around by

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police on his own train he wants to be left to do what he wants to do or left

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to conduct his train as he's upon connect his train as he sees fit and

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there's some interesting ideas about like personal responsibility and

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freedom and things like that but it's all handled in such an absurdist way and

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all the crimes of mr. toad for example are hand-waved away so that it's not an

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effective statement it's not a meaningful statement that's being made

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it's just kind of something thrown in there and I'm not quite sure why it was

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thrown in there maybe for the adults who were reading these books or this story

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or this you know the stories in this book to children I'm not sure so mole

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rat and badger are much better in terms of character and yet they are as

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delightful as toad if not more so so you would think that if they're not cad's

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and you know tricksters that they would be less entertaining as characters but

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there's a sweetness to them there's a serious to them there's a bravery and a

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courage they want to get they help each other out of jams let's say and they

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help mr. toad out of trouble as well and honestly they're the ones who are trying

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to reform him and in their efforts to reform him they have a camaraderie and a

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fellowship and an understanding and like a very good stance that they take and

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here you may criticize me for you know being school marmish or wanting there to

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be a moral to everything and well that's so much true I definitely like rebellious

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independent strong characters who are willing to buck the system when they

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have to and do things that are not considered proper or things that are not

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legal because they're moral and they're right but mr. toad just like he's just

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like a criminal really and he's their friend and yeah they're kind of

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complicit in a way because they're letting him do these things but they

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try to stop him they try to intervene and they try to make him a better person

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try to reform him person so he's not toad person and like I said it may not

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work in the end so that's interesting but they are very interesting characters

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very compelling I like their relationships with each other

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most of it's not very meek the river rat that he meets who just calls rat or

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ratty is very an interesting character and badgers like a he's like a more

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experienced person who has been through a lot and he's trying to teach mold to

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be more than he is now and badger is a mature mentor figure and he's proud of a

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lot of moles actions and he really like he recognizes him for growing so much

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throughout the course of the narrative and he kind of disrespects toad for

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failing to grow and he helps to push his growth in his reformation so it's really

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interesting let's see like I said before the narrative is a bit meandering there

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were some points at which I was listening to the book and I thought how

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did we get here what's going on here I don't quite understand and that's

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probably a lack of attention to some extent I'll be honest but also the first

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half of the book the first three or so hours of it were really good and really

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kept my attention and as it went on and I realized that toad was who he was and

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that the narrative was pretty okay with him being that way I mean you can argue

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that it's not because he gets thrown in jail and things like that I became a

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little less invested and a little I don't know more frustrated or something

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with his character and it was a little bit I don't know harder to stick with

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toad I definitely found everybody else's story more compelling and the parts of

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the story where it focused on them was much more enjoyable so that's

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interesting I think there's a better book in there but or at least one better

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suited to my taste but it isn't quite there as is and therefore that's why I'm

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kind of poo-pooing it this book is this is interesting to me this book is

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reported to be a favorite of J.R.R. Tolkien of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and

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while I can believe it given its charm and its literary flair I do find it

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somewhat surprising because toad is so immoral and I would figure I know was it

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a favorite book of his when he was a kid or was it a favorite of his when he was an adult

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there are some interesting elements of fairy in here though that are

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inexplicable and the readers get to know about them and then they're after

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the fact they're de facto dramatically ironic because the two characters who

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interface with the fairy are made to forget it and it's really interesting

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it's a really interesting passage it's very beautifully written there's a lot

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of literary merit to this as far as how it's written and how the story is

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constructed or the I guess how the prose is constructed whether or not the story

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you know holds as strong as the prose I think I'll say this the prose is

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stronger than the story and the story is stronger than the morals yes the moral

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the morality is the weakest the story is stronger than that and the prose is

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stronger than both of them anyway as an aside or going down on a toll

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contingent real quick there are a lot of hobbitish elements in the book as well

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as something that feels like the scouring of the Shire and I'm not giving

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anything away if you start the book in chapter one you'll see things that are

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hobbitish and if you've read Lord of the Rings and you know what the scouring of

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the Shire is then you'll understand what I'm talking about and if you haven't

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it's something to look forward to and it's a fantastic part of Return of the

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King so don't start the books trying thinking you'll get it right away it's

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definitely at the end but it's something really cool and it's a thing I love in

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Lord of the Rings one of my favorite things Lord of the Rings actually and

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there's a taste of it here which is really interesting overall I enjoyed this

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book but I would not immediately recommend it to young children I'd be

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comfortable suggesting it to a young teen and adults with a taste for whimsy

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will like will likely enjoy it I had a few outbursts of laughter while listening

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to the book and it was overall very enjoyable there's just some things that

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dragged for me especially with Toad who I didn't like although Toad did give me a

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few laughs so it just goes to show that's how it is sometimes and overall I

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did enjoy the book just it's not a part of the portrait fiction it's not a

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fundamental part of it and that's all I have to say for now until next time take

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care be well keep reading I hope you enjoyed that go to MJMunoz.com to

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leave any questions comments or other feedback you might have there you can

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find all of my analysis art and fiction I cover books tokusatsu comic books anime

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