Jungle Farm/ Battle of the Animals

These are two different ideas that got merged into one. Both are the kind of ideas that only make sense to the mind of a child, and in order to understand them you have to try and enter that mindset.

The first idea was that a farmer moves his farm into the jungle. Initially he did it just for the challenge, but in later versions he was fleeing a troubled past back home, and the jungle was the only place he could start a new life.

Again, this needs to be understood through the lense of a child, where both the idea of a farm and that of a jungle represent clearly defined images from cartoons and picture books. A farm has a barn, a guy in a farmer’s hat, cows, horses, chickens, sheep, and all the usual barnyard animals, no more no less. The jungle is a wild place where tigers and alligators are lurking behind every corner. Can the farmer and his farm animals defend themselves against all the wild beasts? Lots of adventures are sure to follow.

The second idea was also based on the childhood image of a farm. In this case the animals revolt against the farmer and fight for their freedom. In the first version the farmer was an evil tyrant. In later versions the farmer is not a bad guy, and the story would be sympathetic to both the farmer and the animals. I was at the age where I thought it would be cool to write a war epic with no good guys or bad guys. Around this time I had started several such stories, but very few of them ever got beyond the idea phase.

Eventually these two ideas got combined. The farmer goes out to the jungle, and against all odds he makes his farm prosper. The first animals to try and drive him out are an alligator and a tiger, who attack him together. It is a long bloody battle, but eventually the farmer is victorious. He then nurses the wounded Alligator and Tiger back to health, and comes to earn their respect, after which the Alligator and the Tiger join the animals on the farm.

After the reader has admired the farmer through all this struggle, when the battle between the animals and the farmer finally breaks out, the reader does not know who to support. Do you support the animals in their battle for freedom, or the farmer who has sacrificed so much to get the farm started?

The first versions of this story appeared during 3rd grade. I had come up with the idea for my own writing, but tried to incorporate it into a writing assignment at one point. (My 3rd grade teacher was less than enthused).

The story was in the back of my mind for a long time after that, on and off the back burner. I would sometimes start writing a version of it, then get discouraged and go onto something else.

When my parents bought their first computer and word processor, this was the first story I started writing on it (circa 6th or 7th grade). As is often the case, my imagination was running way ahead of my writing ability. As I struggled to write the first few chapters, I had already envisioned a whole series. After the epic battle, the farmer and the animals work out a power sharing agreement, and go on to have many more adventures in the jungle.

It was around this time that my fascination with comic books was beginning, so I envisioned this as my own comic book (without the pictures). Every animal on the farm would be named and indexed on another sheet of paper, and they would all have their own separate adventures as well as over arching plot lines that would incorporate all of the farm. I could sell issues to members of my family (I didn’t envision much more of an audience) and even invite them to write in their own animal characters and adventures if they wanted.

I began writing the first story, which concerned the back-story of the farmer. It turns out he is a prince and heir to the thrown, but his brother wants the kingdom instead and tries to kill him. They have a fight in which the farmer wins, but not caring for riches or power, gives up the throne to his brother anyway. He then leaves together with his best friend to pursue their joint dream of starting a farm in the jungle.

(In all previous drafts, the farmer had simply been known as Farmer Jones, which I had stuck somewhere in my mind as the standard name for all farmers. I must have gotten it from a children’s book or a fischer price toy somewhere along the line. When I started creating a list of all the characters around 6th grade, I decided it would be cool to use only names from the Bible, so I changed the farmer’s name to Timothy. I don’t remember any of the other character’s names).

After writing the first chapter, I started to print off several copies on the printer to sell to the rest of the family. My mother stopped me because it was a waste of ink. She volunteered to use the copy machine at work, and I gave it to her on the promise that she wouldn’t read it first. She returned it to me the next day and said, “I noticed there are a lot of typos in here. Why don’t you fix those before we start making copies?”

You can never trust parents. Woe to any child who doesn’t learn this quickly on. We had a debate about whether she had broken her promise, and she justified herself by saying she shouldn’t have had to make that promise in the first place, and as my mother she had a right to read everything I wrote without having to pay for it.

I never did get the copies made, and the quarrel left a bad taste in my mouth. I lost enthusiasm for this project shortly after that. (Although given my track record, that probably would have happened regardless).

Influence on Other Works
The idea of taking names straight from the Bible, which I had initially used here just because I had to think of a lot of names for all the animals, was one I continued in several other stories, incorporating both Biblical and classical names as the main source for my stories.

The idea of a comic-book type serial was one I used again in Fabulae.