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VERY Dark Materials
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From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 08:32:59 -0500
Ruth Gordon's comments about being unable to get through "The Golden Compass" express the way I often (okay, always) feel about fantasy, as well as the attitude with which I first approached "The Golden Compass." I read it only because it came highly recommended by another reader whose taste in books I have come to trust, and who understands my aversion to fantasy.
I didn't want to enjoy "The Golden Compass" and was sure that I wouldn't be able to get through it. Once I got past the daemons, however, which are introduced and integrated into the action right from the start, as Jo Matzner points out, I found myself entirely caught up in the story, largely on the strength of the plot and characterizations. Like Jo, I found Lyra to be one of the strongest, most compelling girl characters I have ever met in a book. I, too, appreciated the complexity of Mrs. Coulter's character, about whom readers are likely to change their minds several times in the course of reading the trilogy.
Those of us who have been told from the start that Pullman was rewriting "Paradise Lost" may have approached the books with unnecessary trepidation because, at its heart, the trilogy is just plain good storytelling. I don't even think Pullman brings in any particularly heavy ideas until the final volume, though he clearly lays the groundwork for them in the first two books.
We are lucky to have as our guest on CCBC-Net this month the books' U.K. editor, David Fickling of Random House. Perhaps David will be willing to tell us a bit about Philip Pullman's original ideas for the books, and how the stories developed.
In the meantime, please feel free to share your general impressions of His Dark Materials, or respond to the question Jo posed about the negative portrayal of the Church in the books.
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Fri 04 May 2001 08:32:59 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 08:32:59 -0500
Ruth Gordon's comments about being unable to get through "The Golden Compass" express the way I often (okay, always) feel about fantasy, as well as the attitude with which I first approached "The Golden Compass." I read it only because it came highly recommended by another reader whose taste in books I have come to trust, and who understands my aversion to fantasy.
I didn't want to enjoy "The Golden Compass" and was sure that I wouldn't be able to get through it. Once I got past the daemons, however, which are introduced and integrated into the action right from the start, as Jo Matzner points out, I found myself entirely caught up in the story, largely on the strength of the plot and characterizations. Like Jo, I found Lyra to be one of the strongest, most compelling girl characters I have ever met in a book. I, too, appreciated the complexity of Mrs. Coulter's character, about whom readers are likely to change their minds several times in the course of reading the trilogy.
Those of us who have been told from the start that Pullman was rewriting "Paradise Lost" may have approached the books with unnecessary trepidation because, at its heart, the trilogy is just plain good storytelling. I don't even think Pullman brings in any particularly heavy ideas until the final volume, though he clearly lays the groundwork for them in the first two books.
We are lucky to have as our guest on CCBC-Net this month the books' U.K. editor, David Fickling of Random House. Perhaps David will be willing to tell us a bit about Philip Pullman's original ideas for the books, and how the stories developed.
In the meantime, please feel free to share your general impressions of His Dark Materials, or respond to the question Jo posed about the negative portrayal of the Church in the books.
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Fri 04 May 2001 08:32:59 AM CDT
