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I've been trying all day to frame my thoughts about Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I saw the movie The Golden Compass some time ago (my thoughts are here) and came away from it with a vague sense of dissatisfaction and a number of questions. After the urgings of you lot to give the books a try, I purchased them. To be fair, I haven't read the third book yet, only The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife (or whatever you Brits call them). Even so, I think I can state definitively:
I don't like them.
On the one hand, I want to excuse it by saying it's a YA book, but I think it's a disservice to YA to suggest that, just because a book is for a younger audience it doesn't have to be well written, and, having read any number of YA books, even in my adulthood, it would be just untrue for me to dismiss an entire genre because of what I see as the failings of this one author. I mean, I think Madeline L'Engle's books still hold up remarkably well whether being read by a child or an adult and I know that there are concepts that went over my head as a Wee Young Thing that I only came to understand in my (theoretical) maturity. Though less world-shaking to me, I think the Harry Potter's books are another example of books that are superficially YA but stand up pretty well to adult scrutiny. I don't feel the same about the Dark Materials books.
( And here is why: spoilers for The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife. )</blockquote>
In any case, I still plan to read through to the end. If nothing else, Pullman has a grasp of what Stephen King calls the gimme; the desire to know what happens next regardless of what you think about the actual prose. I think I'm very susceptible to the gimme; I find myself reading all manner of stories I don't really enjoy because I'm interested to see the entirety of the structure. I want to see the nuts and bolts but I also want to see the finishing touches. Plus, I'm just fucking stubborn. So. There is that.
In other randomness, I caught the first series of an old BBC show called The Book Group. Strangely enough, it stars Anne Dudek, who played Amber the heinous bitch on House this season. I was rather disappointed at the open-endedness of the series, but overall, I found it really interesting and I hope to find a way to see the second series. I was amused, though, when ( cut for spoiler )
I think at this point La Muse has been gone long enough for me to put out a Missing Persons Report, his good-bye letter 1200 words of fic for a story I'm not even working on. *cries* The thing is, I get so completely out of sorts when I'm not writing. I'm not writing. I am out of sorts. I miss Kink. He's a bastard, but he's my bastard. If you see him, please send him home. Quickly.
I don't like them.
On the one hand, I want to excuse it by saying it's a YA book, but I think it's a disservice to YA to suggest that, just because a book is for a younger audience it doesn't have to be well written, and, having read any number of YA books, even in my adulthood, it would be just untrue for me to dismiss an entire genre because of what I see as the failings of this one author. I mean, I think Madeline L'Engle's books still hold up remarkably well whether being read by a child or an adult and I know that there are concepts that went over my head as a Wee Young Thing that I only came to understand in my (theoretical) maturity. Though less world-shaking to me, I think the Harry Potter's books are another example of books that are superficially YA but stand up pretty well to adult scrutiny. I don't feel the same about the Dark Materials books.
( And here is why: spoilers for The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife. )</blockquote>
In any case, I still plan to read through to the end. If nothing else, Pullman has a grasp of what Stephen King calls the gimme; the desire to know what happens next regardless of what you think about the actual prose. I think I'm very susceptible to the gimme; I find myself reading all manner of stories I don't really enjoy because I'm interested to see the entirety of the structure. I want to see the nuts and bolts but I also want to see the finishing touches. Plus, I'm just fucking stubborn. So. There is that.
In other randomness, I caught the first series of an old BBC show called The Book Group. Strangely enough, it stars Anne Dudek, who played Amber the heinous bitch on House this season. I was rather disappointed at the open-endedness of the series, but overall, I found it really interesting and I hope to find a way to see the second series. I was amused, though, when ( cut for spoiler )
I think at this point La Muse has been gone long enough for me to put out a Missing Persons Report, his good-bye letter 1200 words of fic for a story I'm not even working on. *cries* The thing is, I get so completely out of sorts when I'm not writing. I'm not writing. I am out of sorts. I miss Kink. He's a bastard, but he's my bastard. If you see him, please send him home. Quickly.
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