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kingandySo, basically, I found His Dark Materia (intentional typo) unfulfilling and a bit of a let-down. The world is very vividly imagined and superbly realised, the journey itself was excellent, epic in scale and full of promise - it's just that it ultimately didn't deliver on some of those promises. All the way through, people are going "Ooh ooh what is dust what is dust!" and, unless I missed something, it's never really dealt with. There's the part where the dust claims to be angels (but then there are real angels), and later it seems to be cognizance or something that's attracted to souls (is he saying children don't have souls?), and then there's the whole thing about shadows and craziness. It just seemed, to me, as though Pullman set out to say something profound about the human condition, and then just forgot to put it in. Plus and also, all that bit about killing God put me off a bit. I'm broadly speaking in the "Pro-God" camp, which is to say that I think if He exists in your universe then He probably shouldn't be dicked about with.[1] Deciding that He's just some crazy old angel who declared himself king and rules with an iron fist (though there's no indication of exactly how He rules; He seems mostly uncommunicative. Lord Wossname is mostly angry at the church and takes it out on the deity) doesn't seem quite fair, or believable, or something.
Then, of course, there was the unsettling child-sex. Save the universe by getting laid? I didn't get that at all. Maybe Dust is attracted to people who aren't virgins, and Lyra is such a dirty slut that she drew all the Dust away from the hole in the world or I don't know it just makes no sense. This may say more about me than the book, but I, personally, thought the ending was weak.
Which is why I don't want to go and see the stage play. Plus it is expensive and far away.
Hey, when did Northern Lights get renamed The Golden Compass?
[1] Yes, I liked Dogma.
Then, of course, there was the unsettling child-sex. Save the universe by getting laid? I didn't get that at all. Maybe Dust is attracted to people who aren't virgins, and Lyra is such a dirty slut that she drew all the Dust away from the hole in the world or I don't know it just makes no sense. This may say more about me than the book, but I, personally, thought the ending was weak.
Which is why I don't want to go and see the stage play. Plus it is expensive and far away.
Hey, when did Northern Lights get renamed The Golden Compass?
[1] Yes, I liked Dogma.
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Date: 2004-03-30 01:53 am (UTC)Maybe it's something in the water in Oxford?
There's a whole FAQ on the Golden Compass question, but it's the US title.
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Date: 2004-03-30 02:02 am (UTC)Hmm, HDM is definitely a better title than "The Golden Compass Says"...
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Date: 2004-03-30 02:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 03:52 am (UTC)But the aged angel isn't god, it's whatever rules the land of angels/Shining city. the real is far greater than asimple corporeal being. Or something. It's been a while since I read it.
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Date: 2004-03-30 03:59 am (UTC)I rather wanted God to ultimately turn out to be the Dust that spoke to Lyra through the Alethiometer, or to be uninvolved in the church's intolerance and cruelty. Or both.
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Date: 2004-03-30 04:19 am (UTC)And I took dust to be the 'fingerprints of the divine' sort a thing, which had been interfered with by entropy (aka the opposite to the Creator)
Hmm, could do with a re-read I think.
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Date: 2004-03-30 04:38 am (UTC)"
New Line Cinema deeply cares about your opinions on the director/casting/plot/ending of the movies.
They don't.
A bad adaptation will ruin the books!!!
It won't"
made me giggle
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Date: 2004-03-30 04:45 am (UTC)That would be a cool book!
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Date: 2004-03-30 04:57 am (UTC)All it takes is a stray bunsen burner...
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Date: 2004-03-30 05:35 am (UTC)