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five things that eat my brain
1. Alright, alright, I know there are two more books and I'll get my hands on them eventually but here are my initial thoughts.
+ I knew it was gonna be Roger from the moment Lyra foams at the mouth about wanting to rescue him. I strayed from my faith during the Polar Bear Duel of Awesome -- maybe it's Iorek! -- but of course it wasn't. Roger, you poor bastard -- never be the dearheart of the main character! At least, not that early on in the story. Roger obviously hasn't read the Right Sort of Books.
+ The reason I was initially put off by this book, many years ago, was because Lyra Belacqua stank of Mary Sue. First, what a name. Second, she is omgsoplucky and everyone falls over their feet to love her. (Then again, maybe the plucky lovableness is for the best; she doesn't have the Weasley-Granger tag-team to pull her out of messes after all.) Third, she has a dark unknown past, involving powerful political forces and unearthly destinies. Pullman! What Sort of Books have you been reading? Do you secretly want to be an obnoxious prepubescent girl? I mean, probably not, so I was able to get over it this time and just sink myself into the plot and the wondrous world of steampunk!England. Maybe it's part of my growing up, that I don't have to relate to the main character to enjoy a story when there's so much more going on.
+ Pullman makes a point of stating that Lyra's ability to lie is not rooted in her big imagination, that her whole effectiveness is not rooted in imagination, but her lack of it. I can see his point, but it is an interesting choice to articulate it in the book. Lyra is no Harry Potter. Whereas YA heroes and their friends usually teach us to be humble and to think before we act, Lyra is the encapsulation of the gut reaction that will hit you harder if you hit her, that breaks rules because she's bored, that lies just to feel powerful. And smokes cigarettes too. No wonder Pullman was against book age guidelines.
+ The highlariously Texan Lee Scoresby. How I love him. I love when non-American writers portray American characters.
+ WTF daemons? What's up with that grapheme?
+ On the other hand, OMG daemons! Interesting that daemons are almost always of your opposite sex -- messages of needing both feminine and masculine forces? What does it mean if your daemon is of the same sex? What if you're a hermaphrodite? What does it mean for humanity to never be completely alone because they always have their daemons? Does it mean people in this steampunk!England never get angstily lonely? What does your daemon do if you're having sex with someone? (I mean, that snow leopard/golden monkey thing was already kinda creepy.) As the scene with the Witches' Consul shows, having daemons forces you to be more honest. What is society going to do with more honest members? As the scene in Bolvangar's girls' dormitory shows, sometimes things are settled by daemons -- to what extent? It would be great if an arachnophobe got a tarantula for a daemon, harharhar. Can I play board games with my daemon? I have so many questions!
+ Pullman hates the Chronicles of Narnia.Surprise! Christians have turned his accusation of religious propaganda on its head and accused the GoldenNorthernCompassLights of just as much anti-religious propaganda. And I mean, sure. That's absolutely valid when you're writing about the Church essentially torturing and killing children. The willful ignorance of Iofur Raknison and the Dwarves at the end of The Last Battle are similar, and lead to the same lesson: if you deny what's right in front of your nose, then sucks to be you.
+ I am in lust with this steampunk!England. I haven't watched the movie but I hope it lives up to the imagery in my mind. Traveling by zeppelin! And FIVE PLANETS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. omgidie. And it still has lots of room to roam for Talking Beasts. Awesome.
2. I started reading in the bookstore one of those unofficial guides to Harry Potter, and I adored it. Not enough to buy it, but the tone reminds me of fandom meta, a gentle chiding of Rowling's inconsistencies and whatnot. I found myself wondering whether the author was involved in fandom. I was interested especially in his theories on how animal rights in the Wizarding world play a role in its isolation from the Muggle world. And! The mention of at least three academic articles written on Harry Potter!: one in a biology journal expounding how magical skills are a recessive gene, one in the self-same journal refuting it, and one in a legal journal criticizing the Ministry of Magic's bureaucracy. Bwah! No, I can't remember the title, and I tried to look it up online but seems like there are several unofficial guides. So, fuck it.
3. TV Tropes Wiki. Not just for TV. It's even more brain-eating than Wikipedia, at least twice as hilarious, and Wikipedia doesn't havefangirls/boys editors quibbling with each other in the examples section.
4. seventy times seven by dien. Boondock Saints/Sandman. No, seriously. Connor/Murphy, so warning: incest! My favorite part is with Delirium.
5. Like Lightning Fire Consumes by Signe. Bible. Cain/Abel, so warning: Christian incest!Like in Narnia.
+ I knew it was gonna be Roger from the moment Lyra foams at the mouth about wanting to rescue him. I strayed from my faith during the Polar Bear Duel of Awesome -- maybe it's Iorek! -- but of course it wasn't. Roger, you poor bastard -- never be the dearheart of the main character! At least, not that early on in the story. Roger obviously hasn't read the Right Sort of Books.
+ The reason I was initially put off by this book, many years ago, was because Lyra Belacqua stank of Mary Sue. First, what a name. Second, she is omgsoplucky and everyone falls over their feet to love her. (Then again, maybe the plucky lovableness is for the best; she doesn't have the Weasley-Granger tag-team to pull her out of messes after all.) Third, she has a dark unknown past, involving powerful political forces and unearthly destinies. Pullman! What Sort of Books have you been reading? Do you secretly want to be an obnoxious prepubescent girl? I mean, probably not, so I was able to get over it this time and just sink myself into the plot and the wondrous world of steampunk!England. Maybe it's part of my growing up, that I don't have to relate to the main character to enjoy a story when there's so much more going on.
+ Pullman makes a point of stating that Lyra's ability to lie is not rooted in her big imagination, that her whole effectiveness is not rooted in imagination, but her lack of it. I can see his point, but it is an interesting choice to articulate it in the book. Lyra is no Harry Potter. Whereas YA heroes and their friends usually teach us to be humble and to think before we act, Lyra is the encapsulation of the gut reaction that will hit you harder if you hit her, that breaks rules because she's bored, that lies just to feel powerful. And smokes cigarettes too. No wonder Pullman was against book age guidelines.
+ The highlariously Texan Lee Scoresby. How I love him. I love when non-American writers portray American characters.
+ WTF daemons? What's up with that grapheme?
+ On the other hand, OMG daemons! Interesting that daemons are almost always of your opposite sex -- messages of needing both feminine and masculine forces? What does it mean if your daemon is of the same sex? What if you're a hermaphrodite? What does it mean for humanity to never be completely alone because they always have their daemons? Does it mean people in this steampunk!England never get angstily lonely? What does your daemon do if you're having sex with someone? (I mean, that snow leopard/golden monkey thing was already kinda creepy.) As the scene with the Witches' Consul shows, having daemons forces you to be more honest. What is society going to do with more honest members? As the scene in Bolvangar's girls' dormitory shows, sometimes things are settled by daemons -- to what extent? It would be great if an arachnophobe got a tarantula for a daemon, harharhar. Can I play board games with my daemon? I have so many questions!
+ Pullman hates the Chronicles of Narnia.
+ I am in lust with this steampunk!England. I haven't watched the movie but I hope it lives up to the imagery in my mind. Traveling by zeppelin! And FIVE PLANETS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. omgidie. And it still has lots of room to roam for Talking Beasts. Awesome.
2. I started reading in the bookstore one of those unofficial guides to Harry Potter, and I adored it. Not enough to buy it, but the tone reminds me of fandom meta, a gentle chiding of Rowling's inconsistencies and whatnot. I found myself wondering whether the author was involved in fandom. I was interested especially in his theories on how animal rights in the Wizarding world play a role in its isolation from the Muggle world. And! The mention of at least three academic articles written on Harry Potter!: one in a biology journal expounding how magical skills are a recessive gene, one in the self-same journal refuting it, and one in a legal journal criticizing the Ministry of Magic's bureaucracy. Bwah! No, I can't remember the title, and I tried to look it up online but seems like there are several unofficial guides. So, fuck it.
3. TV Tropes Wiki. Not just for TV. It's even more brain-eating than Wikipedia, at least twice as hilarious, and Wikipedia doesn't have
4. seventy times seven by dien. Boondock Saints/Sandman. No, seriously. Connor/Murphy, so warning: incest! My favorite part is with Delirium.
5. Like Lightning Fire Consumes by Signe. Bible. Cain/Abel, so warning: Christian incest!
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