50 Book Challenge, book 24
Jun. 19th, 2007 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deliriumcrowThe Subtle Knife, Phillip Pullman
Second in teh His Dark Materials trilogy.
Now really. Milton for kids? That's really what this boils down to, and I find it disturbingly lovely. Says the girl who read Poe from the second grade.
IT's not the standard "Good vs Evil" book, in that neither good not evil is all that appealing, though at least evil might be a little more honest about it. The first book worked a little better as a standalone, in ym opinion, as the second was a little more obviously a setup for the third book, which I now absolutely MUST GET. It's slower than the first, un that it took me thre days to read it rather than one, but all the same, it was intense. I expect the third book will be full of all the terrible urgency the first one had.
Yes, it talks about religion. And science, and the intersection of the two, whic isn't so much an intersection here (at least in some worlds) as a co-mingling. And, well, the church is pretty much evil, as evil as the evil side of the war. Not that wither side sees itself as evil. Both think, of course, that they are right, which is why they fight in the first place. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that it's ignorance for the common people (theoretically good) vs education and exploration (or knowledge and power) for the common people (theoretically evil).
I honestly am surprised that people would write things like this for children, more so than before. I'd been under the impression that teaching things like religious criticism was frowned on for anyone under the age of 25 or so, but this ... it's pretty well subversive. And I'm not really sure that even a child would be able to miss that, and I'm now wondering if the censors ever noticed that.
Ok, so to be more clear, I'm not actually sure that the argumetn is against religion itself, or against specifically the way it's handled by mortal authorities. And I have no real problem with that (or with anything else really, I'm a grown up and am more than capable of making my own decisions regarding my beliefs) as I honestly *do* think that mortal authorities have a bad habit of fucking shit up. Like, oh, the Crusades and the Inquisition. Those be the Really Big Examples. There are lesser ones, various formes of religious abuse that I've seen from the Priesthood on down to children fighting in the school yard. Yes, it does happen, and in my own school when I was a child. Yes, it's silly. But when they grow up and continue doign it, it's no longer silly, it's actually dangerous -- it just shows that there's a disturbing trend of religious intollerance being taught -- again, mortal authirity going wrong. And really, that's a big part of why I left the church. So far, no one has really said anything against God in the book. BEcause, well, he's pretty much just there, He doesn't intervene, and doesn't much seem to care. It's very Deist in that respect, actually, unless he's somehow influencing probabbility and chance and messengers? I don't know and probably won't until the third book, which will hopefully make everything clear.
Though the Lyra in the first few chapters was much more annoying and much less capable than the Lyra in the first book. She seemed much, much younger, and much more silly, and in truth I didn't much like her at first. Which was odd, given the last book.
Second in teh His Dark Materials trilogy.
Now really. Milton for kids? That's really what this boils down to, and I find it disturbingly lovely. Says the girl who read Poe from the second grade.
IT's not the standard "Good vs Evil" book, in that neither good not evil is all that appealing, though at least evil might be a little more honest about it. The first book worked a little better as a standalone, in ym opinion, as the second was a little more obviously a setup for the third book, which I now absolutely MUST GET. It's slower than the first, un that it took me thre days to read it rather than one, but all the same, it was intense. I expect the third book will be full of all the terrible urgency the first one had.
Yes, it talks about religion. And science, and the intersection of the two, whic isn't so much an intersection here (at least in some worlds) as a co-mingling. And, well, the church is pretty much evil, as evil as the evil side of the war. Not that wither side sees itself as evil. Both think, of course, that they are right, which is why they fight in the first place. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that it's ignorance for the common people (theoretically good) vs education and exploration (or knowledge and power) for the common people (theoretically evil).
I honestly am surprised that people would write things like this for children, more so than before. I'd been under the impression that teaching things like religious criticism was frowned on for anyone under the age of 25 or so, but this ... it's pretty well subversive. And I'm not really sure that even a child would be able to miss that, and I'm now wondering if the censors ever noticed that.
Ok, so to be more clear, I'm not actually sure that the argumetn is against religion itself, or against specifically the way it's handled by mortal authorities. And I have no real problem with that (or with anything else really, I'm a grown up and am more than capable of making my own decisions regarding my beliefs) as I honestly *do* think that mortal authorities have a bad habit of fucking shit up. Like, oh, the Crusades and the Inquisition. Those be the Really Big Examples. There are lesser ones, various formes of religious abuse that I've seen from the Priesthood on down to children fighting in the school yard. Yes, it does happen, and in my own school when I was a child. Yes, it's silly. But when they grow up and continue doign it, it's no longer silly, it's actually dangerous -- it just shows that there's a disturbing trend of religious intollerance being taught -- again, mortal authirity going wrong. And really, that's a big part of why I left the church. So far, no one has really said anything against God in the book. BEcause, well, he's pretty much just there, He doesn't intervene, and doesn't much seem to care. It's very Deist in that respect, actually, unless he's somehow influencing probabbility and chance and messengers? I don't know and probably won't until the third book, which will hopefully make everything clear.
Though the Lyra in the first few chapters was much more annoying and much less capable than the Lyra in the first book. She seemed much, much younger, and much more silly, and in truth I didn't much like her at first. Which was odd, given the last book.
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 05:02 pm (UTC)Secondly? The third book made me cry my eyes out.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 05:06 pm (UTC)So far, I love it dearly, and will probably end up getting it in hardcover at some point. As for drama and intensity, it blows Harry Potter out of the water, and I love HP. So that really does say something. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 05:06 pm (UTC)I started reading the first book a few years back, but the man's writing style didn't hold my interest.
I have no doubt that the story is well thought out and I LOVE the Idea of subverting children's minds away from ignorance, but he needs to move the story along a wee bit faster.
My $0.02
no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 05:09 pm (UTC)Hmm. maybe the beginning was slow after all, because I didn't have nearly the problems putting it down after the early breaks diring work as i had during, say, dinner.
But yes, give him another try. Subversion is fun and painful.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-20 12:35 am (UTC)-- A <3
no subject
Date: 2007-06-20 01:44 am (UTC)I should have bought the one that had all three books bound together. It would have been far more sensible. **Sigh** hindsight, and all that ...