(no subject)

[sebastienne]

I did Classical Civilisation A-Level. I <3 everything Pullman did with the epic genre. I <3 everything he did with genesis. One day (in August?) I will read Milton and it will all fall beautifully into place.

Then why, why, ten years after I first read Northern Lights and five years since I finished the trilogy, have I only just realised the significance of the fact that Pullman's protagonist is called Lyra.

Lyra. The lyre. The instrument of lyric poetry. She is the instrument of epic literature.

Does this make anybody as inexplicably happy as me, or am I alone in my appreciation of this one?

Comments

[thieving-gypsy.livejournal.com]

Definitely not alone! Those books are like chocolate and Take That - every bad mood in the world can be cured by a re-read of the important scenes the books fall open on when held at the spines. ;) They're far too good for children, never mind how it's been marketed. Or, they work just fine as an epic fantasy trilogy but there's always something new to pick up if you look deeper.

My mum called her puppy Lady Lyra Belacqua d'Asriel. Booknerd solidarity! \m/

[thieving-gypsy.livejournal.com]

Also: the ONLY way to read Milton is aloud. I think. It's like Shakespeare - it's not just content, it's the way the words sound. You feel a bit daft reading aloud to yourself, but that's how I've always done it with him.

I just recently got a big hardback unabridged illustrated edition of Paradise Lost to replace by battered old paperback. I haven't read it yet, I'm still too excited to do much more than look at the cover and make a sort of :D! face. I want to read it now. Such glory. *_*

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

Don't bleed on it, it sounds pretty!

Hope you're feeling better soon, and thanks for the Milton tip - by August I'll be living in a house with a load of lit-geeks, and I'm sure no-one will bat an eyelid!

[gin-gerkitten.livejournal.com]

OMG you are so right about Lyra.

Also, I'm totally up for Milton-reading events next year.

*purrs*

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

I hadn't spotted that, no! Nice one. Something similar happened to me the other day, actually - I've been watching a lot of House recently, and I'd been busy spotting similarities between House and Sherlock Holmes - they're both drug addicts, they both make lightning deductions about people's lives based on close observation of tiny things, the structure of the show is much more like a detective story than a conventional medical drama (albeit more Christie than Conan Doyle - just when you think you know who/what did it, they get murdered/the patient develops a new dramatic symptom - then I checked Wikipedia to see if Holmes had been an influence, and I read that they put it in the bloody name of the show. Holmes/House. Gah!

FWIW, I have major reservations about the Dark Materials trilogy (stop me if I've said this before). I enjoyed them hugely, and couldn't put them down when I read them, but I was really pissed off by the way he's so scathing about religion and yet uncritically accepts the myth of aristocracy. Nobody ever achieves anything unless they're of noble birth - think of Iotrek Byrnisson, who in spite of being a washed-up drunk is Better because he's the Rightful King By Birth. Even Lyra and, Will, who at first seem to be special only by virtue of their personal qualities, turn out to be the children of Lord Asriel and Stanislav Grumman respectively.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

I don't remember you mentioning that to me before, but now that you do, it irritates me, as well!

[deathbyshinies.livejournal.com]

but I was really pissed off by the way he's so scathing about religion and yet uncritically accepts the myth of aristocracy.

Yes!

He first started losing me at the point in Northern Lights where the narratorial voice makes an off-the-cuff remark about how "most servants tended to have daemons in the form of dogs"... It might be appropriate to the hierarchical society Pullman was trying to construct, and it might not be intended as quite the insult it sounds, particularly if you like dogs (I don't especially), but it still grated... Lyra's failure to interrogate, or even really recognise, her wealth and aristocratic privilege, ever, is also one of the things that really makes me want to kick her good and hard in the shins.

It also probably didn't help that I was 'adult' (for a given value) when I came across the books, and so had severe problems trying to read about a character named 'Roger the kitchen boy' without sniggering...

[andustar.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I wasn't the only one to notice that.

And it doesn't even scratch the surface of my issues with the whole daemon system, and his silliness around sexuality. Feh.

(I like them anyway!)

[openvoice.livejournal.com]

Yes!!

Ps. Paradise Lost is heart-stoppingly astronomical... I got into through Philip Pullman and through that reason alone, he deserves to be venerated to Mount Olympus!

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

I remember noticing that one two. lyra/lyre/liar and the orpheus in the underworld paralels and, yeah.

[petrichor-fizz.livejournal.com]

OhmyGod you have an icon that references Pat Barker. Wow.

Also, I would pay to watch that.

[petrichor-fizz.livejournal.com]

I had never noticed that, but it makes me happy too. I've been thinking about those books lately; I really want to re-read them (and I also want to read Milton, eventually). Definitely too good for children, in a way that the HP series isn't.

[ladylick.livejournal.com]

you MUST read Milton aloud. He was blind when he composed it, dictating it to his daughters to take down - it was written to be recited, and it's just so beautiful *shivers in delight*

i would literally give anything to read it (outloud ;)) for the first time again. the experience and anticipation were amazing.

i think it's really exciting that lyra is a constellation, too... tis very neat that she's literally a part of the sky that the books centre around...

ahhhhhh philip pullman. i'm worried about the films, though. daniel craig. ick. x

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

went to a talk on the film for the oxford literary festival, and it did look to be a special-effects-fest. am really not getting the daniel craig as lord asriel thing. ah well.