Filed under: Books, Film | Tags: philip pullman, the golden compass, the subtle knife
It is done. I have finished Philip Pullman’s THE GOLDEN COMPASS. Well. Wow. Just one question: this is children’s literature? Not that I’m one of those people who think the book should be pulled from the children’s section in libraries (the idiots). Hardly so. It’s just that THE GOLDEN COMPASS is one of those books that anyone – children and adults – could enjoy. Really. No, really.
I don’t know what I thought I was going to get from a book labeled as children’s literature, but let me say, what I got from THE GOLDEN COMPASS ain’t it. Loss, betrayal, death, and a very real danger… I don’t recall reading anything so powerful – as it relates to both the writing and the story – when I was a child. Then again, maybe I wasn’t reading the right thing.
As I’ve said before, I’ve never been particularly into either fantasy or children’s literature. But if THE GOLDEN COMPASS is typical of the kinds of stories they’re hiding in the children’s lit. section, I’m going to have to wander over the more often. In a day or so I will too, if only to get my hands on THE SUBTLE KNIFE.
Before I do that, I’ve got sneak peek movie tickets to “The Golden Compass” showing today. Since finishing the book, I’ve come to the firm conclusion that the movie just won’t do it justice. It just won’t. But we’ll see. We’ll see.
A true review of the book, and most likely some comments on the movie, will be coming to a post near you very soon.
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My teenage sons LOVED the Pullman series and can’t wait for the movie to come out (next week, methinks). They hope the film makers don’t wreck it like they did “Eragon” (and that’s almost a verbatim quote)…
Comment by Cliff Burns December 1, 2007 @ 7:11 pmChildren’s lit and YA is where it is for me as far as fantasy goes. Lots of powerful stuff lurking among those Dora the Explorer cutouts.
Looking forward to what you have to say about the film since I have very little interest in seeing it.
Comment by imani December 1, 2007 @ 7:36 pmI also really liked The Golden Compass, but if you thought it was shocking and powerful, just wait until you get through the rest of the trilogy. After finishing The Amber Spyglass I couldn’t believe they were even trying to adapt them for a movie, which makes your review of the film kind of unsurprising but no less disappointing. Knew they were going to screw it up.
Comment by Calum December 2, 2007 @ 10:31 amCliff, see my post above. It was a huge disappointment, but maybe your sons will feel differently.
Imani, I think I’m going to start doing a bit more research into this chidlrens/YA fantasy thing. I had no idea.
Calum, I bought my copy of THE SUBTLE KNIFE right after I saw the movie (I saw a few other people from the movie getting the book too. It’s nice to see the movie inspiring people to go out and read the much better source material). I haven’t dug into it yet thought. I’m waiting for the bad taste of The Golden Compass film to dissipate, lest it ruin my reading experience.
Comment by J.S. Peyton December 6, 2007 @ 1:02 am[...] The Hidden Side of a Leaf, Care’s Online Book Club, bookchronicle at Adventures in Reading, Biblioaddict, and Charley at Bending Bookshelf. (if I missed you, please let me [...]
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