Dæmon voices
Apr. 15th, 2021 10:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12It's been a slow morning at work today, so I thought I'd take an early coffee break while things are fairly quiet. I'm pleased to see more and more people are doing the thirty-day book meme — at last count, there are around five or six people in my circle writing entries in response to the prompts, and it's so nice to read people's answers to the different questions. We all read such different books, and respond in such different ways!
As for today's prompt, it asks for:
15. A snuffed candle of a book
I assume this means a book that had great potential, and squandered it, and for me there can be no answer other than The Secret Commonwealth, the second book in Philip Pullman's much anticipated sequel trilogy to His Dark Materials. Continuing Lyra's story in a way that did justice to the books that had come before, felt believable and credible, and was worth the wait was always going to be a steep climb, and I'm sad to say that for me at least, The Secret Commonwealth fails to reach the heights it should.
I've got no problem with the first book in the follow-up trilogy, La Belle Sauvage. This is a prequel in terms of chronology, and it plays to Pullman's strengths — sinister, shadowy organisations, the plucky, adventurous children who fight back against them, a strong emphasis on the urban and natural landscapes of Oxford and a deep sense of place. It's a very old fashioned kind of book — like a twentieth-century adventure story with a social conscience.
But The Secret Commonwealth, which is a genuine sequel to His Dark Materials in terms of its place in the timeline, really didn't work for me. The central relationship squicks me, the political and religious developments (which in Pullman's universe are heavily intertwined) don't ring true, and, worst of all, I don't buy Lyra's character development. It's made me look back at some of Pullman's earlier books and wonder if I was too blinded by my own enormous adoration of His Dark Materials to notice some of his weaknesses as a writer — particularly in how he writes adult women. But no, Sally Lockhart is still a fantastic character, and I still love Mary Malone, Ma Costa, and Mrs Coulter — they're tropey, but they're tropes with heart.
The Secret Commonwealth felt pointlessly cruel in terms of the misery through which it put Lyra — and to be clear, I'm actually someone who likes reading stories of trauma and survival — while at the same time the book had a sense of emotional distance, as if it were a thought experiment rather than a story. Generally speaking, you're not reading Pullman unless you want to feel that your politics and general outlook are being confirmed as sensible (he is ... not a subtle writer in this regard), and yet I felt that in this novel he was giving free rein to various rambling rants about a bunch of political developments that annoyed him. (And yes, I too am incandescent with rage about Brexit, the UK Conservative Party, and the supposed champions of 'free speech' launching an all-out assault on the intellectual integrity of universities and scholarship, but there is a way to work this into a piece of fiction ... and this is not it.)
I still love Pullman's earlier work, and I'll still probably buy the hardback of the concluding work in the sequel trilogy on the day it's published, but The Secret Commonwealth has lowered my opinion of him as an author and made me less likely to be enthusiastic about any future books he writes.
16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. The one that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A book written into your psyche
22. A warm blanket of a book
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
As for today's prompt, it asks for:
15. A snuffed candle of a book
I assume this means a book that had great potential, and squandered it, and for me there can be no answer other than The Secret Commonwealth, the second book in Philip Pullman's much anticipated sequel trilogy to His Dark Materials. Continuing Lyra's story in a way that did justice to the books that had come before, felt believable and credible, and was worth the wait was always going to be a steep climb, and I'm sad to say that for me at least, The Secret Commonwealth fails to reach the heights it should.
I've got no problem with the first book in the follow-up trilogy, La Belle Sauvage. This is a prequel in terms of chronology, and it plays to Pullman's strengths — sinister, shadowy organisations, the plucky, adventurous children who fight back against them, a strong emphasis on the urban and natural landscapes of Oxford and a deep sense of place. It's a very old fashioned kind of book — like a twentieth-century adventure story with a social conscience.
But The Secret Commonwealth, which is a genuine sequel to His Dark Materials in terms of its place in the timeline, really didn't work for me. The central relationship squicks me, the political and religious developments (which in Pullman's universe are heavily intertwined) don't ring true, and, worst of all, I don't buy Lyra's character development. It's made me look back at some of Pullman's earlier books and wonder if I was too blinded by my own enormous adoration of His Dark Materials to notice some of his weaknesses as a writer — particularly in how he writes adult women. But no, Sally Lockhart is still a fantastic character, and I still love Mary Malone, Ma Costa, and Mrs Coulter — they're tropey, but they're tropes with heart.
The Secret Commonwealth felt pointlessly cruel in terms of the misery through which it put Lyra — and to be clear, I'm actually someone who likes reading stories of trauma and survival — while at the same time the book had a sense of emotional distance, as if it were a thought experiment rather than a story. Generally speaking, you're not reading Pullman unless you want to feel that your politics and general outlook are being confirmed as sensible (he is ... not a subtle writer in this regard), and yet I felt that in this novel he was giving free rein to various rambling rants about a bunch of political developments that annoyed him. (And yes, I too am incandescent with rage about Brexit, the UK Conservative Party, and the supposed champions of 'free speech' launching an all-out assault on the intellectual integrity of universities and scholarship, but there is a way to work this into a piece of fiction ... and this is not it.)
I still love Pullman's earlier work, and I'll still probably buy the hardback of the concluding work in the sequel trilogy on the day it's published, but The Secret Commonwealth has lowered my opinion of him as an author and made me less likely to be enthusiastic about any future books he writes.
16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. The one that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A book written into your psyche
22. A warm blanket of a book
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
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Date: 2021-05-03 01:02 pm (UTC)Agreed. But yeah, I don't think I'll be reading this one ever, despite loving so many of his different works (his kid's books as a kid - and probably if I reread them now!, His Dark Materials, Sally Lockhart, Clockwork, his non-fantasy, etc etc). Such a shame.
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Date: 2021-05-04 02:14 pm (UTC)