I’ve seen the first episode and thought they did a decent job of world building. I’m glad to hear the second improves on that. I particularly liked the portrayal of the Gyptians.
What an odd thing to get irate about. It’s the most common pronunciation in English.
Exactly. I can’t quite tell if drdeth is just whooshing, but there is no ‘a’ in dæmon. That’s like saying it’s silly not to pronounce the ‘u’s in Wednesday :).
OB
Yes, I believe HBO and BBC are releasing this roughly concurrently. New episodes hit HBO in the US on Monday nights, so episode 2 has been available for a couple of days now.
I think the second episode improves on the first. The world is fleshed out more, the ability to travel between worlds is revealed, and Coulter’s villainy is on full display.
For those who have read the books and have a better memory of them than I: The scene where the guy from Lyra’s world crosses into ‘our’ world and meets up with the guy in the coffee shop–is that scene or anything like it in the books?
How do you pronouce Caesar?
In English,ae can be pronounced as long “e” or long “i,” but not with “an a in it.”
I can’t quite remember. It was a long time ago for me too (probably 20 years). But in my recollection the whole parallel worlds thing, and ability to move between them, didn’t get really introduced until the second book. But I’m probably wrong.
OB
In my recollection, the first explicit travel between worlds was at the very end of the first book. But like you, I read it a while ago.
Sure. But why use the spelling dæmon if it is pronounced 'demon". And why would everyone call their alter-egos a “demon”? It’s weird. Makes no sense.
Note that the pronunciation of dæmon has drifted towardsˈdeɪmən/ DAY-mən .
Kaiser. Yes, I know ae doesnt have a “a” in it, but it’s not always pronounced with a long e, either.
I would say that it’s an archaic spelling used to indicate that the beings are not what we commonly think of as demons, but something else. And one of the original meanings of daemon in classical mythology is a benevolent spirit guide or guardian spirits.
Cite?
Seriously? You pronounce Julius Caesar as Julius Kaiser?:dubious:
So why are you complaining about it not being pronounced with an “a” in it?
When I read the books I pronounced it DAY-men in my head canon. As a techie I associated the word to the concept in computing which I’d always heard said that way. Not sure if Pullman ever said what he considered the “correct” pronunciation but both are equally valid grammatically. Certainly nothing to get bent out of shape about.
Not a perfect citation, but Wiki includes it: Daemon (computing) - Wikipedia
Whether it’s become the more accepted pronunciation I wouldn’t say. I hear it a lot though.
So I binged the first 2 episodes Monday night and I found myself a bit bored. I didn’t dislike it, but I think the material was just so familiar that I wasn’t getting anything new from it. Like just about everyone else I read the books quite a few years ago and I remember book one really well (2 and 3 much less so, what a slog). The bigger problem though is the movie. I liked it and watched it quite a few times over the years as it cycled on cable TV.
This new series is pretty faithful to the books and so was the movie, which means that the beats are really similar and the scenes are really familiar. All in all, I felt like I was watching a TV show that’s in reruns already. Hopefully that feeling doesn’t persist.
I thought Lyra was cast and acted well, honestly it wasn’t until reading this thread that I learned she was in Logan. It was a little tropey the way that she pretty much impulsively disobeys everyone all the time, so that felt like it could have been developed a little more slowly. I really dislike Ruth Wilson as an actress. It’s completely superficial and silly, but her weird mouth positioning is wildly distracting and kinda grates on me every time I watch her. She’s fine as Ms Coulter but she can’t fill the shoes of Kidman. I mostly liked McAvoy as Asriel but he too isn’t as good a fit for the role as Craig was…the guy is supposed to be a hulking, brooding force of nature. McAvoy is a bit too twee for me.
Bigger picture I felt like the quasi-steampunk motif was really good though perhaps it was a little too rooted in reality compared to the books. Something a bit more fantastic may have been better. I don’t really have a good feel for the Magisterium yet, but I can’t say I find them nearly the oppressive force here that they are in the books. Daemons are really well CGIed but they felt much more like fully formed characters in the movies which is weird since they had 2 hours of run time on just half of the first act. I echo the complaint upthread that I often struggled to distinguish their speaking from other human characters. I feel like the show isn’t effectively showing how important that relationship is.
In retrospect, I think they moved a little too quickly. As a TV show they could have taken more time in episode one to really build the relationships between Lyra, Billy and Roger. This would have made Lyra’s need to find him feel more earned. They could have spent more time showing the close bond between people and their daemons. They could have added a lot more exposition about the Magisterium and how the College and Asriel relate to it, really laying the groundwork for the big bad. In episode 2 her disillusionment and subsequent escape from Ms Coulter happens really quickly.
I’m gonna stick with it, but I’m hoping to get sucked in more once Lee and Iorek make an appearance.
Sure, but it sounds weird to me.
In the context of computer software, the original pronunciation /ˈdiːmən/ has drifted to /ˈdeɪmən/ DAY-mən for some speakers.[1]
and since I worked and lived in Silicon valley, that’s how I heard it.
Yes. Because There were no soft C’s in Caesar’s day. More like KIszar. Closest is kaiser. Seize-her is totally incorrect. And no J’s either so its Ill-I-oos.
because I couldnt type the æ.Not bent out of shape, it just sounded weird to my ears and then it was like they were little furry demons, which was also weird.
When I did Latin at school, that’s the pronunciation we were taught. You wouldn’t have said that way when speaking English though.
I did a whole year of Latin when I was 13 so I’m somewhat of an expert in these matters. Latin is generally pronounced phonetically. And, there being no K in Classical Latin, C is always hard (almost always? Don’t remember if there are any modifiers like in modern Romance languages). I imagine the second A is pronounced as well - so more like ‘kaisar’.
It is the root of the German word kaiser, after all (and the Russian czar).
OB
Exactly. That’s the Latin pronunciation, but it’s not the pronunciation of the word in English. In English, the name is pronounced sēzər. If you’re speaking about Julius in Latin class, sure, the “c” is pronounced with a “k,” but if you’re speaking about him in World History class, the “c” is soft. The names of individuals from history are frequently different in spelling and pronunciation in English. We pronounce “psyche” quite differently than the word is pronounced in Greek.
As a biologist, I have to deal with scientific names in Latin. In the US, the “standard” pronunciation can be a kind of mash-up of Latin and English rules rather than strict Latin.
I had a botany professor, however, who insisted on using the correct Latin pronunciation for everything. The typical pronunciation of the genus of pines Pinus is as it is in English, PIE-nus. He would pronounce the “i” as a long “e” as in Latin: PEE-nus. Hilarity often ensued, especially if he were talking about the Pitch Pine, Pinus rigida.
I guess the next point of debate should be:
Are there potatoes in Lyra’s world? And, if so, how do they pronounce ‘potato’?
So far, the evidence points to them only eating sweet meats.
OB
I thought the first episode looked great, had good actors, and was interesting, but somehow not as engaging as I thought it would be. Sort of boring. Maybe the next episode will be different - the previews seemed more open and colorful.
Just seen episode 4 and this gets better and better.
Dafne Keen as Lyra is fantastic.
Ruth Gordon is hitting the same notes as her character from “Luther” which is spot-on
On the down side
MASSIVE SPOILER! DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THE BOOKS!
Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby and Cristela Alonzo as Hester broke my frickin’ heart. They are so perfect. Fuck you, BBC.