(kicking Walt Whitman’s grave) I hate you, Walt freakin’ Whitman! Leaves of Grass my ass!
I vaguely remember a story/essay by George Bernard Shaw wherein he dreamed he was on an ocean liner, saw H.G. Wells fall overboard, and was conflicted over whether or not to rescue him.
There’s a actually a literary theory in a similiar vein written about by Harold Bloom.
Ah yes, I did the work and looked it up. Harold Bloom’s “The Anxiety of Influence”.
“Every great poet (Bloom calls them “strong” poets) has a major precursor, a figure analogous to the Freudian Father, against whom the younger poet wrestles for existence.” Literary Encyclopedia — Harold Bloom
The wrestling poets are, oddly enough, always male. Funny about that. However, it’s been very influential book in literary theory, one way and another, even if you think it says more about literary critics than literature.
Bloom gets very sniffy about genre fiction, so I don’t suppose he’s considered whether or not this “anxiety of influence” is at work in other than “great” writing.
Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey” parodies the very popular Gothic novels of the eighteenth century, particularly “The Mysteries of Udolpho”.
It’s actually parodying Sir Walter Scott.
Hemingway’s original published version of “Snows of Kilimanjaro” famously contained a dig against Scott Fitzgerald (the famous “the very rich are different from you and me” comment that Hemingway, IRL, actually made himself). Scott wrote Hemingway a letter telling him to “please lay off me in print,” and Hemingway changed the name from Scott Fitzgerald to “Julian” for subsequent reprints of the story.
The last book of *His Dark Materials * sucked all on its own, even without literary axes to grind. Sheesh, what a messy, ill thought out end to a great series.
I can’t completely agree. Though the resolution of Will & Lyra’s love is morally illogical (or, rather, fits with Christian morality so well that you’d think Lewis wrote it), the conversation between Iorek Byrnison and Will is worth it.
Not really; there was just too much material {ahem} to cram into one book, and I think Pullman’s only error was to make the series too short, which didn’t really allow for the resolutions of all of the sub-plots to be properly explored: they seemed hasty and muddled. Mrs Coulter’s kidnapping of Lyra and her rescue, the descent into hell with the Gallivespans, the release of the dead, the final battle against the Authority, the rescue of Lyra and Will, Mrs Coulter’s defection to Lord Asriel and the betrayal and defeat of Metatron was more than enough material for one book: the battle against the Authority and the fight against Metatron in particular needed a lot more space. Mary Malone’s discovery of what was happening to Dust, the doorway into the land of the mulefa, Father Gomez, Lyra and Will, and their final separation needed to be covered in a whole other book. It’s rare that an “epic fantasy trilogy” needs another book, but this one did.
Since the lines about the pen being mightier than the sword weren’t written by Shakespeare but by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in the 19th century, and Miguel Cervantes lived and wrote a good three centuries earlier, this seems implausible:
Beneath the rule of men entirely great
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu, II.ii
Well, yes, that was my main complaint. It was far too rushed. The first two books were so carefully constructed and logically consistent, but the last book was a mess. It could have used two or three more books, even, which I think would have been great. But the story was overwhelmed by tiny little details that didn’t add up. Angels are non-corporeal beings, but you can apparently still set them on fire. Coulter manages to travel several thousand miles and move several weeks ahead in time in what is only one night to Will. Coulter’s completely, out-of-nowhere character about-face. The head angel’s fatal hornyness. The fact that Will says they can only leave one window open (out of hell) despite the fact that there already seems to be a convenient stairway (to heaven! well, Asriel’s castle, which he manages to have built in about a week). The subatomic hair bomb that manages to blow up hell from another dimension. And it’s heavily implied that Will and Lyra save the universe by gettin’ it on, but how old is Lyra? Like eleven? Twelve at the most. And Will is at least fifteen or sixteen. Eww.
It was the fact that I loved the first two so much that made the third such a disappointment.
I agree that Lyra’s age was a problem: she seemed to move from being about 10 in the first book to being about 14 by the third. A lot of the other stuff - like Asriel apparently being able to manipulate time in order to build his fortress - was hinted at, but not really expanded on enough. Mrs Coulter’s volte face was a little implausible, admittedly: I get the feeling that her character and Lord Asriel’s weren’t sufficiently thought through: in the first book Asriel was a bastard who unfeelingly sacrificed Roger in order the bridge the worlds, yet by the second book he was a hero.
The inconsistency that bugged me the most, though, was Lee Scoresby and John Parry: John Parry breaks his promise to Scoresby, who has previously threatened to hunt him down in the afterlife if he does so - yet the next time we see them together as ghosts, they’re the best of friends as ever were, Lee’s vengeance apparently forgotten.
Overall, I get the feeling that Pullman didn’t revise his drafts much before publication, which left the loose ends and inconsistencies. An interesting subject: fancy starting another thread on it rather than hijacking this one any further?
[QUOTE=Salt Seller]
Well, yes, that was my main complaint. It was far too rushed. The first two books were so carefully constructed and logically consistent, but the last book was a mess. It could have used two or three more books, even, which I think would have been great. But the story was overwhelmed by tiny little details that didn’t add up. And it’s heavily implied that Will and Lyra save the universe by gettin’ it on, but how old is Lyra? Like eleven? Twelve at the most. And Will is at least fifteen or sixteen. Eww.
I think you’re wrong about Will’s age. He’s clearly about the same age as Lyra, no more than a year older; he just seems older because he’s dominant.
Which is another issue in itself. I’ll maybe start a HDM thread in the cafe later.