Final Dark is Rising Post
Feb. 8th, 2008 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34May I just take this moment to whine about something completely off topic? Lamest SPN episode EVER last night!!!! I am so disappointed. Did they let my five year old write the dialogue? It sure felt that way. What was an AWESOME AWESOME AWEOME concept that could have been the best episode of all three seasons, instead ended up being a big old pile of emotionally flat stupid. I like my fanfic version of Sam in Dean's head better; I like EVERYBODY'S fanfic version of Sam in Dean's head better. And next week's episode will be a fandom staple as well and hand to God, if they screw that one up I will not be responsible for my destructive rage. /rant
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thelastgoodname posted on The Grey King HERE.
Silver on the Tree
The theme of disappointment will continue in this post, unfortunately. So let me begin with a list of the things I did like.
1. I very much liked the acknowledgement of racism as an avenue for the Dark to gain access. I really like that this book was upfront about British racism and that it painted the issue as a huge problem that was going to persist over time (and look how Cooper was right *sigh*). What I like less is how racism is completely dropped from the book after its opening; I wish Cooper had continued with the theme throughout the book.
2. I love the Dad's line when they're doing yard work and one of the kids complains about his share. "Go away before I burst into tears" (49). *loves*
3. I very much liked the angst quotient of Will having to mindwipe Stephen. His despair that he cannot be close to either Paul or Stephen is really very, very sad and the kind of Chosen One fatalism that pings my heartstrings rather than annoys me.
4. Gwion--"Real is a hard word . . . . Almost as hard as true, or now" (161).
5. I like what happened with Blodwen. I think that was a hard decision for Cooper to make. She appears in the previous novel as such a wonderful and sympathetic character. I liked her very much. And then to discover that she's an agent of the Dark, that she's never really loved John or Bran. Wow. John's total devastation was very hard to read; that was really the only part of this book that I felt any real emotional pull.
And now for the stuff I hated:
1. So there's a connection between Jane and the Lady, huh? The Lady tells Jane that they are the same and seems to feel some unexplained pull towards her. Clearly their vaginas call out to each other from across time. Seriously, I can't make heads or tails of that pronouncement except that they're both female which is LAME.
2. Jane and Simon's inexplicable thrust back in time? I hate hate hate the way these books suddenly throw a character out of time for no good reason. Those scenes seemed completely wasted and confusing to me and they made absolutely no sense in the context of the larger narrative.
3. Oh my Lord that whole business with the tree branches was so ridiculous. I never get any sense of why the rituals are important or meaningful. They just do them and don't connect them to anything and so they seem very empty gestures to me.
4. Finally, the end really bugged me. It bugged me in the same way that Frodo catching the last ship out of Middle Earth bugged me, bugged me the same way that the Prydain characters sailing out for Lord knows where bugged me. The idea that Bran and Jane and Barney and Simon will not remember what happened really pisses me off. That's why you complete these difficult tasks and make sacrifices and behave heroically, right? So that you remember the journey and grow as a result. It's like they go through all the crap and then get none of the rewards. And the thought of Will being all alone for the rest of eternity is very upsetting to me. This series has been very much about how separate and removed and distant he must be and surely he deserves a little better than that as well.
thelastgoodname posted on The Grey King HERE.Silver on the Tree
The theme of disappointment will continue in this post, unfortunately. So let me begin with a list of the things I did like.
1. I very much liked the acknowledgement of racism as an avenue for the Dark to gain access. I really like that this book was upfront about British racism and that it painted the issue as a huge problem that was going to persist over time (and look how Cooper was right *sigh*). What I like less is how racism is completely dropped from the book after its opening; I wish Cooper had continued with the theme throughout the book.
2. I love the Dad's line when they're doing yard work and one of the kids complains about his share. "Go away before I burst into tears" (49). *loves*
3. I very much liked the angst quotient of Will having to mindwipe Stephen. His despair that he cannot be close to either Paul or Stephen is really very, very sad and the kind of Chosen One fatalism that pings my heartstrings rather than annoys me.
4. Gwion--"Real is a hard word . . . . Almost as hard as true, or now" (161).
5. I like what happened with Blodwen. I think that was a hard decision for Cooper to make. She appears in the previous novel as such a wonderful and sympathetic character. I liked her very much. And then to discover that she's an agent of the Dark, that she's never really loved John or Bran. Wow. John's total devastation was very hard to read; that was really the only part of this book that I felt any real emotional pull.
And now for the stuff I hated:
1. So there's a connection between Jane and the Lady, huh? The Lady tells Jane that they are the same and seems to feel some unexplained pull towards her. Clearly their vaginas call out to each other from across time. Seriously, I can't make heads or tails of that pronouncement except that they're both female which is LAME.
2. Jane and Simon's inexplicable thrust back in time? I hate hate hate the way these books suddenly throw a character out of time for no good reason. Those scenes seemed completely wasted and confusing to me and they made absolutely no sense in the context of the larger narrative.
3. Oh my Lord that whole business with the tree branches was so ridiculous. I never get any sense of why the rituals are important or meaningful. They just do them and don't connect them to anything and so they seem very empty gestures to me.
4. Finally, the end really bugged me. It bugged me in the same way that Frodo catching the last ship out of Middle Earth bugged me, bugged me the same way that the Prydain characters sailing out for Lord knows where bugged me. The idea that Bran and Jane and Barney and Simon will not remember what happened really pisses me off. That's why you complete these difficult tasks and make sacrifices and behave heroically, right? So that you remember the journey and grow as a result. It's like they go through all the crap and then get none of the rewards. And the thought of Will being all alone for the rest of eternity is very upsetting to me. This series has been very much about how separate and removed and distant he must be and surely he deserves a little better than that as well.
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no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 02:29 pm (UTC)That said, I did like the series as a whole. There were some good parts, and I think I liked the sense of the mystical and the weaving in of Arthurian lore.
There's some good fanfic out there too. If you're interested :)
no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 09:05 pm (UTC)The racism stuff in the beginning was interesting (I loved when the dad said, your son shares your views, and I'm glad to find my son shares my views), but in the end, she says (well, Owain Glyndŵr says) "The Norman always rides on the back of the Dark, as the Saxon did, and the Dane," which kind of defeats the purpose, I think: if all the immigrants to Britain before the great colonizations were behind the Dark, then...I have no idea. I've reached the point where it just doesn't matter; it won't ever make sense, so I'm not going to try.
Blodwen was excellent; just the idea was really impressive, and more like that (more like Caradog Pritchard, too) would have made for a much better series. (I just realized that in Where the Red Fern Grows, one of my favorite books ever, the bad guys are also called the Pritchards. Is there something I don't know about that name?)
Jane, the Lady, Hillary Clinton -- it really is all about the vaginas (http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-am-not-ashamed.html)! Either that or it's all about the f/f -- I'm sure there are Jane/the Lady stories out there. Or maybe that's just in my head.
I didn't like the end either, except that on the last page, I had this wonderful image of Jane and Simon and Barney and Bran all having real human adventures without the whole random Light/Dark business, and then they grow up and go into politics and business and art and really do change the world for the better, for good but not for Light. Simon founds Doctors without Borders or something, and Bran is a politician and Jane is an ambassador and Barney is an artist and they all teach peace and goodwill and they do it without any memory of this stupid little interlude. I'd like that. (I'd have liked the books a lot better without any of the parts that make them high fantasy.)
no subject
Date: 2008-02-11 02:13 am (UTC)I also sort of like the idea of all of them growing up and making a difference in a human way, but it still kills me that Will can't have that.
Oh, well. I'm glad we read this, but overall, not the best reading I've done lately.
I interlibrary loaned the Phillip Pullman, so wanna start on His Dark Materials sometime next week?
no subject
Date: 2008-02-11 02:24 am (UTC)Shall I post first on the first Pullman book?
no subject
Date: 2008-02-11 02:27 am (UTC)LOL
Yes. That would be awesome. You post first. I interlibrary loaned the book on Saturday and I anticipate having it by Tuesday. :)
Oh, hey. Do me a favor please.
Date: 2008-02-11 02:29 am (UTC)Re: Oh, hey. Do me a favor please.
Date: 2008-02-11 02:34 am (UTC)Re: Oh, hey. Do me a favor please.
Date: 2008-02-11 02:45 am (UTC)But I actually really enjoyed going back and looking at all my entries and realizing all the things I posted about.
Thanks for checking it out for me.
Re: Oh, hey. Do me a favor please.
Date: 2008-02-11 02:53 am (UTC)Re: Oh, hey. Do me a favor please.
Date: 2008-02-11 02:56 am (UTC)I'm already thinking that way I tagged my own fic isn't all that clear.
*headdesk*