Yep, the film The Golden Compass was… bleh. Pointless. The girl who played Lyra was good, and it all looked beautiful and pretty much as I imagined it (though Miss Coulter should have had dark hair and a red coat… Hmm, minor thing, I actually quite liked Nicole Kidman in it and I don’t usually like her). But, given that it looked just as I imagined it but tore out all of the philosophical and thoughtful underpinnings… it was empty. (Even though HDM is a young adult series, it is some of the most thoughtful literature I’ve read, setting up some amazing modern mythology to explore themes of morality, life, death, god - or a lack of - and so on.) Pretentious git that I am, as I walked out of the cinema, I said to my partner, “Hmm, it seems the book underwent an intercision to get to film…”
Also, did they really have to give the film the American title, even in the UK? Pullman’s title for the book was Northern Lights (mind you, they didn’t even show the northern lights in the film! And they play a big part in the book…). In an interview recently, Pullman said that the film was called The Golden Compass for reasons too long and boring to go into. Hmm, I wonder. Please understand that I do not mean this as a slur against Americans in any way whatsoever, but I do seriously think that there must be some PTB (powers-that-be) inside the US who do not credit American people in general with enough intelligence (honestly, I think we’re treated like idiots in the UK - “Milk - warning: contains dairy products” - but you guys in America get it a lot worse). The alethiometer is described as looking like a golden compass in the book (I think once, the first time Lyra sees it) - it is not actually a golden compass nor has it ever been known as such. It is a bloody alethiometer; that is its name. So the film and US book title is just stupid; and it’s even worse in the film, where every time they mention the alethiometer, they absolutely have to follow it with, “otherwise known as the Golden Compass”. Honestly, they may as well have had the actors turn to the screen to say that bit, sotto voce: “It’s okay, we know it’s a long word and that you’ve never heard of it, but just think of it as a golden compass, okay? Better now? Don’t worry, there’s a talking polar bear coming up…”. It’s the same sort of unintelligent thinking that had Spielberg change the name of Schindler’s Ark (“Great metaphor, Tom, but will the average Joe schmuck get it?”) to Schindler’s List (“It’s literal! I like it!”) and The Madness of King George III to The Madness of King George (in case American audiences thought it was a sequel to two films they’d never heard of… Um, really? Would anyone interested in a film like that really be confused by the “III”?).
Agree: the movie “Golden Compass” disappoints, if you have read the book. Still, it’s orders of magnitude better than the horrific treatment given to “Wizard of Earth-Sea” – enough to scare any sane writer away from movie contracts.
I’m waiting to see if the other segments of “His Darker Materials” are filmed. GC down-played some of the touchier elements, but how will the critics – particularly the self-appointed ones – respond to gay angels and a senile God?
Thank you for clearing up that titling issue! I actually had no idea the title of the first book was supposed to be Northern Lights. I like that much better. We are subjected to some truly awful titling here. One need only browse through movie titles at IMDB to see just how dumbed down U.S. titling is.
That would be amusingly poetic. Actually, casting your book/movie/comic strip/whatever as anti-Christian is turning out to be a phenomenally successful marketing strategy in the United States. Getting your work titled as “evil” is pretty much a free ticket to millions in revenue. The extremists send frothing chain letters to everyone in their address book (naturally, the entire church and several hundred relatives), which in short order blankets the entire nation in a swarm of grass-roots marketing that no company could ever dream of conjuring intentionally. Just take a look at the HDM product review pages and discussion boards on Amazon. There is a flood of people who are now reading the trilogy, and enjoying it mightily, for no reason other than the fact that some Christian told them not to!
Oh, and we have packages of peanuts with dire warnings written, confirming our suspicions that yes in fact this product was assembled in a factory that handles peanuts. The list of scary products is getting rather long, these days. It is not uncommon to see:
Warning, this product manufactured in a facility that processes peanuts, other nuts, soybeans, diary products, mango oil, gluten, kuzu starch, saffron oil, meat, and little round sugar jellies.
You start to wonder. If trace amounts of all that is getting into my food, just how often do they actually clean their equipment!
I’ve split the SF thread into several different threads seeing as it was getting long and very eclectic. I hope no one takes offence at this - the thread was interesting and I went just as off-topic as everyone else (hmm, I may have even started the off-topicness ) so please don’t take this as over-zealous moderating. I’m just trying to tidy it up so that newcomers can find relevant information in the appropriate forums, and also make it so that we can all continue the various strands of discussion without having to worry about going off-topic.
If you feel I’ve placed any of your posts in the wrong topic (it was difficult deciding what should go where so I just went for a best-fit), let me know and I’ll move it to where you think it belongs.
(I am aware that this makes AmberV’s last comment about peanuts sound slightly odd as it is now utterly out of context. I quite like that, though…)
I also recommend A Cantacle for Leibowitz, and I have to keep replacing my copy when they wind up in someone else’s library.
Neil Gaiman is a great author whose writings I recently discovered (Anansi Boys, and Stardust have been reviewed by me on book-lovers-get-your-english-on.blogspot.com – and I can’t believe I didn’t review my favorite, American Gods).
Terry Pratchett was one of the best recommendations I ever received. Read his first five books in order, then after that, read the characters you like the best.
Gaiman and Pratchett wrote one of the funniest books I’ve read, Good Omens. Go get it right now and enjoy.
Yeah, this one keeps popping up, so it is one I will try once I can track down a copy (none of the bookshops I have visited have it).
I sincerely hope the book is better than the movie. The movie had some of the worst dialogue and lines I have ever heard in a film (“a star can’t shine with a broken heart” shudder).
Oh, we get it worse all right. Ever hear of H.L. Mencken? Among other things, he wrote: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” He was telling the truth in his time, and it’s still true today. Why do you think Scholastic changed the title of the first Harry Potter book from “Philosopher’s Stone” to “Sorcerer’s Stone”?
I do it because I feel that I have to. The sort of story I want to see in print has not yet been written. Rather than wait, I decided to write it myself.
@Matt: I haven’t seen the movie, but STARDUST is a great book - however, it’s worth remembering that Gaiman’s core area is fantasy, mythology and fairy tales, so the occasional line like that is inevitable. They read much better than when they’re spoken aloud…
(And if we’re getting into non-trad fantasy territory, Gaiman’s SANDMAN comic series - which is where he first made his name - is excellent, and well worth reading.)
I love Gaiman, too. If you want a sample, here’s an excellent podcast of Gaiman reading his own story, HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES. As a bonus, you get the text of the story, too, and lovely illustrations to accompany it. Click on the “Cool stuff and things”, then “Stories” link and you will find it on:
Since the thread split up I’ve lost track, but I can’ t say too many good things about Alfred Bester.
The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man are absolute classics of speculative fiction. I’ve coerced snobs into reading them, and they wandered away with their minds blown.
Keith, or anyone, don’t feel badly about not keeping up with science fiction lately. I’m not that impressed with it… and when I talk to people who are, I find they are not familiar with some of my favorite writers. Gibson is still great, and so forth, but it’s ripe for some reinventing of its own.
Wow! it’s interesting how different peoples’ opinions can be, even when they like what others would describe as “the same thing”!
I would say that I like fantasy and SF - and am working on an SF novel that may end up becoming straight fantasy - but I also like stories about people, and not massive landscapes, machinery and battles. That’s why I like “Trek” (especially DS9; I’m a passionate niner) and “The Lord of the Rings”. LOTR is ultimately about the human soul, and so is DS9 at its best. And, as Le Guin says, aliens can be a way to examine human societies more closely - I absolutely love her, too. Her “Annals of the Western Shore” is well worth a look, though it’s fantasy rather than SF. If you are open to fantasy for kids, I’d also highly recommend Hilari Bell’s “Farsala” trilogy and anything at all by Megan Whalen Turner - she has a wonderful trilogy out beginning with “The Thief”. Both my sister and I were also tremendously impressed with Hovig’s “The Dream Merchant”. It’s beautifully plotted and quite unique.
Pullman is a wonderful stylist, but, in the end, his trilogy left me cold. I just couldn’t care all that much about any of his characters, and I found him too polemical and heavy-handed. But he is worth reading one.
I will third (fourth? fifth? I’ve lost count) all the recs for “A Canticle for Liebowitz” A brilliant book, and very funny if you’re in the mood for dark humor. The best SF I’ve come across recently is, again, a teen novel; it’s “The House of the Scorpion” by Nancy Farmer. Dark, scary, fast-moving and very human - it reads like something that could be happening right now.
FYI: Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is up for free online reading and is reachable through his website. I think it’s only up for a month. (It’s actually on the HarperCollins site, but there’s a link on his website.)
I like the books of Jenny-Mai Nuyen very much - the three books of her published yet are all fantasy, but it’s not that typical.
I read, for example, “Nijura” and was often surprised - when you read it as a fantasy-fan, you often think “yeah, sure, now that happens” - and it will happen completely different. Nuyen said that she thought of a typical fantasy story going totally wrong, but it’s not a parody or comedy, it’s a good story.
Dunno if they are available in English, though, she’s a german authoress.
To get to Sci-Fi:
I read Eric Nylund as I had some “yay Halo”-phasis and was quite surprised how good they turned out. Anyway, Michael Marshall Smith is quite interesting. Just thought of him cause he’s quoted at the Scrivener Main Site
I have to browse the public library, I rarely buy Sci-Fi books… I’m more into fantasy.
I don’t think anybody has mentioned Philip K Dick yet. Brilliantly prescient sci-fi author and all his books are pretty short too. Most people recommend starting off with the Hugo Award winner “The Man In The High Castle”. This is probably one of PKD’s most widely read books, but hardcore fans (like myself) don’t necessarily believe it’s his best. My personal favourite is “Time Out of Joint” (one of his lesser known works) which deals with PKD’s favourite themes of identity and the nature of reality. He was a master at describing ordinary characters in a twisted world. My other favourites are; “A Scanner Darkly”, “The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch”, “Martian Time-Slip” and his latter short stories.
I’d leave his harder works like “VALIS” until you’ve read some of the more common books. Dick had a breakdown in 1974 and most of the stuff he wrote after this time was pretty nuts. His ideas on religion, identity and reality become more frenzied and confused but a lot of fun to read if you’re into that kind of thing.
) so please don’t take this as over-zealous moderating. I’m just trying to tidy it up so that newcomers can find relevant information in the appropriate forums, and also make it so that we can all continue the various strands of discussion without having to worry about going off-topic.
