YABookgate

Dragged Into Sunlight said:
I was a teenage angsthiest when I read His Dark Materials and even then thought that Pullman's rage toward religion in the last book was a bit much. You could feel the bitterness seeping through the pages of The Amber Spyglass.
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John c Wright had a rather epic post on the book.
My big problem with Pullman is the two relating writing errors of (1) plot points introduced only when convenient and not before (2) no follow-through; plot points set up but then simply forgotten.

I am claiming the PLOT SUCKS.
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Flexo said:
John c Wright had a rather epic post on the book.
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It's so true. He never even gets around to explaining what the fuck the angels actually do that is so bad. Apparently they didn't interact with the Magisterum at all because all the two Gods fucking died and the Church didn't skip a beat. Like everything happened in the book didn't make a bit of difference because everything just goes back to like it was before. So why even write the book at all?
 
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Dragged Into Sunlight said:
So why even write the book at all?
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Muh edgy anti-Narnia so all the cool kids will know how kewl I am by sticking it to that evil CS Lewis guy?

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Dragged Into Sunlight said:
View attachment 6337150

BTW, if any of you are looking for a good, uplifting fantasy story for your kids, I would recommend this series. It was written by the vicar in my family's town as a response to how absolutely dark and depressing His Dark Materials was and it's very good. It's a shame he had to stop writing because his daughter has very bad health problems and he takes care of her now.
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Wow, does GoodReads hate -- and I do not think that is too extreme a term -- this book. My interest level just creeped up several notches.

 
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Dragged Into Sunlight said:
It's so true. He never even gets around to explaining what the fuck the angels actually do that is so bad. Apparently they didn't interact with the Magisterum at all because all the two Gods fucking died and the Church didn't skip a beat. Like everything happened in the book didn't make a bit of difference because everything just goes back to like it was before. So why even write the book at all?
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The point of the book was to show that wheeled creatures can evolve in nature. Checkmate, religiontards.
 
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Hirbowedge said:
Do people cook using Snoop Dogg's cookbook?
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Old post, I know.

I got it as a gag gift one christmas. Its as dumb as you expect it to be. Made a couple recipes from it that aren't any different from what you can pull from the internet.

You would think the recipes would be written in Snoop talk like "Put one cuppa of sugar fizzile all up in that mix" but no, its just straight recipes but with a section before it written (still think its a ghost writer) about he totally loved this brownies back in da hood or some nergospeak.
 
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Henri Barbusse said:
The point of the book was to show that wheeled creatures can evolve in nature. Checkmate, religiontards.
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Oh man, I totally forgot about the random Dr. Seuss world he dropped into the story for some reason. I'm guessing it had to do with some atheist argument against creationism or so etching lime that?
 
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His Dark Materials
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I read this when I was 12, so I might misremember. However, wasn't the point that they opened a hole for the spirits/ghosts/souls to get out of the "afterlife" and be allowed to disintegrate into atoms instead of being stuck in agony for all eternity? They got rid of both heaven and hell.
 
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Dragged Into Sunlight said:
I was a teenage angsthiest when I read His Dark Materials and even then thought that Pullman's rage toward religion in the last book was a bit much. You could feel the bitterness seeping through the pages of The Amber Spyglass.
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Hell, I could feel the bitterness by the second book. The first was relatively fun. I found the second so horribly boring I don’t remember if I finished it.
 
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Both Narnia and His Dark Materials have terrible endings. The Last Battle might be one of the most anticlimactic fantasy novels I've ever read, which is saying something. (Though couldn't even finish The Amber Spyglass, so Spyglass is probably worse.) The Last Battle had an interesting beginning, an interesting premise, but it went completely off the rails with Apocalypse metaphors. I wanted to read more about the evil Tash or the dopey 🫏, those characters were fun. But no no, CS Lewis had something important to say about what happens on Judgement Day, so forget these plotlines he'd spent the first three quarters of the book setting up.

Of course, the book does what it sets out to do: Complete the Biblical metaphors and end Narnia. It is obviously defended by Lewis's fans, but I have yet to meet even one person who claims it as their favorite in the series. When the movies were being made, people on forums would excitedly talk about what they would like to see in The Silver Chair film or The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, or The Magicians Nephew, but no one ever talked about what they would like to see in a The Last Battle adaptation. I think deep down even the fans defend it not because they find it well written or fun or engaging, but as a medicine that must be taken with your peanut butter. That's always the vibe I get when people bring up The Last Battle. It's like Pilgrims Progress.

It's not like CS Lewis was incapable of making Biblical parables engaging. The Magicians Nephew is a parable of Genesis, and it's one of the best and most popular installments in the series. Shame that The Last Battle couldn't have been more like that.

I pity whoever Netflix contracts to adapt it into a film!
 
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TheMonkeyMan said:
The Last Battle was such an obvious ham-fisted metaphor even when I was a little kid and didn't get the Christian stuff in the other books. Also, C. S. Lewis forgot that there aren't any normal lions in Narnia so how could there be the skin of a dead one?
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There are. I'm pretty sure one is described in the Magician's Nephew
 
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Last Battle is the most disappointing one to read as a child, but the most mind blowing to reread as an adult. The older I get, the more I find myself quoting from it than any other Narnia book. (Though Silver Chair is my fave.)
 
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Vecr said:
What's that, I can't remember that being one of them.
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book 3 in original publishing order, book 5 in chronological order. It's the one where Caspian and company go sailing to the edge of the world.

Most people remember it (and are fans) because it features Reepiceep the most and he totally kicks ass in the story and is awesome. His relationship with Eustace is a highlight.

I would almost pick it as a favorite for some of those reasons - heck in a lot of ways it's the most like a star trek season - but I love Puddleglum and the darker tone of Silver Chair just a bit more.
 
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