Watched this video on Aug. 1, 2019. Woden = Yule Father. Posits that Christmas is a thinly veiled version of the pagan Yule celebrations.Watched this video on Aug. 1, 2019. Woden = Yule Father. Posits that Christmas is a thinly veiled version of the pagan Yule celebrations....more
Kind of funny, in a weird way, especially at the end. Definitely creepy when Jasper the rabbit takes off the underwear at night, only to find them on Kind of funny, in a weird way, especially at the end. Definitely creepy when Jasper the rabbit takes off the underwear at night, only to find them on him again in the morning....more
I don't have time to read this now (or soon, probably), but it looks fascinating, and I'd love to incorporate it into my literature teaching somehow. I don't have time to read this now (or soon, probably), but it looks fascinating, and I'd love to incorporate it into my literature teaching somehow. See here for a related book.
Epigraph: "Fairy tales are more than true — not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten." (source)
Familiar Epigraph: "Fairy tales are more than true — not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten." (source)
Familiar elements in the introduction: big, strange house; mysterious garden well; rain forces a bored child to explore inside; a door that appears to go nowhere. Mysterious elements such as a black cat, reading tea leaves, a prophecy of danger from retired stage actresses, and a strange talisman that will come in handy later. Coraline finds the door accessible, and she discovers a parallel world that is simultaneously disturbing yet attractive in many ways (e.g., food, toys, talking animals), possibly providing a solution to her boredom. There is a great section (63–67) on what true bravery/courage must include: fear [read a story with a similar theme earlier today: Bill Peet's Cowardly Clyde]. Several Shakespeare references (the Scottish play, "sharper than a serpent's tooth" [Lear]; tempering justice with mercy [Merchant of Venice]), plus some religious lingo (love the sinner, hate the sin) from the "other mother." The "other mother" cannot create; she can only twist (131; cf. Satan in Paradise Lost). Coraline must face her own boredom with her own world (132), and she realizes that she doesn't really want what she sometimes thinks she wants (133) and ultimately expresses gratitude for simple things such as the sky (154). Finally, the theme of cunning is a nice, classical touch [cf. Odysseus, fairy tales]: Coraline is told to "be tricky" (162), the cat tells her to challenge her "other mother" (75), she does (100–3), and her final tricks work (141–47, 173–81)....more
**spoiler alert** Heard about this book from an interview that N. D. Wilson gave. He hates this book. I hate what Pullman is trying to do (persuade re**spoiler alert** Heard about this book from an interview that N. D. Wilson gave. He hates this book. I hate what Pullman is trying to do (persuade readers that this world is completely mechanical), but it is an interesting story. The end wraps up too quickly, but the first 95% of the story was captivating, despite the atheistic propaganda. Repeated themes of heartbeats, death, using time well, fate, controlling destiny, etc. Wikipedia article.
Marlowe epigraph (Pullman's His Dark Materials uses a phrase from Milton's Paradise Lost) ix–xi: note about clocks ix: time used to run by clockwork x: contemporary clocks are like witchcraft; regular clocks are mysterious enough xi: clocks tick us to the grave; fate
Part 1 3: [cf. issue of blind men feeling an elephant; Pullman assumes that he can see the whole thing]; White Horse Tavern in Germany [reference to the White Horse Tavern in Cambridge? no need for Pullman to be anti-Reformation, any more than he is anti-Catholic] 4: clockmaker enters the tavern 5: end of a clockmaker's apprenticeship results in a figure for a great clock 7: Fritz the novelist (optimist) 10–11: Karl (apprentice) hasn't made a figure; Karl (pessimist) thinks writing is easy 15: Fritz is nervous because he had wound up the story, but hadn't finished it yet; his story is called "Clockwork" 20: story of a physician who had studied the location of the soul (crosses himself) 21: prince's heart replaced with clockwork 23: Dr. Kalmenius (clockwork expert) 26: Dr. K himself enters the White Horse Tavern! 34: philosophy of clockwork 35: control fate by winding things up 38: Sir Ironsoul (statue) 40: statue tries to kill whoever says devil [any connection to Carl Sagan's book Demon-Haunted World?] 41: statue stops at the sound of a specific tune ("The Flowers of Lapland") 42: Dr. K leaves the statue for Karl to use as his figure 46: Gretl says devil (Faust reference) and the statue moves toward her (she doesn't know the tune)
Part 2 52: Prince and wife sought help from the Pope for their barrenness; they have a son, but he dies 53: Prince demands that Dr. K make a clockwork son 59: Prince's son needs a heart because it's the nature of clockwork to run down 60: "the heart that is given must also be kept" 73: the prince is able to sing the tu e...
Part 3 77: ...that saves Gretl 78: "her touch awoke something in his machinery" [Pullman's magic] 79–80: Gretl reads Fritz's notes—he had promised the devil his soul for a good ending to his story 82: Karl plans to use the dying prince for his figure 84: Karl imagines the evil he could get away with by using the statue 88: the risk of storytelling 93: Karl says devil again 95: Gretl finds Karl dead 96: figures of saints and angels in the clocktower [Pullman's story wouldn't be as good without supernatural borrowings] 99: Gretl shelters the prince 103–4: best "figures" ever seen; Gretl gave (and kept) her heart to the prince (see p. 60) 107: Fritz writes speeches (fiction) for politicians...more