Ooh I'm glad you watched the show as it's always interesting to read your thoughts on these things! The polar exploration notes made me laugh. It would have been awesome to get something which was grounded in authenticity. As with The Terror, a real sense of the world being real and gritty would have done so much to make us believe in, well, the giant fantastical polar bear elements.
I'm coming from a different angle than you, being devoted to Northern Lights (meanwhile, the rest of the trilogy... eh, they're fine) but I certainly agree with what you describe as lacking from the series.
If I'm reading right, I think you're saying 'relevance and usefulness in unpicking the knot of one's own life' was missing from the book as well as the series of Northern Lights? I agree with the point re. the series, but for me it's a let-down of a book which is all about that.
The series fails to present its fantasy with any of the source materials interest in the thoughts that inform it, so it all becomes a kind of dark whimsy.
You may or may not be interested - I've been writing a series about the handling of daemons across Northern Lights and its adaptations. The first part is here: https://www.kathrynrosamiller.com/post/daemons-in-his-dark-materials, with links to the other two installments that I have published so far.
If you're still poorly you might be looking for something to point your eyes at for a spell! I also found Myles McNutt's episode reviews on the A. V. Club insightful, depending how interested you are in spelunking into criticism of HDM.
Since you mention Pratchett, and the failures of adaptation there, I also wrote critically about Good Omens on the same blog https://www.kathrynrosamiller.com/post/good-omens. I'm unusual in really not thinking very highly of GO as an adaptation, so I think adaptations have all really missed the mark so far.
I'm actually excited about The Watch because at least it sounds like if it fails it's going to fail interestingly - I'm so bored of adaptations that have a dull, plodding fidelity to detail and no imagination or apparent understanding of the spirit of the text.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2019-12-30 03:01 pm (UTC)I'm coming from a different angle than you, being devoted to Northern Lights (meanwhile, the rest of the trilogy... eh, they're fine) but I certainly agree with what you describe as lacking from the series.
If I'm reading right, I think you're saying 'relevance and usefulness in unpicking the knot of one's own life' was missing from the book as well as the series of Northern Lights? I agree with the point re. the series, but for me it's a let-down of a book which is all about that.
The series fails to present its fantasy with any of the source materials interest in the thoughts that inform it, so it all becomes a kind of dark whimsy.
You may or may not be interested - I've been writing a series about the handling of daemons across Northern Lights and its adaptations. The first part is here: https://www.kathrynrosamiller.com/post/daemons-in-his-dark-materials, with links to the other two installments that I have published so far.
If you're still poorly you might be looking for something to point your eyes at for a spell! I also found Myles McNutt's episode reviews on the A. V. Club insightful, depending how interested you are in spelunking into criticism of HDM.
Since you mention Pratchett, and the failures of adaptation there, I also wrote critically about Good Omens on the same blog https://www.kathrynrosamiller.com/post/good-omens. I'm unusual in really not thinking very highly of GO as an adaptation, so I think adaptations have all really missed the mark so far.
I'm actually excited about The Watch because at least it sounds like if it fails it's going to fail interestingly - I'm so bored of adaptations that have a dull, plodding fidelity to detail and no imagination or apparent understanding of the spirit of the text.
Get well soon!