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Little Tests
Feb. 6th, 2002 12:20 amFor all of you (okay, for the two of you!) who were disappointed at not being able to see the result of my mythological creature test, I'm a dragon. *spews flame at you* I'm glad that you find my thoughts interesting enough to read and comment on. :)
I started reading Pullman's "The Golden Compass" yesterday and was hooked ten pages in. The writing is excellent, not condescending in the least (which is perhaps the one thing I do not tolerate in children's books) and I'm sorry, but that mention of Pope John Calvin got to me the way only clever historical and/or literary references can.
Delighted smiles of recognition should be part of every reading experience. It's better than an in-joke, because you won't even notice they're there unless you get them; it's not like having people laughing around you for a reason you don't understand, it's more like a wink to someone in the know. That's part of why I enjoyed the Sandman series so much. Of course, the references there tended to be either to the Bard himself or to Greek and Norse mythology, but I was still surprised at how many things I picked up on, like Fiddler's Green.
That sort of thing's also a big part of why I enjoy the Discworld novels. For this type of thing, "The Last Continent" has the highest ratio of winks to the reader, I think. Because my childhood car trips included a tape of Australian singer Ralph Something-or-other singing traditional songs from Down Under, I got all the jokes about billabongs, Colonial Boys and Waltzing Mathilda, but one of the major ones, the continent being labeled XXXX on maps, went right over my head at the time. Turns out XXXX is a popular beer in Australia. If there were any references I didn't get, I didn't even notice, which is nice. Nothing more annoying than knowing you're missing out on something; in Sandman, I was certain that the Corinthian was some sort of reference, and even asked my father about it, who had no idea either. I now believe, however, that this was intentional, as a character later on says he won't ask if Corinthian refers to the columns, the leather, the place, etc. But I think I'll go do some research anyway, because self-education is time well-spent.
I started reading Pullman's "The Golden Compass" yesterday and was hooked ten pages in. The writing is excellent, not condescending in the least (which is perhaps the one thing I do not tolerate in children's books) and I'm sorry, but that mention of Pope John Calvin got to me the way only clever historical and/or literary references can.
Delighted smiles of recognition should be part of every reading experience. It's better than an in-joke, because you won't even notice they're there unless you get them; it's not like having people laughing around you for a reason you don't understand, it's more like a wink to someone in the know. That's part of why I enjoyed the Sandman series so much. Of course, the references there tended to be either to the Bard himself or to Greek and Norse mythology, but I was still surprised at how many things I picked up on, like Fiddler's Green.
That sort of thing's also a big part of why I enjoy the Discworld novels. For this type of thing, "The Last Continent" has the highest ratio of winks to the reader, I think. Because my childhood car trips included a tape of Australian singer Ralph Something-or-other singing traditional songs from Down Under, I got all the jokes about billabongs, Colonial Boys and Waltzing Mathilda, but one of the major ones, the continent being labeled XXXX on maps, went right over my head at the time. Turns out XXXX is a popular beer in Australia. If there were any references I didn't get, I didn't even notice, which is nice. Nothing more annoying than knowing you're missing out on something; in Sandman, I was certain that the Corinthian was some sort of reference, and even asked my father about it, who had no idea either. I now believe, however, that this was intentional, as a character later on says he won't ask if Corinthian refers to the columns, the leather, the place, etc. But I think I'll go do some research anyway, because self-education is time well-spent.
