#228

There’s a documentary about Philip Pullman on the iPlayer archive at the moment from 2001, from when The Subtle Knife was released, and there’s a brilliant bit where he rails against the way children are taught to make a plan first and then write something, he says the best thing to do is start writing and see where it takes you, see what fun you can have with it. Which is kind of relevant to what you’re saying here, I think.

Also relevant, I absolutely love his response on Twitter last year to a question about how daemons appear when a child is born… “Does it just appear out of nowhere, or does the mothers daemon birth it?”

3 Likes
#229

Yeah needed much more of this and Lyra and Pan. I suppose it makes sense that that will be established later on but I remember the retiring room scene as being really insightful into the importance of their relationship before. Didn’t notice the music being a problem at all. Some of the acting felt a bit stagey.

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#230

It’s clear from ‘On Writing’ that Stephen King normally just writes and sees where it goes. He gets his characters and then just lets them decide the way the story goes. I think that’s why so many of his books have disappointing endings, TBH.

#231

It had the longest “next week on…” I have ever seen.

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#232

It was pretty good.

Some of it did give me the cheap and nasty Dr Who vibes like when we first meet the Gyptians…

What I don’t know is how many episodes and is this just Northern Lights?

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#233

8 and yes

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#234

Don’t think I need to bother with the rest of the series now

#235

Thats a proper dad thing to say. And I also said it.

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#236

Glad I didn’t watch it then!

#237

yes! I was thinking this, particularly in the crowd scenes - it should look like a farm or zoo!

But I thought it was really good - I’ve not read the books for over a decade but the feel / look of it was exactly what I had in my minds eye.

So, so, so much better than the film already

#238

Anyone manage to catch the young girl’s name? Dont think they mentioned it

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#239

Hermione I think.

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#240

Oh look a female protagonist with a name and eric doesn’t like it! Surprise, surprise.

#241

Sorry to be contrary but I thought it was a massive anticlimax. Never read the books so just found it a bit… ridiculous

#242

I’ve been thinking more about how daemons would affect the wider world and have wound myself up with it. Forget about how daemons would impact gender discrimination, let’s just think about some practicalities here. Imagine the kitchens at Jordan, they would need a huge staff to turn out the feasts they do, maybe 20 - 50 staff including cooks, porters etc. Most servants have dogs as daemons (problematic in itself, lot of scope for eugenicist ideas in that alone), but can you imagine dozens of dogs running around a busy kitchen? It would be chaos! AND unhygienic - do daemons shed? Will there be dog hair in the soup?

Do daemons eat? Do they shit? Should all toilets be accompanied by litter trays or something? Shouldn’t furniture be built with perches and stuff built into it? Wouldn’t you change almost every aspect of the design of your everyday objects?

These books are terrible!

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#243

I think I saw a sheep in the kitchens last night.

#244

Very silly.

#245

Also imagine if your daemon was a sheep, no one would take you seriously.

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#246

I’m guessing your daemon settles on a form that corresponds with what you’re mostly likely to end up doing with your life. Like how the gyptians’ daemons are birds because it would be impractical to have an elephant if you’re going to be spending a lot of time on boats, so maybe the cooks etc. have spider daemons.

#247

Enjoyed it on the whole, so much better than the film, although some scenes still have that BBC teatime look. Didn’t have a problem with the music or sound levels, didn’t notice it.

Also really liked how they showed a bit of Belle Sauvage at the beginning with the flooded Oxford.

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