Feb
26th
2023
Considering a reread blog for His Dark Materials · 11:41pm Feb 26th, 2023
Not on here, I should say. While I'm fine with making the occasional non-MLP post, I certainly don't want to do a hundred or so of them! Why that many, I hear you ask? Because I am seriously tempted to do a chapter-by-chapter reread, blogging about it as I go. I have read the books before, more than once, but the idea still appeals. I expect it would be posted over on my Dreamwidth. If anyone's interested, keep an eye out as I'll mention it on here if it goes ahead. š
In what Iām sure in a shock ā certainly, itās a shocking admission ā I have never read His Dark Materials, and other then the broadstrokes of the setting and setup (AU 20th century where the Reformation never happened and the Catholic Church rules the world; everyone has a spirit animal, a daemon, that accompanies them; various magic and other creatures, notably ice bears, are involved; our main character Lyra gets caught up in a conspiracy and joins some kind of resistance; incorporates physics, philosophy and theology; are really adult fantasy books despite being ātechnicallyā young adult ones, and starring children), and a few other things I vaguely remember from seeing The Golden Compass once over a decade ago, which I did like but to a newbie was kind of a confusing, blurry mess (how little I remember coherently, well, that does fit with othersā reports of how much its script reportedly tore the book to shreds to fit in under two hours, though Nicole Kidmanās turn as the villain was excellent), I couldnāt tell you much about it.
Weirdly, my brother had the trilogy when we were younger, but the first book was missing by the time I showed interest in reading it, and I never motivated myself enough to rent it from a library, despite knowing by then the trilogyās stellar reputation (though I hear The Amber Spyglass is considered a drop in quality by many?) I bring this up because very recently, just last month, I was passing by a lot of family stuff in storage and found his copy of the trilogy (the one published around the time of the movie, with the first book including the US title and all three having the movie still of Lyra and the ice bear on the cover), including Northern Lights this time! Not letting it slip through my mitts, I took them home, ready now to start on them when I feel up to it. I was even considering doing a vague Thoughts blog after reading it, either just for the lot or for each book.
And, well, if youāre considering rereading it soon tooā¦
Obviously, I may still have to steer clear of your posts on such until I finish the lot for fear of spoilers (though I anticipate getting stuck in once I start and blitzing it, if its reputation holds up), as youāre doing a reread and may allude to future events. Only fair and natural. Weāll see. Hopefully all that gets you excited too! I know your consideration (which Iād seen you mention over on Dreamwidth, so this wasnāt news news) got me excited giving my own plans to finally get stuck in with it.
Just a few extra thoughts: I have heard that the later novels in this universe are not of as consistent a quality, but thatās all I know. Similarly, most of what I know of the recent BBC series comes from your side mentions (and the one blog post) on it, that it does an admirable job of being faithful to the source material while streamlining it for television, mostly hides the budget seams of tv over a film for this material, and while no replacement for the books is a nice side treat for those who have read them, or introduction for those who havenāt. An IMDb rating of 7.8 for a recent dramatic miniseries correlates with this. Not half bad!
5715567
Well, if I do go ahead (which is now looking quite likely) then expect it to be a matter of weeks, rather than either days or months. Probably before Easter, but I can't be any more specific than that.
Without going into spoiler territory (and that reminds me, I need to decide on what spoiler policy to have on my rewatch blog posts, given they may be read by first-timers) the third book feels quite different from the first in some ways, so it's more than possible to adore Northern Lights but not The Amber Spyglass. I also wonder whether the trilogy's publication history plays a part. The first book came out in July 1995, and it was a huge hit and at that time very much the young adult fantasy novel. By the time the third book appeared, it was October 2000 and a certain bespectacled young wizard had very much stolen the spotlight.
The 2007 movie is one of those that initially had a poor reputation amongst fans of the book, but which some people (including me) now look upon a little more kindly. I rewatched it during lockdown (so before I started doing films round-ups on DW) and I think it's a fairly solid three-star effort on my usual scale. It looks glorious (so it ought to, with a $180m budget in 2007) and agreed, Nicole Kidman is very good. It messes around with some parts of the story and, particularly irritatingly, leaves out a crucial plot twist right at the end. That was because they were going to start the second film with it instead... and then of course the second film never got made thanks to its very underwhelming US box office return. (From memory, its total take wasn't all that much more than the number for the UK, where it did do well.)
There are only two full novels, though they're the first two parts of a trilogy that is as yet unfinished, but I don't like them as much, certainly not the second. I will read the third when it finally appears, but it's got work to do to make the new trilogy a keeper for me. There are also a few small side-story books that are pleasant reading but not unmissable.
But the main trilogy itself is, to my mind, undoubtedly one of the greats. It's not flawless and there are a few places where you can tell it's a quarter of a century old, but it is (IMO) superb. If I were rating it on my ponyfic scale, I think I would give it that slightly odd-sounding rating, a lowish (but definite) five stars.
5715675
That'll do, Logan. That'll do.
Since you're not reading a recent series, but one that started 28 years ago and finished 23 years ago, I think the statue of limitations has well passed on spoilers. I'd recommend not going out of your way to include them, but whenever on a chapter it's fitting to refer to something later in the book, or indeed in the next one or two, do it. For effective foreshadowing and the like. If I haven't finished them before you start, I'll postpone it until I'm done, then catch up.
It won't surprise you I know this kind of nerdy statistical info, but; normally, a film that made $372m worldwide gross off its $180m budget, in an era when home media still contributed well enough to a film's sales, would have squeezed out a small profit. If a film grossed twice its production budget in those days, it would be out of the red (nowadays it needs to be closer to 2.5). So why did it still lose money? New Line Cinema sold distribution rights to overseas territories to fund the film, and those sales are made on projected box office revenue. Meaning that when the revenue comes in higher, they don't see the profits (the reverse happened with the 2017 MLP Movie, where the projections of the film's box office were made in 2015, when the brand was hotter, so Lionsgate and Hasbro got more from foreign then if they had distributed themselves). Reportedly, the foreign pre-sales for this film netted them 60% of the film's budget, or about $108m. As studio's normally get 40-45% of the foreign revenue (depends on which territories gross more), they'd have earned $120-135m otherwise. Not a big difference, but it might have been enough to inch it into the black. Thus, New Line needed a sizeable gross in North America to actually see a profit, and they didn't get that. Hence them finally getting merged with Warner Bros.
It's normally said (or used to be said) that a Hollywood film released in the UK, assuming its subject matter isn't hugely appropriate or unappealing to them, would gross a tenth of its US gross, but in pounds (population comparison-wise, you'd need 1/5 of the attendance to be as proportionally popular; most films gets close to that without quite making it). So obviously this, with a $77m->$53m, well outstripped that! Logically, if we look at the Harry Potter trend of about 3 times in the States as the UK, meaning the UK is proportionally bigger, but not deafeningly so, Golden Compass should have done about $160m stateside.
For what it's worth, I've observed that a Hollywood film released in Ireland is healthy if it does 1/100 of its US gross, but in euros
Yeah, the trend of authors having a definitive end to their original trilogy (or however many it might be), yet due to fan demand continuing it via limited-red novellas and the like, sometimes only available for charity, it'sā¦ it's an interesting one! But hey, they already got enough in the bank to live on, they're more than welcome to it, especially if it doesn't ruin the integrity of the series' ending. Least until they caveā¦
Fits with what I've heard! Plus, me, I have no problem with older media, whether that be dated things or inappropriate depictions. Except for severe cases, not gonna let that stop me reading and enjoying it.
And since I have wanted to read this for nearly a decade-and-a-half by now, you know I'm eager.
I especially like what I've heard of the storytelling approach, that rather then expositing how this fantasy world works via a newcomer (Harry Potter and most works), it puts us with someone who's lived there their whole live, and just drip-feeds info to us as we go and expects us to connect it all. Needs a delicate hand to do well, but evidently Pullman had it and then some.
5715709
Heh, if anyone was going to know the ins and outs of the box office stuff it would have been you. Thanks! So yeah, if the US number had been what it "should" have been, it would comfortably have made a profit. Sadly the film got caught up in controversy over its attitude to religion (or, more precisely, the attitudes the second and third films would have) and certainly the thinking in the fandom at the time was that it really hurt the movie in the US.
š·
Oh, I'm not going to be really hardline. There was a famous series a decade or so ago ("Mark Reads...") that covered the trilogy and had a ferocious spoiler policy, but that was mainly because Mark himself was reading the books for the first time and doing a kind of "live blog" about it. I won't be doing that. Just really a question of whether I draw the line at "We do eventually meet Rainbow's parents" level stuff or at "Twilight becomes an alicorn at the end of S3!" level stuff.
Yup. There's a bit of exposition, but it rarely gets in the way and for the most part we do indeed "live the story" along with Lyra (mostly) and the other POV characters. It takes a fine storyteller to make it work, as you say. Fortunately we had one!
I'd love to read a detailed blog about your re-read!
I loved the books, quite enjoyed the series, and was a bit sad about the movie.
Would write more, but I'm travelling and on my phone.
5716137
Well, since that's three people giving a positive reaction so far (you, Mike and someone on my DW) it's looking pretty likely. I hope it'll start before March is out, but I'll make "before Easter" the not-actually-official-but-kinda target.
I like the movie more now than I did then. (In 2007 I saw it in the cinema, a rare thing for me.)