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Archive Number 3621 | ||
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Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 18:35:34 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I was a participant in a book group at the time that The Golden Compass = first came out. Most of us were current or retired teachers and = administrators. We read the book, (most of us loved it) then the sequel = -- The Subtle Knife. As middle volumes of trilogies often do, that book left us unsettled and = wondering where the last story would go and how the story could = possibly be resolved. We waited anxiously for that last volume to be = released. We waited for what seemed a very long time. (According to the article, = it was about three years.) When The Amber Spyglass finally came out, = our original book group no longer existed, and those of us who had been = so taken by the story read it with great anticipation on our own. Last year I taught fifth graders. Two of the boys (One = Chinese-Christian, the other Indian-Hindu) in my class became enamored = with fantasy, and after finishing the Narnia Series, Lloyd Alexander's = Prydain series, Brian Jacques' Redwall books and Susan Cooper's Dark Is = Rising sequence, they read the Phillip Pullman trilogy. =20 They understood enough of the story to warrant continuing to read the = series, and they enjoyed it. They liked the remarkable images Pullman = creates in the books, and they trusted him enough as a storyteller to = pull them through the darkest parts. They were unaware of many of the = parallels and the literary references, much of the history, and the = metaphor that I recognized as an adult reader. But isn't that a wonderful thing about story? Unlike movies or TV, = where the image is hurled at you, ready or not, story can be loved on = whatever level it is perceived. For you, it may have deep personal and = psychological connections. For me, it might be just a whopping good = adventure. We both emerge enriched. Maybe that's part of what the Times articles were saying about the play = -- the story holds far more depth and breadth and meaning for the reader = than the play can successfully provide to the audience. =20 (I was distressed to learn that in translating the books to other media = they are going to downplay what Jacques says about the Church and that = they have eliminated a woman research scientist who was for me a key = figure in the books.) ------------------------------- To Unsubscribe from Healingstory send the message: unsubscribe healingstory to: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu ------------------------------- | ||