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stripes13 pretty much, since I don't think anyone else cares about my crack crossover thing that I will probably never actually write. That's okay! I just like to talk about things. Anyway, today I want to talk about The Amber Spyglass. I had a very strange and not altogether good day for many reasons, but one of those reasons was that I read the end of The Amber Spyglass just before going to class where I knew I would be expected to speak articulately about it (yes, I have a class about His Dark Materials--it's about Paradise Lost and Philip Pullman and other "visions and revisions of the Fall" which is perfect for me because I love Paradise Lost and His Dark Materials). Anyway, er, got a bit off track there. So as some of you may recall, I once wrote a post about how The Amber Spyglass makes me cry. This morning I was actually holding it together pretty well and I thought I might make it through--but alas, I soon found myself hunched over my kitchen table, sobbing and wiping away tears with a napkin. And hoping that none of my housemates came in because I didn't want to explain why I was crying. Also I had to pull myself together before I got to class.
But anyway, the point of this is that I just read the end of His Dark Materials and Book III has a perfect record for making me cry only this time I was applying it to Lee and Kara too. And I'm about to reproduce the relevant section below, so spoilers for the end of His Dark Materials, obviously.
And then more stuff happens and then they go back to Will's world and then Lyra tells him about the bench and then I really frakking lose it. But anyway, my point is. Imagine the above section with Kara and Lee for Lyra and Will. Aside from the who-attacked-who being perfect piloty banter, isn't the whole atom-of-you-and-atom-of-me thing a million times better than the poof? I want to write RDM an angry letter, and just be like "this is how you write tragedy." I think this is how I will think of "see you on the other side" from here on out. That when they die they'll go to the land of the dead and then they'll tell the harpies their stories and when they leave and go back into the world, they'll find each other, and...well you know the rest.
In the midst of my little sob session this morning, I also came to the realization that perhaps this is what I was trying to do with The Disappearing Ground, except of course it hadn't even crossed my mind to think of their story this way. But sometimes that happens. Maybe I was subconsciously thinking of Lyra and Will sitting at that bench in Oxford when I wrote about Lee returning to the field alone, to wait for Kara. Or maybe I'm just having delusions of grandeur. But I think that if I were to write The Disappearing Ground today, I would have been thinking of Pullman.
Bonus: here's something I wrote in my class notes today. It amuses me, and perhaps it will amuse you too. Lyra vs. Will and doing what they're told--if Lyra trusts you, she'll do anything for you, jump a raider back to Caprica or assassinate her CO, but Will will (ha) only ever follow himself. Or Lyra. No one else. He'll mutiny at inappropriate times but he'll always have her back. (okay, I didn't write that last sentence but I was totally thinking it)
stripes13 pretty much, since I don't think anyone else cares about my crack crossover thing that I will probably never actually write. That's okay! I just like to talk about things. Anyway, today I want to talk about The Amber Spyglass. I had a very strange and not altogether good day for many reasons, but one of those reasons was that I read the end of The Amber Spyglass just before going to class where I knew I would be expected to speak articulately about it (yes, I have a class about His Dark Materials--it's about Paradise Lost and Philip Pullman and other "visions and revisions of the Fall" which is perfect for me because I love Paradise Lost and His Dark Materials). Anyway, er, got a bit off track there. So as some of you may recall, I once wrote a post about how The Amber Spyglass makes me cry. This morning I was actually holding it together pretty well and I thought I might make it through--but alas, I soon found myself hunched over my kitchen table, sobbing and wiping away tears with a napkin. And hoping that none of my housemates came in because I didn't want to explain why I was crying. Also I had to pull myself together before I got to class. But anyway, the point of this is that I just read the end of His Dark Materials and Book III has a perfect record for making me cry only this time I was applying it to Lee and Kara too. And I'm about to reproduce the relevant section below, so spoilers for the end of His Dark Materials, obviously.
"Oh, Will," she said, "what can we do? Whatever can we do? I want to live with you forever. I want to kiss you and lie down with you and wake up with you every day of my life till I die, years and years and years away. i don't want a memory, just a memory..."
"No," he said, "memory's a poor thing to have. It's your own real hair and mouth and arms and eyes and hands i want. I didn't know I could ever love anything so much. Oh, Lyra, I wish this night would never end! If only we could stay here like this, and the world could stop turning, and everyone else could fall into a sleep..."
"Everyone except us! And you and I could live here forever and just love each other."
"I will love you forever, whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again..."
"I'll be looking for you, Will, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you...We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams...And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..."
They lay side by side, hand in hand, looking at the sky.
"Do you remember," she whispered, "when you first came into that cafe in Ci'gazze, and you'd never seen a daemon?"
"I couldn't understand what he was. But when I saw you, I liked you straightaway because you were brave."
"No, I liked you first."
"You didn't! You fought me!"
"Well," she said, "yes. But you attacked me."
"I did not! You came charging out and attacked me."
"Yes, but I soon stopped."
"Yes, but," he mocked softly.
"No," he said, "memory's a poor thing to have. It's your own real hair and mouth and arms and eyes and hands i want. I didn't know I could ever love anything so much. Oh, Lyra, I wish this night would never end! If only we could stay here like this, and the world could stop turning, and everyone else could fall into a sleep..."
"Everyone except us! And you and I could live here forever and just love each other."
"I will love you forever, whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again..."
"I'll be looking for you, Will, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you...We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams...And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..."
They lay side by side, hand in hand, looking at the sky.
"Do you remember," she whispered, "when you first came into that cafe in Ci'gazze, and you'd never seen a daemon?"
"I couldn't understand what he was. But when I saw you, I liked you straightaway because you were brave."
"No, I liked you first."
"You didn't! You fought me!"
"Well," she said, "yes. But you attacked me."
"I did not! You came charging out and attacked me."
"Yes, but I soon stopped."
"Yes, but," he mocked softly.
And then more stuff happens and then they go back to Will's world and then Lyra tells him about the bench and then I really frakking lose it. But anyway, my point is. Imagine the above section with Kara and Lee for Lyra and Will. Aside from the who-attacked-who being perfect piloty banter, isn't the whole atom-of-you-and-atom-of-me thing a million times better than the poof? I want to write RDM an angry letter, and just be like "this is how you write tragedy." I think this is how I will think of "see you on the other side" from here on out. That when they die they'll go to the land of the dead and then they'll tell the harpies their stories and when they leave and go back into the world, they'll find each other, and...well you know the rest.
In the midst of my little sob session this morning, I also came to the realization that perhaps this is what I was trying to do with The Disappearing Ground, except of course it hadn't even crossed my mind to think of their story this way. But sometimes that happens. Maybe I was subconsciously thinking of Lyra and Will sitting at that bench in Oxford when I wrote about Lee returning to the field alone, to wait for Kara. Or maybe I'm just having delusions of grandeur. But I think that if I were to write The Disappearing Ground today, I would have been thinking of Pullman.
Bonus: here's something I wrote in my class notes today. It amuses me, and perhaps it will amuse you too. Lyra vs. Will and doing what they're told--if Lyra trusts you, she'll do anything for you, jump a raider back to Caprica or assassinate her CO, but Will will (ha) only ever follow himself. Or Lyra. No one else. He'll mutiny at inappropriate times but he'll always have her back. (okay, I didn't write that last sentence but I was totally thinking it)
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Date: 2010-11-02 12:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
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