Philip Pullman attacks CS Lewis
Derek Janssen
>
> British readers may like to know that Thursday's Guardian (1st October)
> carried an article by Philip Pullman (of Golden Compass aka Northern
> Lights fame) attacking CS Lewis. The article was called 'The Dark Side
> of Narnia,' and was written to tie in with the upcoming centenary of
> Lewis' birth.
> I haven't get time to type the article at present - I might get round to
> it if enough people are interested - but personally I thought it was
> very lame. Most of the brickbats were familiar (the Narnia books are
> sexist, racist, misanthropic etc), many relying on readings of the books
> which seemed dubious or plain wrong.
Got the same overused tripe from Jane "The Fledgling" Langton, when we
erupted into a shouting match at a bookstore appearance...
(Hence, I assume I can safely put Pullman into the same category)
Derek Janssen
dja...@ultranet.com
Stephen Rose
In article <122905801...@tvo.org>, Fergus-Moore (Fergus...@tvo.org) writes:
> If you do type the article, please secure copyright permission first...
The word 'pompous' springs to mind.
It's just an article out of the Guardian - if he doesn't type it
Independent readers like me will never see it.
HPrill
>Philip Pullman attacks CS Lewis
I take it from prior posts that Philip Pullman is an author himself. I've
never heard of him (I live in the U.S.). Is he well known in the U.K.? I read
the article and found it to be strongly worded, but with few examples of the
evils of which Lewis is accused. Perhaps his real complaint is Lewis'
"supernaturalism?"
andrew osmond
>>Philip Pullman attacks CS Lewis
>
>I take it from prior posts that Philip Pullman is an author himself. I've
>never heard of him (I live in the U.S.). Is he well known in the U.K.?
Judging by the rave reviews at the front of my edition, his book THE
GOLDEN COMPASS (published in Britain as NORTHERN LIGHTS), was critically
very well recieved on both sides of the Atlantic. In Britain, it also
won the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award.
As to whether he's well-known, I can't speak for America but I don't
think he's all that famous in Britain - kids are far more likely to know
Terry Pratchett than Philip Pullman. I'm acquainted with a large number
of 'literary' SF/Fantasy fans, and very few have read Pullman, although
several know he's meant to be good.
(I've only read NORTHERN LIGHTS so far: *I* think it's good, but was
more impressed by Diane Duane's SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD. Although her
sequels are trailing off badly now: ON HER MAJESTY'S WIZARDLY SERVICE is
as lame as the title suggests.)
> I read
>the article and found it to be strongly worded, but with few examples of the
>evils of which Lewis is accused.
Agreed. Far more vitriol than substance.
> Perhaps his real complaint is Lewis'
>"supernaturalism?"
Well, NORTHERN LIGHTS involves shape-changing familiars (called daemons)
and a host of witches, so this appears to be another case of pot,
kettle; kettle, pot. The ending suggests there may be some kind of
technofantasy rationale to come, but nothing is resolved. (Which is a
brickbat some people might throw at Pullman's book: it ends very much on
a cliffhanger, demanding the reader plough through several hundred more
pages to come to any resolution. Personally, I can forgive cliffhanger
fantasies if they're good enough, but some people find it very rude
behaviour.)
--
andrew osmond
Pjcow
I thought I thread about C.S. Lewis may be as good a spot as any to post a
remotely related question.
On behalf of a customer, a 10th grade teacher of LD students...
Here is her dilema..students are required to read British authors...they have
some Shakespere and the "other standards" in the cur. However..they can't
handle the stuff. She would like some non-traditional opeions for them in teh
Young Adult..even Middle Grades reading ranges. She is looking for something
like Paul Zindel, Gary Paulsen, Cooney..something easy to read and
shorter..(but not fluff). She has beeen given a grant to purchase and preview
a large number of titles. Any suggestions?
It's remotely related see...becasue in teh store today I suggested C.S. Lewis.
Thanks in advance as always,
Patti
Chester County Book Company
Deborah Stevenson
>I thought I thread about C.S. Lewis may be as good a spot as any to post a
>remotely related question.
>On behalf of a customer, a 10th grade teacher of LD students...
>Here is her dilema..students are required to read British authors...they have
>some Shakespere and the "other standards" in the cur. However..they can't
>handle the stuff. She would like some non-traditional opeions for them in teh
>Young Adult..even Middle Grades reading ranges. She is looking for something
>like Paul Zindel, Gary Paulsen, Cooney..something easy to read and
>shorter..(but not fluff). She has beeen given a grant to purchase and preview
>a large number of titles. Any suggestions?
Names that come to mind:
Robert Westall
Leon Garfield
Vivien Alcock
Hilary McKay
Anne Fine
Jan Mark
Philip Pullman (you don't have to use the Golden Compass--try something
like Count Karlstein or Spring-Heel Jack)
Penelope Farmer
Penelope Lively
Sylvia Waugh
Philippa Pearce
Peter Dickinson
Michele Magorian
Rachel Anderson
Nina Bawden
William Mayne
I don't know whether you want to count people like Eve Bunting and Susan
Cooper who have moved or not.
I've stuck to people with whose work I'm personally familiar.
I don't think any of them are one-book wonders, and there's a range from
fantasy (particularly ghost stories, a favorite genre of mine) to
historical fiction to contemporary realism in the combined oeuvre. For
some reason I've also got in my mind two recent historical dog stories,
of all things, by people from whom I *have* only seen one book: Martin
Booth's War Dog and Henrietta Brandford's Fire, Bed and Bone, both very good
reads. There was also quite a good thriller by Martin Waddell a couple
of years ago, The Kidnapping of Suzie Q; I believe he's Northern Irish.
Hope this helps some.
Deborah Stevenson
(stev...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu)
Judi Smith
DIANA WYNNE JONES
JOHN ROWE TOWNSEND
Pjcow (pj...@aol.com) wrote:
: I thought I thread about C.S. Lewis may be as good a spot as any to post a
: remotely related question.
: On behalf of a customer, a 10th grade teacher of LD students...
: Here is her dilema..students are required to read British authors...they have
: some Shakespere and the "other standards" in the cur. However..they can't
: handle the stuff. She would like some non-traditional opeions for them in teh
: Young Adult..even Middle Grades reading ranges. She is looking for something
: like Paul Zindel, Gary Paulsen, Cooney..something easy to read and
: shorter..(but not fluff). She has beeen given a grant to purchase and preview
: a large number of titles. Any suggestions?
: It's remotely related see...becasue in teh store today I suggested C.S. Lewis.
: Thanks in advance as always,
: Patti
: Chester County Book Company
--
judi smith "if it's love," she said, "then we're going to
jsm...@bc.seflin.org have to think about the consequences."
she can't stop shaking and i
would you catch me if was falling? can't stop touching her and..
kiss me if i was leaving? -- anna begins
hold me cause i'm lonely without you?
-- round here
TruPrice
How about K. M. Peyton, The Plan for Birdsmarsh, The Maplin Bird, or maybe the
Pennington books. Lots of outdoor activity with human interest too.
Or books for older kids by Anne Fine, recent, often funny.
Or Berlie Doherty, who is a little harder to read, but a wonderful writer (the
teacher will not feel guilty assigning her!)
Some of Joan Aiken or Mollie Hunter or Alan Garfield might seem old enough to
10th graders (I don't think C. S. Lewis will).
.
There are of course all kinds of wonderful 20th c English books, butI can only
think of ones that will seem a little young, or too complex or too specifically
English: Lucy Boston, Penelope Lively, Penelope Farmer, Alan Garner, William
Mayne, Arthur Ransome, N. Streatfeild, J. R. Townsend, Hilary McKay (MacKay?),
Jane Gardam, Peter Dickinson Barbara Willard, Jill Paton Walsh and on and on..
The older historical writers like Resemary Sutcliff or Geoffrey Trease might be
too hard, depending on the kids' background but Henry Treece's Viking Sagas
move along at a good clip and might work..
Now, if the teacher could stretch this assignment to Australian books, there
would be quite a few simple but well written books both adventurous enough and
grown up enough. I can think of some good Canadian books for this class, too.
How about a Commonwealth approach! Suzanne
---
Suzanne & Truman Price - Monmouth, Oregon
Children's Literature & Picture Books
AJH
Peyton ("Flambards" et al), or Orwell's "Animal Farm"? "The Diddacoy"
(Rumer Godden)...? Alan Garner? Leon Garfield? ... I'll look in the bookcase
and get back to you ...
In article <19981007213406...@ng111.aol.com>, Pjcow
<pj...@aol.com> writes
>
>I thought I thread about C.S. Lewis may be as good a spot as any to post a
>remotely related question.
>
>On behalf of a customer, a 10th grade teacher of LD students...
>
>Here is her dilema..students are required to read British authors...they have
>some Shakespere and the "other standards" in the cur. However..they can't
>handle the stuff. She would like some non-traditional opeions for them in teh
>Young Adult..even Middle Grades reading ranges. She is looking for something
>like Paul Zindel, Gary Paulsen, Cooney..something easy to read and
>shorter..(but not fluff). She has beeen given a grant to purchase and preview
>a large number of titles. Any suggestions?
>
>It's remotely related see...becasue in teh store today I suggested C.S. Lewis.
>
>Thanks in advance as always,
>
>Patti
>Chester County Book Company
--
AJH
For email address, remove the 'evil' number
LostLvs
<<particularly ghost stories, a favorite genre of mine>>
Mine too. One of my favorites now is THEY by Kipling. For younger readers, what
do you recommend?
Rosemary
Deborah Stevenson
Oh, Mary Downing Hahn's Wait Till Helen Comes, Pam Conrad's Stonewords,
Nicholas Wilde's Into the Dark, Penelope Lively's The Ghost of Thomas
Kempe come to mind of the top of my head. I'm not sure whether you'd
call Robert Westall's The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral or Yaxley's Cat
ghost stories per se, but they're terrific supernatural stories; his
short story "The Call" is one of my favorite short ghost stories ever.
For picture-book age, Tony Johnston's The Ghost of Nicholas Greebe is a
wonderful book--just funny enough to keep from scaring the pants off 'em,
but definitely with its creepy edge.
Deborah Stevenson
(stev...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu)
Bruce N. Hietbrink
(Pjcow) wrote:
> I thought I thread about C.S. Lewis may be as good a spot as any to post a
> remotely related question.
>
> On behalf of a customer, a 10th grade teacher of LD students...
>
> Here is her dilema..students are required to read British authors...they have
> some Shakespere and the "other standards" in the cur. However..they can't
> handle the stuff. She would like some non-traditional opeions for them in teh
> Young Adult..even Middle Grades reading ranges. She is looking for something
> like Paul Zindel, Gary Paulsen, Cooney..something easy to read and
> shorter..(but not fluff). She has beeen given a grant to purchase and
preview
> a large number of titles. Any suggestions?
>
I'd suggest Susan Cooper's _Dark is Rising_ series. To go a little
more traditional I like Kipling. _A Wind in the Willows_ is
wonderful but perhaps to "little kid-dy" for this age range. Junior
high kids probably need to get a little older before they can go
back to liking children's books (on-topic point here, there are at
least a couple of quotes by Lewis to this point. I believe he dedicated
one of the Narnia books to a child who he said would probably be too
old to read it by the time it was finished, but eventually she'd
get older and could read it again.) Is Richard Adams British? _Watership
Down_ is on my "best of all time" list. Oh, duh, how could I not have
said anything about Tolkien?
Bruce Hietbrink
Bruce N. Hietbrink
> I thought I thread about C.S. Lewis may be as good a spot as any to post a
> remotely related question.
>
> On behalf of a customer, a 10th grade teacher of LD students...
>
> Here is her dilema..students are required to read British authors...they have
> some Shakespere and the "other standards" in the cur. However..they can't
> handle the stuff. She would like some non-traditional opeions for them in teh
> Young Adult..even Middle Grades reading ranges. She is looking for something
> like Paul Zindel, Gary Paulsen, Cooney..something easy to read and
> shorter..(but not fluff). She has beeen given a grant to purchase and
preview
> a large number of titles. Any suggestions?
>
Oh, to add to my previous suggestions, it was probably when I was
in junior high that I went on a big Sherlock Holmes kick.
Bruce Hietbrink
KimFore
> On behalf of a customer, a 10th grade teacher of LD students...
>
> Here is her dilema..students are required to read British authors...they
>have
> some Shakespere and the "other standards" in the cur. However..they can't
> handle the stuff. She would like some non-traditional opeions for them in
>teh
> Young Adult..even Middle Grades reading ranges. She is looking for
>something
> like Paul Zindel, Gary Paulsen, Cooney..something easy to read and
>preview
> a large number of titles. Any suggestions?
>
the LD (learning disabled) students in this class are anything like my husband
and son (both have ADD and dyslexia although quite intelligent), these are
going to be *much* too hard for them. I think possibly maybe of the responders
didn't notice the "LD" qualifier in the poster's message.
I don't know about these particular students, but I think the books would have
to be much shorter and have simpler sentence structure than something like
Tolkien, Sherlock Holmes, etc. My husband can only read short articles or
reference materials (he LOVES reference books), and even then he does it in
bits and pieces and has to go over them two or three times to "get"
everything. He's read exactly one complete book in his whole life, because it's
so excrutiatingly difficult. My son, age 13, can read the words fluently, but
he has almost no comprehension of meaning. Even when I read aloud to him, he
can't follow the threads of the plot unless they're very, very simple.
So while fifth or sixth grade level books may seem much too childish to us
"normal" folks, they're probably about the right level for this 10th grade LD
class. Having said that, naturally I'm drawing a complete blank when it comes
to books by British authors at this grade level. Hmmm. Well, anyway, I hope to
see somebody else post some good ideas.
Kim in California, whose boss thinks she's working...
Judi Smith
(some) and john rowe townsend./
i was particularly thinking about the going-into-the-computer-game books
that the second gillian wrote; not sure of the reading levels but i
believe the protagonist was in 5th or 6th grade...so they can't be TOO
much beyond that level...
dw jones' books for younger readers would be great.... if the reader
likes and can follow fantasy.
oh, KM peyton also wrote some middle-grade books.
Susan Benjamin
My son is LD and I agree with Kim's comments (he's only 12 though). A
lot of the books suggested have been for much younger age group -- these
kids are in high school.
I'd suggest short stories, intended for adults. Roald Dahl's short
stories might work, try the one where the wife kills her husband with
the leg of lamb. I think Conan Doyle is a good idea too, the language
may be tough to start with, but they're not very long. Tolkien,
Watership Down, etc. are going to be too long for these kids.
If you do Lewis, try "Out of the Silent Planet" instead of the Narnia
books. The characters are adults, not children, and that'll appeal
to 10th graders more.
Good luck,
Susan B.
TruPrice
Taking off from Susan B.'s good suggestion of short stories for this class of
10th grade kids, what about picking a theme and illustrating it with a simply
written young adult novel read together and a range of short passages from
adult English poetry and short stories read aloud or on CD's.... WWII springs
to mind...
Perhaps some posters don't know the meaning of LD. These kids have been
identified as Learning Disabled, (LD). They have clusters of specific learning
disabilities related to learning language, like extreme difficulty in
remembering sounds in sequence or associating symbols with sounds. Also, given
their age, they may have been taught in a way that made the process of learning
to read even more difficult than it need have been. Although the LD label is
absolutely NOT a reflection on their intelligence, these kids may not believe
that. They are probably discouraged. It's important to give them something
which addresses their intelligence and maturity, but which is short and direct
enough for their reading skills. I thought of Brian Doyle's Spud Sweetgrass as
the perfect book, but unfortunately he's Canadian! Suzanne