What does /lit/ think of His Dark Materials? I know it's YA, but does that means it's bad?
From what I gather it's the most accepted of all YA shit.
It's good YA. Give it to your kids.
Lol dude haha what if like it's God who's the bad guy haha man far out oh yeah and here's some shit tier garbage fantasy heh
it's good
i still cri everytiem ;;
>>7417297
>does that means it's bad?
No.
I feel like there are two types of YA books, those that fit into the genre(His Dark Materials, A Series of Unfortunate Events), and those that are written for the genre(Divergent, The Mortal Instruments).
I loved this as a kid and thought it was super deep, even though most of the symbolism probably went over my head. Will definitely give to my kids if I ever have any.
>>7417347
This was the plan. I want to get my kids into reading good literature so they can reap its rewards, and for them to avoid things such as Twilight. However I then think to myself..maybe I should let them find it on their own, is it worth toiling through all the shit to give you a better perspective of what is good literature? And what even is good literature? Isn't it just opinion anyway? Oh my...
It was mostly okay up until the Amber Spyglass. Then Pullman opted for pathos over a story that makes sense and opened up a number of head scratching plotholes and various flimsy justifications for le star-crossed lovers ending.
Also the antagonists in that book become increasingly vague, one-dimensional and their credibility as a threat basically disappears.
But the first two books were pretty good and it's nice to see actual effort put into YA rather than just shitting out carbon copies of other YA books.
It's fine for what it is. It's young adult fiction and to my knowledge was never marketed as anything else. Give your kids Narnia instead if you're raising them Christian though.
It's good YA.
>>7417297
I have that edition. It's super nice.
>but does that means it's bad?
>mfw
There's nothing more obnoxious than dismissing something out of hand because it's "childish". There's so much good shit out there, you're shooting yourself in the foot if you bother with that shit.
This was hands down my favourite book series as a child, better than Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings imo. Stalky and Co by Kipling would be second plance, followed by the Bartimaeus books. Oh my God, the nostalgia, it burns....
>>7417467
Just build a stockpile of "good" books. If they are the slightest bit curious, they will read through them on their own, as long as you encouraged them to read/read to them as they grew.
I'm not into YA, but I may read it soon. I found out about this series reading Paradise Lost, the author of His Dark Materials wrote the Intro for the Oxford edition.
Fun fact: The author took the name of the series, "His Dark Materials", from Paradise Lost 916
>But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
>Confus’dly, and which thus must ever fight,
>Unless the almighty maker them ordain
>His dark materials to create more worlds,
It's Harold Bloom-approved.
Nothing has inherent value. Not all YA is bad, not all literature is good.
>>7417297
it's great. has a well thought out take on coming of age.
>>7417552
Agreed. I also think Pullman tried to expand the scope of the story but wound up either out of his league writing about epic battles and cross-dimensional armies and celestial powers, or just lost the thread of the story in all the padding.
>>7417580
Narnia is generally better than HDM in general. Lewis was just a better writer, and HDM shows a lot of promise early that it then fails to live up to.
What does /lit/ think of drinking gasoline? I know it's bad, but does that means it's bad?
>>7420015
It doesnt HAVE to be bad. If you do it with an open mind and keep happiness in the forefront of your mind im sure it will turn out fine.
>>7419813
>not all literature is good.
It's in the definition of literature that all literature is good.
What does /lit/ think of going back to my childhood reading? The stuff I enjoyed most was:
His Dark Materials
Abhorsen series by Garth Nix
Wind on Fire Trilogy by William Nicholson
Mortal Engines series by Phillip Reeve
I think they all count as YA. I have them all and I was thinking of revisiting Mortal Engines. I loved that book so much when I was younger, I think it kickstarted my love for science fiction.
>>7417297
The Golden Compass was pretty based because of
>MUH ARMORED BEARS
The other two books were total shit. Gay angels? Lel.
>>7417357
God isn't the bad guy though memeshitter
>>7417297
book 1: pretty ok
book 2: meh
book 3:utter shit
i like YA but i couldn't get into these. i wasn't especially fond of the mc, i didn't care about side characters, or the epic plot to kill god. i still read them all to see if it finallly clicked but nope.
my favorite ya:
the prydain books by lloyd alexander
narnia
the dark is rising sequence by susan cooper
>>7417297
it starts out well, but steadily declines in quality as the series goes on due to Pullman's insistence on preaching to the reader.
>>7421927
Oh right the villain was the Church, which is just the Body of Christ. 8|
>>7417297
I read it when I was maybe 13 and I loved it. It sounds like /lit/ couldn't see past the ideological aspects of it but at that age I didn't even read anything like that into it. It was just a fun adventure with some sappy romancethat hit me really hard.
>>7417297
Had my first fap to a scene in the third book, but still recognize that it was pretty shitty (liked the first two)
so very conflicted
>>7418533
Couldn't finish the Bartimaeus books, desu. They seemed to suffer from the same sins as OP
LeGuin is top-tier, honestly. I probably read Earthsea seven times as a kid. Same with various Mythologies.
Also, does anyone remember this?
>>7422378
I read those. They were really just okay. Avalon was more entertaining, though the latter book was largely disappointing since they hyped up the branches so much and then MC only visits one very briefly.
The third book is awful. It literally has a machine that takes people where they need to go to advance the plot. Even as a kid I realized that was fucking stupid and lazy.
