ATTN: Folks interested in the Dark is Rising Readalong
For those of you who missed it, I'm going to be rereading the Dark is Rising sequence and blogging about it. Thus, I've invited a bunch of people to do it along with me. There's still time to think about joining me, if you're interested!
So, I'm thinking we can start the readalong in about two weeks from now, towards the end of October. For those of you who are already onboard, there's the tricky question of which book in the series we should start with. Now, you'd think The Dark is Rising would be the obvious first place to start but it's kind of like when you read Narnia as a group, and some folks put The Magician's Nephew first while others put The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe first.
Here's what you need to know about each book:
Over Sea, Under Stone was published in 1965. If I remember correctly, this was before Cooper had the idea for the sequence as a whole. The book follows the Drew children--Simon, Jane, and Barney--on a holiday to Cornwall where they end up searching for ancient treasure. Like you do, in children's Brit lit. In addition, it also introduces the character of Merriman Lyon, the Drews' godfather. He and the Drews themselves will become pivotal in the later books in the sequence, as things grow more fantastical and epic. OSUS, however, is the least fantastical of all the sequence, focusing more on following clues and exploring. It skews a bit younger than the other books, and the influence of E. Nesbit is very clear.
The Dark is Rising was published in 1973, when Cooper had a much clearer idea of the series and its scope. Elements are introduced in this book that run through the remaining three books. TDiR features a fairly ordinary English boy named Will Stanton awakening to his true destiny as an Old One, and a guardian of the Light. He is so not the lovechild of Harry Potter and Tsukino Usagi that he sounds like. Will spends the book on a quest to seek the six signs, and to keep the Dark and Light in balance with one another. The book is much more explicitly fantasy, with spells and time travel and flat-out weird, epic shit going down.
Each book has its pros and cons for going first. OSUS has the advantage of BEING first, chronologically, both in and outside of canon. And getting to know the Drews is fun. I've thought about looking at it in concert with some E. Nesbit (which no one else would be obliged to read) and looking at the dialogue between the two. On the other hand, it is more juvenile and less fantastical than the other books, and some fans of the series don't consider it their cup of tea. I admit, as much as I love OSUS, I'm afraid its rather old-fashioned style might lose me reading comrades. But it's got it's good points, I promise!
(Pet peeve: whoever wrote the Bran/Will 'ship manifesto put down not only OSUS, but the Drew children in general. I love Bran Davies possibly more than I love any other character in this series, but this statement seriously irks me. I LOVE THE DREWS TOO AND THEY ARE IMPORTANT DAMMIT. For those of you wondering who Bran is, he first appears in The Grey King but we won't be starting that first, at all.)
TDiR is a much more epic fantasy read, and introduces more series concepts, so I do love that about it. And if we read it starting in late October/early November, we'd be timing it right around when in the year the series takes place. (At least for the Northern hemisphere. But Midwinter is super important in this book.) On the other hand, we'd have to go back and read OSUS after TDiR at some point, and it'd be a weird tone shift to go ahead and do that in the middle of the series. TDiR still works as a second book; OSUS does not.
Poll Prequels are a tricky business
Let me know what you think! Feel free to expand in the comments if you have strong feelings one way or another. As you can see, my own are conflicted. But I reserve the right to be a dictator if I have to.
So, I'm thinking we can start the readalong in about two weeks from now, towards the end of October. For those of you who are already onboard, there's the tricky question of which book in the series we should start with. Now, you'd think The Dark is Rising would be the obvious first place to start but it's kind of like when you read Narnia as a group, and some folks put The Magician's Nephew first while others put The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe first.
Here's what you need to know about each book:
Over Sea, Under Stone was published in 1965. If I remember correctly, this was before Cooper had the idea for the sequence as a whole. The book follows the Drew children--Simon, Jane, and Barney--on a holiday to Cornwall where they end up searching for ancient treasure. Like you do, in children's Brit lit. In addition, it also introduces the character of Merriman Lyon, the Drews' godfather. He and the Drews themselves will become pivotal in the later books in the sequence, as things grow more fantastical and epic. OSUS, however, is the least fantastical of all the sequence, focusing more on following clues and exploring. It skews a bit younger than the other books, and the influence of E. Nesbit is very clear.
The Dark is Rising was published in 1973, when Cooper had a much clearer idea of the series and its scope. Elements are introduced in this book that run through the remaining three books. TDiR features a fairly ordinary English boy named Will Stanton awakening to his true destiny as an Old One, and a guardian of the Light. He is so not the lovechild of Harry Potter and Tsukino Usagi that he sounds like. Will spends the book on a quest to seek the six signs, and to keep the Dark and Light in balance with one another. The book is much more explicitly fantasy, with spells and time travel and flat-out weird, epic shit going down.
Each book has its pros and cons for going first. OSUS has the advantage of BEING first, chronologically, both in and outside of canon. And getting to know the Drews is fun. I've thought about looking at it in concert with some E. Nesbit (which no one else would be obliged to read) and looking at the dialogue between the two. On the other hand, it is more juvenile and less fantastical than the other books, and some fans of the series don't consider it their cup of tea. I admit, as much as I love OSUS, I'm afraid its rather old-fashioned style might lose me reading comrades. But it's got it's good points, I promise!
(Pet peeve: whoever wrote the Bran/Will 'ship manifesto put down not only OSUS, but the Drew children in general. I love Bran Davies possibly more than I love any other character in this series, but this statement seriously irks me. I LOVE THE DREWS TOO AND THEY ARE IMPORTANT DAMMIT. For those of you wondering who Bran is, he first appears in The Grey King but we won't be starting that first, at all.)
TDiR is a much more epic fantasy read, and introduces more series concepts, so I do love that about it. And if we read it starting in late October/early November, we'd be timing it right around when in the year the series takes place. (At least for the Northern hemisphere. But Midwinter is super important in this book.) On the other hand, we'd have to go back and read OSUS after TDiR at some point, and it'd be a weird tone shift to go ahead and do that in the middle of the series. TDiR still works as a second book; OSUS does not.
Poll Prequels are a tricky business
Let me know what you think! Feel free to expand in the comments if you have strong feelings one way or another. As you can see, my own are conflicted. But I reserve the right to be a dictator if I have to.