The Dark is Rising Readalong Announcement: For Real This Time
Sorry I messed this up, guys. Anyway! I am here to OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCE that The Dark is Rising Sequence readalong will begin next Monday, November 14 week with Over Sea, Under Stone. My discussion entry for chapter one will be posted Sunday, November 20. Right now we'll be doing a chapter per week, but if we feel the need to pick up the pace a bit we can do more than one chapter at a time.
Over Sea, Under Stone is the prequel to the sequence, so while it introduces some of the elements and characters of the series, it's skewed towards a slightly younger audience and it's not as awesome as the other books. It's still fun, though. And it's important for setting up the rest of the series. If you find yourself quitting OSUS halfway through, that's okay--but do join us back for The Dark is Rising, as it's very different in tone.
You may also want to read E. Nesbit's Five Children and It alongside Cooper. Cooper was allegedly pretty influenced by Nesbit, so I want to see what kind of interplay we've got going on.
Here are some questions I'll be considering while reading the sequence as a whole. Feel free to think about these or submit your own:
-What different threads of folklore go into Cooper's stories, and how does she weave them together?
-Which other children's fantasy authors are influencing Cooper?
-In what way does the time period in which Cooper was writing get reflected in the books? I've seen very few folks consider the whole... sixties-seventiesness of the books and it might be something to explore.
-I fully acknowledge that Cooper could do more with female characters at times. Where are some opportunities to work with that?
-How would one adapt the books to a visual medium (movies, TV) in a way that works for audiences today? The recent movie adaptation of TDiR was... we do not speak of it. But, I do acknowledge that there's an inherent challenge in adapting these books for the screen, so let's brainstorm some ways to get around that. Maybe someone will give us a movie contract! lol sadly no
So! See you all next week, hopefully. For those have you who have been keeping folks updated, could you link this around? Thanks.
Over Sea, Under Stone is the prequel to the sequence, so while it introduces some of the elements and characters of the series, it's skewed towards a slightly younger audience and it's not as awesome as the other books. It's still fun, though. And it's important for setting up the rest of the series. If you find yourself quitting OSUS halfway through, that's okay--but do join us back for The Dark is Rising, as it's very different in tone.
You may also want to read E. Nesbit's Five Children and It alongside Cooper. Cooper was allegedly pretty influenced by Nesbit, so I want to see what kind of interplay we've got going on.
Here are some questions I'll be considering while reading the sequence as a whole. Feel free to think about these or submit your own:
-What different threads of folklore go into Cooper's stories, and how does she weave them together?
-Which other children's fantasy authors are influencing Cooper?
-In what way does the time period in which Cooper was writing get reflected in the books? I've seen very few folks consider the whole... sixties-seventiesness of the books and it might be something to explore.
-I fully acknowledge that Cooper could do more with female characters at times. Where are some opportunities to work with that?
-How would one adapt the books to a visual medium (movies, TV) in a way that works for audiences today? The recent movie adaptation of TDiR was... we do not speak of it. But, I do acknowledge that there's an inherent challenge in adapting these books for the screen, so let's brainstorm some ways to get around that. Maybe someone will give us a movie contract! lol sadly no
So! See you all next week, hopefully. For those have you who have been keeping folks updated, could you link this around? Thanks.