The Sword Is My Penis

[spectralbovine]

In May, I tackled the classic fantasy series The Dark Is Rising Sequence (full Goodreads reviews: Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, Silver on the Tree), by Susan Cooper (as read by Alex Jennings), and, hey, it was one of the most frustrating reading experiences of my life!

In Over Sea, Under Stone, Simon, Jane

Comments

[pica_scribit]

I read The Dark Is Rising series in 2004 when I was working as a para-educator with an elementary school class who were reading the series, and I have to say I enjoyed them. I think I would have liked them a whole lot more if I had been, say, 11 or 12 the first time I read them, and into less demanding fiction. But they felt cozy and comfortable and very ... English? So maybe part of my liking of them is based on nostalgia. I was also in my first three years of Harry Potter fanaticism, so I loved finding all the parallels, even if the DIR books don't quiet achieve the same level of drama and quality. They were enjoyable and I liked them. I would probably read them again someday.

[spectralbovine]

I guess I don't care about how English or Welsh a book is if it's boring as shit. But I can understand nostalgia.

Whenever Mark gets around to reading them, I can be the guy who complains all the time!

[pica_scribit]

You'll make a great curmudgeon, I'm sure.

[musesfool]

Yeah, I never even made it through the first book. I think maybe those are books you really need to read at 10 or 11 to love.

[spectralbovine]

That seems to be the prevailing sentiment, although I do have friends (see above) who read them as adults and loved them. It mystifies me, but it's true! Another friend pointed out that there's been much better children's literature written since then, so it doesn't have the impact it did back in the sixties.

[ashfae]

I wrote my master's dissertation partly on the Dark is Rising series, so here goes. *rolls up sleeves*

Over Sea, Under Stone I admit I never liked, even as a kid. It was a boring adventure novel, and those should not exist. Moving on.

...actually, no, I will fail to convince you, I can already see it. So instead I'll say that to my eyes the books are rich in metaphor, philosophy, and English/Welsh folklore, and I'm addicted to all of those and can read them again and again and find new subtle insights. I'm sorry you did not enjoy them, but alas, we can't all enjoy the same books, so c'est la vie!

[darlingviolenta]

I liked The Dark is Rising series well enough when I was elevenish (although even then I found Will insufferably boring and much preferred the books with the Drews to those without them) but I'm sure it would not hold up if I tried it again now.

[silveronthetree]

Awwww. Sorry you found it so frustrating. I thnk a large part of my adoration for these books is that I read them when I was about nine years old and them embedded themselves into my conciousness. They really are books of childhood and they read so much better in that context. The rest is familiarity, I reread them every year on holiday and I knew the places Susan Cooper descibed so vividly, they were places that I visited on holiday and the places where my friends lived.

[penmage]

Yes! I don't think I would love them the same way if I hadn't read them when I was nine, and they hadn't lodged their mythology deep in my brain, but I did and they did. And even though as a critically-reading adult I can acknowledge the issues with them, I will forever and ever love them, and they will forever be some of the most vivid and atmospheric books I have ever read.

There are some moments in the sequence that will live in my mind forever as bright spots of powerful emotion and magic. I reread them once every two years or so, and they never get old for me.