At 11:29 PM +0100 20/6/03, Dominic Fox wrote:
>Quite right. Although "His Dark Materials" is a reference to Milton, Pullman
>is in general much more into Blake (the Blake of "energy is eternal
>delight", specifically). There's a little spangly, twinkly moment in vol ii
>where he just careless chucks in a line about his heroine, Lyra, being "a
>little girl, lost"...
A writer who uses Blake to much more startling effect is (I think)
David Almond. His first book Skellig is full of Blake poems, and
wings, and his most recent is haunted by Tyger, Tyger: but he
situates Blake in a contemporary degraded urban environment, which is
exactly right. He's actually much more subtle and poetic than
Pullman is in how he draws on those images, but he's a very fine
writer indeed. Much as I liked His Dark Materials, I think that
Almond is a vastly superior writer; he reminds me very much of Alan
Garner, but he's much more emotionally potent. His books always
leave me in tears (try Heaven Eyes, which is I think his best, though
they're all worth reading) but they have not an ounce of
sentimentality anywhere: very tough, honest books, with this amazing
lyricism. He's nominally a children's author, but his work really
does transcend categories like that.
I haven't read the fifth Earthsea book yet; I promise myself I will.
The fourth really knocked me out.
Best
A
--
Alison Croggon
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